Blog entry Sat 2009-09-19 13:28 EDT

The Angelides Commission: Tell America What Happened

Robert L. Borosage

Today the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, modeled after the New Deal-era Pecora Commission, begins its investigation into possible misconduct by the financial sector causing last year's market meltdown...We are pleased that the Financial Crisis Commission is coming together, under the leadership of chair Phil Angelides...the Commission should aspire to be the modern day version of the Senate Banking Hearings in the 1930s that came to be named after the chief counsel, Ferdinand Pecora...The Angelides Commission -- if it fearlessly lays out the facts, exposes the excesses, the deformed incentives, the frauds and crimes, that are at the root of the current crisis has the potential of playing a similar role to that of Pecora.

Angelides Commission; blog entry; happened; tell America.

Thu 2009-09-17 10:08 EDT

The Next Financial Crisis

Peter Boone, Simon Johnson

Our banks have gotten into the habit of needing to be rescued through repeated bailouts. During this crisis, Bernanke--while saving the financial system in the short term--has done nothing to break this long-term pattern; worse, he exacerbated it. As a result, unless real reform happens soon, we face the prospect of another bubble-bust-bailout cycle that will be even more dangerous than the one we've just been through. ...We have seen this spectacle--the Fed saving us from one crisis only to instigate another--many times before. And, over the past few decades, the problem has become significantly more dire. The fault, to be sure, doesn't lie entirely with the Fed. Bernanke is a prisoner of a financial system with serious built-in flaws. The decisions he made during the recent crisis weren't necessarily the wrong decisions; indeed, they were, in many respects, the decisions he had to make. But these decisions, however necessary in the moment, are almost guaranteed to hurt our economy in the long run--which, in turn, means that more necessary but harmful measures will be needed in the future. It is a debilitating, vicious cycle. And at the center of this cycle is the Fed.

Financial Crisis.

naked capitalism Wed 2009-08-26 16:18 EDT

Guest Post: A Plunge in Foreign Net Capital Inflows Preceded the Break in US Financial Markets

Jesse

Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain The peak of foreign capital inflows into the US was clearly seen in the second quarter of 2007, just before the crisis in the US that has rocked its banking system and driven it deeply into recession. Are the two events connected? Had the US become a Ponzi scheme that began to collapse when new investment began to wane, and the growth of returns could not be maintained? Watch the dollar and the Treasury and Agency Debt auctions for any further signs of capital flight, which is when those net inflows of foreign capital turn negative. And if for some reason the unlikely happens and it gains momentum, the dollar and bonds and stocks can all go lower in unison, and there...

break; financial market; Foreign Net Capital Inflows Preceded; Guest Post; naked capitalism; plunge.

ClubOrlov Wed 2009-08-26 14:22 EDT

That Bastion of American Socialism...the United States military

kollapsnik

Over the past few months the American mainstream chatter has experienced a sudden spike in the gratuitous use of the term "Socialist." It was prompted by the attempts of the federal government to resuscitate insolvent financial institutions. These attempts included offers of guarantees to their clients, injections of large sums of borrowed public money, and granting them access to almost-free credit that was magically summoned ex nihilo by the Federal Reserve. To some observers, these attempts looked like an emergency nationalization of the finance sector was underway, prompting them to cry "Socialism!" Their cries were not as strident as one would expect, bereft of the usual disdain that normally accompanies the use of this term. Rather, it was proffered with a wan smile, because the commentators could find nothing... ``Since the end of the Civil War, Americans have become accustomed to thinking of war as something that happens elsewhere, to other people. Thus, the news that the US is bombing this or that land, for no adequate reason, killing and maiming numerous civilians, produces in us neither the normal human reaction of revulsion, nausea and disgust, nor the conviction that we must take the fight to our own monstrous leaders, lest we too become monsters. Life under domestic military occupation might bring home some welcome realizations, and start Americans down the long road of atoning for the sins of their forefathers, who have run roughshod over much of the rest of the planet for far too long.''

American social; bastion; ClubOrlov; United States military.

The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Tue 2009-04-21 00:00 EDT

How we got here, and how to prevent it from happening again | The Economic Populist

``whatever the fundamental problem with banking system is it is at the very least 35 years old, if not older...Wall Street proved themselves to be unable to detect toxic debt from bubble assets''

economic populist; happened; Mind 2 Cents; prevent; speaking; Time.

Tue 2009-04-21 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Is Debt the Lifeblood of the Economy?

``Rather it is savings that is the lifeblood of the economy, because without adequate savings, extending credit is nothing but a pyramid scheme that eventually implodes, which is of course what happened.''

debt; economy; lifeblood; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Fri 2009-01-16 00:00 EST

CHINESE CHECKMATE << Culture of Life News

``There is a game of chicken developing here: both China and Japan hold more than $1.5 trillion in US paper and whoever drops it off the cliff first, will beat the one who hesitates...Will they do it? I would think so! This will probably happen after Saudi Arabia falls to revolutionaries...It is the focal point of all of bin Ladens works and dreams. And it will happen if oil drops below $30 a barrel.'' ``Store shelfs are packed with goods. But let that not fool us! These are the detritus from deals made at least a year ago if not longer. There is nothing in the pipeline. Once the shelves are cleared of goods, there will be few replacements.'' ``The US and EU refused to police our bankers and brokers. So the Communist Chinese will do this for us. No one will bank with the West. They will bank with China if China has good controls...And our money will have Mao grinning at us. We deserve this.''

CHINESE CHECKMATE; Culture; Life News.

Thu 2009-01-15 00:00 EST

SO AGAIN -- HOW DID IT HAPPEN? | The Big Picture

SO AGAIN -- HOW DID IT HAPPEN? by Peter T. Treadway, The Dismal Optimist | The Big Picture; ``excess internationally derived high powered money creation and Minsky private sector credit creation'' ``near term further deleveraging and deflation will prevail globally...too early to buy stocks or real estate or art despite the apparent values''

Big Picture; happened.

Fri 2008-12-12 00:00 EST

AlterNet: Chomsky: Is There Truth in Obama's Advertising?

AlterNet: Noam Chomsky: Is There Truth in Obama's Advertising? ``what's happened to the country...is that there was extensive and very constructive activism in the 1960s...And the activism did civilize the country''; Tom Ferguson's investment theory of politics; Brand Obama; ``The goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices...And when they turn to selling a candidate they do the same thing...So you undermine democracy pretty much the same way you undermine markets.''

AlterNet; Chomsky; Obama's Advertising; truth.

Sun 2008-11-23 00:00 EST

Jesse's Café Américain: What Happened When They Pulled the TARP Out from Under the Mortgage Asset Markets?

Jesse's Café Américain: What Happened When They Pulled the TARP Out from Under the Mortgage Asset Markets? mortgage markets are imploding

happened; Jesse's Café Américain; Mortgage Asset Markets; pull; TARP.

Tue 2008-10-07 00:00 EDT

What (Really) Happened in 1995? - Aaron Krowne - iTulip.com Forums

(2006-08-03); How the Greenspan Fed Screwed Up in the Mid-90s and set the stage for the Greatest Financial Bubble in the History of the World

1995; Aaron Krowne; com forums; happened; iTulip; really.

Sun 2008-06-01 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis; "upcoming bank crisis is going to be far greater than what happened in the 1980's even though the number of failures will be far smaller"

current crisis; L Crisis; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; s.

Wed 2008-04-16 00:00 EDT

Foreign Policy: 8 Steps to a Trillion-Dollar Meltdown

by Charles R. Morris; how the U.S. financial crisis happened

8 Steps; foreign policy; Trillion Dollar Meltdown.

Tue 2008-04-01 00:00 EDT

Jesse's Café Américain: The Paulson Plan: a Foray into a Financial Iraq

Jesse's Café Américain: The Paulson Plan: a Foray into a Financial Iraq; "When you have a massive failure in a critical system, you do not go to those on whose watch it occurred...and ask them what should be done to fix the system so it doesn't happen again"

Financial Iraq; foray; Jesse's Café Américain; Paulson plans.

Mon 2007-12-03 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: E*Trade Marked To Reality - What Happens If Citigroup Is?

Citigroup; e; happened; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; reality; trade marking.

Sun 2007-12-02 00:00 EST

Speech, Bernanke --Deflation-- November 21, 2002

Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here; remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, 2002-11-21; policy responses available to cure deflation; "Sustained deflation can be highly destructive...and should be strongly resisted"; Helicopter Ben orgin

2002; Bernanke; deflation; November 21; speech.