Category Archives: A State of Distress
Let Them Eat Credit
By most counts, the U.S. economy started growing in the middle of last year. For many Americans, though, it does not feel as if the Great Recession has ended—unemployment and underemployment are still alarmingly high, and job growth is weak. … Continue reading
Collapse?
Taleb Says Government Bonds to Collapse, Avoid Stocks – Bloomberg Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who warned that unforeseen events can roil markets in “The Black Swan,” said he is “betting on the collapse of government bonds” and that investors should avoid … Continue reading
Inexcusable Delay-Another reason for a change in Washington
Senate Leaves Credit-Starved Small Biz Hanging – Los Angeles Times Small businesses desperate for government help getting loans will have to wait at least until September before Congress moves on long-awaited legislation to pay for higher loan guarantees, lower fees … Continue reading
Don’t ask, your guess is as good as mine.
Austerity is stupid, stimulus is dangerous, lying is optimal, economic choices are not scalar Steve Waldman I’ve been on whatever planet I go to when I’m not writing. Don’t ask, your guess is as good as mine. When I checked … Continue reading
Things could get nasty
PR Push Against Strategic Defaulters Underway (Is There a Debtors’ Prison in Your Future?) – 06/12/2010 – Yves Smith
Foreclosure Law News: Terminate with Extreme Prejudice
n law, a case can be dismissed two ways: one is without prejudice, which means that the plaintiff can bring a new case on the same matter up until the statute of limitations runs out; the other way, “with prejudice” … Continue reading
It’s Just Paper
The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself no intrinsic value, is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. The corporations which create the paper … Continue reading
It’s the Constitution, Stupid!
Harking back to the Founders’ principles of constitutional limits to government is a very powerful message. It’s a message of freedom, especially economic freedom. The tea partiers have delivered an extremely accurate diagnostic of what ails America right now: Government … Continue reading
“Of Rats and Sinking Ships”
Larry Summers is reportedly leaving later this year, and Andrew Cockburn reports that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s acutely verbal Chief of Staff is said to be looking for other employment, preferably a high paying job on Wall Street with little work … Continue reading
Howdy, Neighbor!
When asked what advice he would give to residents of Ashtabula County Ohio because of cutbacks in official law enforcement budgets, Judge Alfred Mackey said they should: “arm themselves. Be very careful, be vigilant, get in touch with your neighbors, … Continue reading
ECONed: Sic Transit Gloria Americanus
Richard Smith, a London-based capital markets information technology manager, was kind enough to provide an advance copy of his review for the book ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism by Yves Smith, the author of the … Continue reading
Europe’s Debt Crisis
Five Threats to the Common Currency First it was Greece. Then came Portugal and Spain, with Ireland and Italy not far behind. The financial crisis has driven up public debt in Europe’s common currency zone to such heights that many … Continue reading
Does It Make Sense to Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act?
In the present system, the more unrestricted the banks are, the more money they can generate “out of thin air,” and the more damage they can inflict upon the wealth-generation process. FULL ARTICLE by Frank Shostak
Debt of No Honor
I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester Simon & Schuster, 272 pp., $25 Among the more trenchant touches in John Lanchester’s study of the financial bust is his framing of the new finance as … Continue reading
What they knew and when they knew it
“I have to think this train is probably going to leave the station soon and we need to focus our efforts on explaining the story as best we can. There were too many people involved in the deals — too … Continue reading
Debtors’ Revolt?
he big banks have gotten plenty of help with their debts. But what about struggling households and non-financial institutions? Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Marshall Auerback investigates. Once all the TARPs are tidied up and the quarterly profits no longer a revelation, … Continue reading
Deflation – then Inflation – and then a decade of Stagflation
The real economy is still deflating. Just look at the jobs situation. Far from slowing or stabilizing, 2009 was the worst year yet for job losses – ’07…’08 …and ’09…each year has produced greater losses. Even James Grant, who predicted … Continue reading
Sic transit America?
Flagging: a US sailor stands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington If a week is a long time in politics, a decade is starting to look like an age in geopolitics. Comparing the America that … Continue reading
Obama’s Big Sellout
Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for … Continue reading
The Demonic Religion of Abortion
It’s getting more and more obvious. Last week, in two separate incidents, those favoring abortion set forth their goals and services in religious language. During a December 2nd “Stop Pitts” rally in Washington and in new video advertisements for a … Continue reading
Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for potential ‘global collapse’
In a report entitled “Worst-case debt scenario”, the bank’s asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too … Continue reading
The Apparatchiks
The Big Government Boss isn’t going away
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” said Timothy W. Long, the chief bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “At the height of the economic boom, to take an aggressive supervisory approach and tell people to stop … Continue reading
Break for Companies in Bailout’s Fine Print
One of the federal government’s most opaque methods for bailing out the banking system allowed a handful of giant institutions to save up to $25 billion on their borrowing costs, a Congressional panel estimated on Friday. Seven companies received about … Continue reading
Rebooting America
Prosperity: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can talk all day about doing everything possible to sweeten a sour economy. Monetary policy is pretty much exhausted. It’s Congress that could act – but won’t. ‘We remain prepared to take further policy … Continue reading →