dimelab dimelab: shrinking the gap between talk and action.

Asia Times Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog

Asia Times nails (1); Asia Times Online (6).

The Money Game Fri 2010-07-16 18:52 EDT

Here's The Real Reason Cities And States Would Never Be Allowed To Default

David Goldman at Asia Times nails it: It's not about the impact on the real economy (the attendant cut in public services and public employment), it's about the effect that such defaults would have on the banks...that's a good rule of thumb. If it's going to hurt the banks, it's probably not going to be allowed to happen...The $800 billion bailout package for Europe's PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) in May was in fact a bailout for the banking system...

allowed; default; Money game; Real Reason Cities; s; state.

Mon 2010-05-24 10:57 EDT

Asia Times Online :: World Order, Failed States and Terrorism

The Washington Consensus, the synchronized ideology of US-based establishment economists, has for a quarter of a century wrought havoc in the developing world, leaving in its wake "failed states" vulnerable to economic, if not military, takeover. Yet the great failure of our age is not the concept of the sovereign state, but market fundamentalism itself...[10 part series]

Asia Times Online; failed state; terror; World ordering.

Asia Times Online Fri 2010-02-05 10:49 EST

Stiglitz pinpoints 'moral' core of crisis

Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz rightly condemns the "ersatz capitalism" of the United States, yet the government there is fixated on resurrecting the morally depraved system that led to the present crisis. Reformists forget that predatory lenders in the US in theory forfeit any right of collection. Start to fix that, and a new economic order could emerge. - Henry CK Liu

Asia Times Online; core; Crisis; morale; Stiglitz pinpoints.

Tue 2009-09-29 11:10 EDT

Steeling for a Currency Deal in Pittsburgh? - Up and Down Wall Street Daily - Barrons.com

An options play suggests somebody expects the G20 to hatch a scheme to stabilize currencies. Duct tape for the dollar?...Reports John F. Brady, futures expert at MF Global, there was a big seller of "volatility" in the euro versus the dollar Thursday...What's curious, Brady explains, is that vols on the euro already are low, so it's hard to see them going much lower...Which got me to wondering if the volatility seller was thinking the G20 would do something to force volatility lower -- that is, stabilize exchange rates...Notwithstanding the calls for a replacement of the dollar as the main reserve currency, gold isn't it, according to long-time market observer David P. Goldman,..."Even a rather wobbly reserve currency is better than gold," he writes as his alter ego, Spengler, whom he "channels" for Asia Times (www.atimes.com.) "Gold is far less liquid than U.S. Treasury securities, costly to store and insure, and above all more volatile in price...gold isn't an investment but an insurance policy against a breakdown of the function of the world financial system."

Barrons; com; currency deal; Pittsburgh; steel; Wall Street Daily.

Asia Times Online Thu 2009-09-17 09:23 EDT

POWER WITHOUT CREDIBILITY : A lost decade ahead

The US Federal Reserve faces an intractable unemployment problem. Households, their wealth savaged by the financial crisis and their job security threatened, are now paying off debts and cutting back on purchases. Until consumer spending picks up, no recovery can come.

Asia Times Online; credibility; lost decade ahead; Power.

Asia Times Online Sun 2009-09-13 10:25 EDT

THE BEAR'S LAIR : Possible October surprises

The inflation that might be expected in the United States from unprecedented expansionary monetary policies has failed to appear, while huge budget deficits have yet to produce higher interest rates. Far from being signs of a new economic paradigm, this merely means new bubbles are forming...Commodities and gold therefore are the destination of this year's hot money and are forming the new bubble...a fair-sized bubble has developed in the T-bond market...however...a modest resurgence in US inflation or difficulty in a long dated T-bond auction could cause confidence to flee the Treasury bond market and yields to leap uncontrollably upwards...the long-term costs of excessively cheap money are beginning to be seen in the US economy itself. By allowing money to remain so cheap for so long, and by running incessant payments deficits, the United States has surrendered the advantage of its superior long-established capital base, narrowing its capital cost advantage over emerging markets and exporting that capital to countries with less profligate approaches. Huge budget deficits, themselves worsening the trade deficit, merely export yet more US capital to the surplus nations. That makes it inevitable that the years ahead, in which the United States will no longer enjoy a capital advantage over its lower-wage competitors, will see highly unpleasant declines in US living standards.

Asia Times Online; BEAR'S LAIR; Possible October surprises.

Fri 2009-01-16 00:00 EST

Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong

China's inflation-free route from crisis, by Henry C. K. Liu; ``China produces from plants financed by foreign investment that operate with low domestic wages for foreign markets that pay with dollars that cannot be used in the domestic economy...China must finance plants with sovereign credit to produce for the domestic market where consumer purchasing power will come from high wages, with sovereign credit repaid from increased tax revenue from a vibrant domestic economy.''

Asia Times Online; China Business News; China News; Hong Kong; TAIWAN.

Wed 2008-04-16 00:00 EDT

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs

The rise of the new energy world order, by Michael T. Klare; "the price of oil will dominate our lives and power will reside in the hands of those who control its global distribution"

Asia Times Online; Asian news; current affairs.