dimelab dimelab: shrinking the gap between talk and action.

discussion Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog

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Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-11-19 10:48 EST

Tavakoli on Goldman's Lies of Omission

Janet Tavakoli asks, Did Goldman Lie? One is tempted to ask, 'were their lips moving?' But why the bluff? Why did Goldman have to pretend it was not concerned at all about AIG, even as the phone records show they were involved in intense and continuing discussions at the highest levels in the bailouts, with a unique and privileged presence in discussions with the government and the Fed in which their own man was the Chairman of the NY Fed. And as someone asked, Why pick on Goldman? Well, they seem to be at the center of everything.

Goldman's Lies; Jesse's Café Américain; omission; Tavakoli.

naked capitalism Fri 2009-10-23 09:20 EDT

Paul Volcker, Mervyn King, Glass Steagall, and the Real TBTF Problem

Paul Volcker wants to roll the clock back and restore Glass Steagall, the 1933 rule that separated commercial banking from investment banking, but Team Obama is politely ignoring him. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, is giving a more strident version of the same message...I think Volcker is wrong, but not for reasons one might expect...The problem is that we have had a thirty year growth in securitization. A lot of activities that were once done strictly on bank balance sheets are merely originated by banks and are sold into capital markets...you could in theory go back to having much more on balance sheet intermediation (finance speak for ``dial the clock back 35 years and have banks keep pretty much all their loans''). Conceptually, that is a tidy solution, but it has a massive flaw: it would take a simply enormous amount of equity to provide enough equity to all those banks with their vastly bigger balance sheets. We're having enough trouble recapitalizing the banking system we have...I have yet to see anything even remotely approaching a realistic discussion of how to deal with too big too fail firms, and we have been at this for months. My knowledge of the industry is not fully current, but even so, the difficulties are far greater than I have seen acknowledged anywhere. That pretty much guarantees none of the proposals are serious, and nothing will be done on this front. That further implies the system will have to break down catastrophically before anything effective can be done. I really hope I am wrong on this one.

Glass Steagall; Mervyn King; naked capitalism; Paul Volcker; Real TBTF Problem.

The Big Picture Fri 2009-10-23 09:03 EDT

Dick Alford on Opportunities Lost by the Fed

Against a backdrop of continued financial fragility and extraordinary policy actions, policymakers are discussing re-balancing global growth, restoring financial stability, and the future of the Dollar as the world's reserve currency. In 2005, Edwin Truman proposed a list of policy measures that if followed would have reduced the US external imbalance and placed the reserve status of the Dollar on better footing. Truman's proposal differed from the standard litany of US fiscal discipline, Dollar adjustment, and increased demand in surplus countries. It called upon the Federal Reserve to slow the growth in US demand. More recent research, by Shin and Adrian, suggests that if the Fed had heeded Truman's prescription, then monetary policy would have also mitigated the recent turmoil in financial markets...

Big Picture; Dick Alford; Fed; opportunity lost.

Mon 2009-10-12 09:24 EDT

FORA.tv - Nassim Nicholas Taleb: A Crazier Future

The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought with Nassim Nicholas Taleb.Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses his book, The Black Swan in relation to predicting the future, learning from the consequences of the unknown, and the power of randomness.

Crazier Future; FORA; Nassim Nicholas Taleb; TV.

Sat 2009-10-10 14:19 EDT

A financial revolution with profound political implications

The plan to de-dollarise the oil market, discussed both in public and in secret for at least two years and widely denied yesterday by the usual suspects -- Saudi Arabia being, as expected, the first among them -- reflects a growing resentment in the Middle East, Europe and in China at America's decades-long political as well as economic world dominance. [dollar losing reserve status]

financial revolution; profound political implications.

Tue 2009-09-22 08:17 EDT

Guest Post: Sarkozy, Stiglitz & capitalism's inherent contradictions

The French Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress presented its final Report written by Stiglitz and other leading economists at an event at la Sorbonne earlier today. The contents of Report is already being discussed widely but at least as relevant are the politics surrounding the Commission's Report and how France intends to use it to spearhead economic reform at home and abroad...at least in France, the financial crisis is alive and will be used to promote reform...Governments need to modify their behavior, first by changing how they account for the situation in society by including questions about the overriding purposes of society and public policy; ``our certitudes have evaporated, everything has to be put into question and re-invented''. Current methodologies fail to take externalities into account with the risk of booking developments as progress while, in reality, the opposite is true. Growth has in some regards destroyed more than it has achieved.

capitalism's inherent contradictions; Guest Post; Sarkozy; Stiglitz.

naked capitalism Sun 2009-09-20 10:17 EDT

Guest Post: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard & the City's hard EU choices

The City's political clout in Brussels is waning as the UK's financial industry model has gone from being the envy of the European peers to being a liability. Meanwhile, the EU will in the future probably be proposing new banking and financial services legislation that may be superficially marketed by decision-makers as striving to provide a clear cut with the existing Anglo-Saxon casino model. This guest post will discuss some of the fundamental choices that the City is facing, the most significant being whether or not to be advocating a UK withdrawal from the EU altogether.

Ambrose Evans Pritchard; City's hard EU choices; Guest Post; naked capitalism.

naked capitalism Mon 2009-09-14 14:51 EDT

Guest Post: Sarkozy, Stiglitz & capitalism's inherent contradictions

The French Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress presented its final Report written by Stiglitz and other leading economists at an event at la Sorbonne earlier today. The contents of Report is already being discussed widely but at least as relevant are the politics surrounding the Commission's Report and how France intends to use it to spearhead economic reform at home and abroad. This post provides a few comments on Sarkozy's speech.

capitalism's inherent contradictions; Guest Post; naked capitalism; Sarkozy; Stiglitz.

Bruce Krasting Tue 2009-09-08 12:06 EDT

Wallboard - China Inc.+$25mm, USA $-3.2b

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece Tuesday on defective wallboard that had been imported from China . The LA Times had a more detailed discussion of this problem on July 4th. This article makes a case that the wall material may contain radioactive material. It provides the names of some of the companies involved. The problematic wallboard was sent to the US in 2006. These imports totaled $25 million. The WSJ estimates that the cost of repairing a home that has this material is $100,000. The LAT piece puts the number of homes involved at 32,000. Put those two numbers together. There are $3.2billion of losses relating to $25mm of wallboard.

25MM; 2B; 3; Bruce Krasting; China Inc; USA; wallboard.

Bruce Krasting Fri 2009-09-04 19:39 EDT

On Fed Intervention and the Blogs

A week ago a great debate was stirred in the financial blog world. As is often the case Zero Hedge was in the middle of the fracas. Mr. Durden penned a piece that suggested that the Fed was manipulating the auctions in such a way as to benefit the primary dealers. It got to be a very sophisticated discussion that brought in some thinking from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism and John Jansen at Across the Curve. The debate is over is far as I am concerned. The Treasury had another successful auction today of the 30 year. But in order to make it a success the Fed bought $27 billion of 15-30 year mortgage paper. The curve is the curve...This is timed intervention. That is a polite way to say manipulation. Federal Reserve manipulating Treasury auctions; quantitative easing.

Blog; Bruce Krasting; Fed intervention.

ClubOrlov Wed 2009-08-26 11:24 EDT

Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

This talk was presented at The New Emergency Conference in Dublin, on June 11, 2009. ``we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours'' ``Most of the wealth is in very few private hands right now. Governments and the vast majority of the people only have debt. It is important to convince people who control all this wealth that they really have two choices. They can trust their investment advisers, maintain their current portfolios, and eventually lose everything. Or they can use their wealth to reengage with people and the land in new ways, in which case they stand a chance of saving something for themselves and their children. They can build and launch lifeboats, recruit crew, and set them sailing.'' 1. Good morning. The title of this talk is a bit of a mouthful, but what I want to say can be summed up in simpler words: we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours. I will take as my point of departure the unfolding collapse of the global economy, and discuss what might come next. It started with the collapse of the financial markets last year, and is now resulting in unprecedented decreases in the volumes of international trade. These developments are also starting to affect the political stability of...

ClubOrlov; Definancialisation; Deglobalisation; relocalisation.

Sun 2008-10-26 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: China Launches Salvo Against Dollar Hegemony (Updated)

dollar losing reserve status; great comment discussion

China Launches Salvo; dollar hegemony; naked capitalism; Update.

Tue 2008-10-07 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: More Discussion of Why the Bailout Bill Will Not Help Money Markets, Commercial Lending

Bailout bill; commercial lending; discussion; Help Money Markets; naked capitalism.

Sun 2008-07-06 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Hoisted From Comments: Has Neo-Liberalism Failed to Deliver the Goods?

good comment discussion; interesting Australian perspectives; great Carlos Fuentes quotes

Comments; delivered; good; Hoisted; naked capitalism; Neo-liberalism Fails.

Tue 2008-06-10 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Lehman Raises $6 Billion, Discusses Financials

6; Discusses Financials; Lehman Raises; naked capitalism.

Wed 2008-04-02 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Desperate Measures to Tackle Credit Crisis Discussed

Desperate Measures; naked capitalism; Tackle Credit Crisis Discussed.

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