Fri 2010-09-17 19:54 EDT

Obama's Thatcherite Gift to the Banks

Michael Hudson

I can smell the newest giveaway looming a mile off. The Wall Street bailout, health-insurance giveaway and support of real estate prices rather than mortgage-debt write-downs were bad enough, not to mention the Oil War's Afghan extension. But now comes a topper: the $50 billion transportation infrastructure plan that Obama proposed in Milwaukee -- cynically enough, on Labor Day. It looks like the Thatcherite Public-Private Partnership, Britain's notorious giveaway to the City of London underwriters. The financial giveaway had the effect of increasing prices for basic infrastructure services by building in heavy financial fees -- guaranteed for the banks, who lent the money that banks and property owners used to pay in taxes in more progressive times...This threatens to be the kind of tollbooth program that the World Bank and IMF have been foisting on hapless Third World populations for the past half-century. The ``infrastructure bank,'' reports The New York Times, ``would be run by the government but would pool tax dollars with private investment.'' It would be a test balloon for financing ``a broader range of projects, including water and clean-energy projects,'' for which Democrats already are drawing up a blueprint...

bank; Obama's Thatcherite Gift.

Fri 2010-06-18 10:37 EDT

Monetary Economics Review

Pablo Gabriel Bortz

Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production and Wealth, W. Godley and M. Lavoie, Palgrave/Macmillan, London, 2007...Acknowledging the existence of a complex institutional structure that includes households, firms, banks and governments (sometimes separated from the Central Bank), "our aspiration is to introduce a new way in which an understanding can be gained as to how these very complicated systems work as a whole"...the "new way" referred above is currently known as Stock-Flow Consistent modelling (SFC)...The main bid of Godley and Lavoie (G&L, from now on) is to show (successfully, one could note) that the SFC models make it necessary to fully articulate an accounting structure, avoiding "black holes", gaining in consistency, accuracy, and providing a common framework for the comparison of different models...one gets really convinced that it is the type of approach that makes it possible to analyse a great number of elements and complexities of the real world, as much as one wishes!...G&L adopt an institutional classification (households, firms, banks, government and the central bank). All the models presented in the book start with a "balance sheet" matrix, where all the assets and liabilities of each sector are described...

Monetary Economics Review.

Wed 2010-06-09 18:45 EDT

London business figures embroiled in Kaupthing fraud investigation: Serious Fraud Office team thought to be to be scrutinising Deutsche Bank's role in alleged suspect trades| Business | The Guardian

Simon Bowers| The Guardian

A Serious Fraud Office investigation into Kaupthing, the failed Icelandic bank, is understood to be pursuing a number of allegations of market manipulation involving investment vehicles controlled by some of the bank's largest clients, including several high profile UK business leaders. It is alleged that in the weeks and months before Iceland's financial system went into meltdown, certain trades improperly used at least €500m (£413m) of Kaupthing funds in an effort to manipulate credit derivatives. Bank bosses hoped this would restore crumbling confidence in Kaupthing's solvency in the months before the bank collapsed in October 2008...The effect was for investment vehicles -- financed by Kaupthing loans, and at least nominally controlled by some of the bank's largest clients -- to take on risk associated with the bank going bust. Kaupthing loans were being use to write insurance against Kaupthing bonds defaulting...Iceland's Truth Commission obtained details of emails sent by Deutsche Bank staff to Kaupthing which, according to its report, demonstrated that the German bank had been offering advice on how to influence the CDS price on Kaupthing bonds from early 2008...

alleged suspect trades; business; Guardian; Kaupthing fraud investigation; London business figures embroiled; scrutinising Deutsche Bank's role; Serious Fraud Office team thought.

naked capitalism Tue 2010-05-11 09:04 EDT

Richard Smith: Another Nail in the ``Hoocoodanode'' Defense, Circa April 2007

Richard Smith

Here's someone with his head screwed on, back in April 2007, who proves singlehandedly that ``hoocoodanode'' was no defense for failing to anticipate the implosion of the shadow banking system (more on this prescient analyst in due course)...So who is this fellow who got it, back in that mythical time when nobody knew what was going on? According to an email correspondent of mine, he is ``a no-name equity guy'' in London. Actually his name is Henry Maxey, and he is chief investment officer and chief executive elect of Ruffer LLP, a small London fund manager. So there's no chance of making him US Treasury Secretary or head of the NYFRB, I'm afraid...

Circa April 2007; defense; Hoocoodanode; nail; naked capitalism; Richard Smith.

Jesse's Café Américain Mon 2010-04-19 15:19 EDT

A Modern Tale of Financial Loss

Jesse

A developer (Goldman) built houses that looking good, but were firetraps, using plans provided by an architect (Paulson). They were sold as being to code with certain characteristics represented and endorsed by the building inspectors (Ratings Agencies).After the sale, the developer and the architect bought huge amounts of fire insurance on the homes from a friendly insurance agent (AIG London)...

Financial Losses; Jesse's Café Américain; modern tales.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2010-04-01 11:50 EDT

Brown's Bottom Is an Enormous Issue In the UK: Was This a Bailout of the Multinational Bullion Banks Involving the NY Fed?

Jesse

The bottom referred to, of course, is the bottom of the gold price, and the sale of approximately 400 tonnes of the UK's gold at the bottom of the market...There is also a credible speculation that the sale was designed to benefit a few of the London based bullion banks which were heavily short the precious metals, and were looking for a push down in price and a boost in supply to cover their positions and avoid a default. The unlikely names mentioned were AIG, which was trading heavily in precious metals, and the House of Rothschild. The terms of the bailout was that once their positions were covered, they were to leave the LBMA, the largest physical bullion market in the world...long before AIG crafted its enormous positions in CDS with the likes of Goldman Sachs, requiring a bailout by young Tim and the NY Fed, it was engaging in massive short positions in the metals markets, especially silver, and may have required a bailout by England to preserve the integrity of the LBMA....the gold sale provided a front-running opportunity for that most rapaciously well-connected of Wall Street Banks, Goldman Sachs.

Bailout; Brown s bottom; Enormous Issue; Jesse's Café Américain; Multinational Bullion Banks Involving; NY Fed; UK.

naked capitalism Tue 2009-12-22 11:53 EST

``Basel III -- the OK, the Unfinished and the Ugly''

Richard Smith, who works for the London consultancy Cubematch whichspecialises in risk, collateral and change management

The BIS analysis of the 2007-09 banking crisis floats my boat. Here is their headline list of causes: excessive on- and off-balance sheet leverage, diminutive and low quality capital bases, insufficient liquidity buffers at banks.

Basel III; naked capitalism; Ok; ugly; unfinished.

Thu 2009-11-19 19:43 EST

Jesse's Café Américain: Willem Buiter Apparently Does Not LIke Gold, and Why Remains a Mystery

Dr. Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics, and advisor to the Bank of England, has written a somewhat astonishing broadsheet attacking of all things, gold. I have enjoyed his writing in the past. And although he does tend to cultivate and relish the aura of eccentric maverick, it is generally appealing, and his writing has been pertinent and reasoned, if unconventional. That is what makes this latest piece so unusual. It is a diatribe, more emotional than factual, with gaping holes in theoretical underpinnings and historical example.

Jesse's Café Américain; likely gold; mysteriously; remains; Willem Buiter Apparently.

Thu 2009-11-19 10:26 EST

Goldman left foreign investors holding the subprime bag | McClatchy

Greg Gordon

Goldman sold more than $57 billion in risky mortgage-backed securities during a 14-month period in 2006 and 2007, including nearly $39 billion issued from mortgages it purchased. Meanwhile, the firm peddled billions of dollars in complex deals, many of them tied to subprime mortgages, in the Caymans and other offshore locations...Goldman's traders also made huge bets that those securities would lose value by buying insurance-like contracts, called credit-default swaps, with private parties. Beginning early in 2007, they bought swaps on a London-based exchange.

Goldman left foreign investors holding; McClatchy; subprime bag.

Jesse's Café Américain Fri 2009-09-04 19:12 EDT

Hong Kong Bringing Its Gold Home From London

Jesse

"In the house of the wise are stores of precious treasure and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has." Proverbs 21:20 The People's Republic of China has been urging its citizens to convert some part of their savings into gold and silver, having recently liberalized the procedures by which individuals can obtain it. Hong Kong has built a new world class bullion vault, and is repatriating its gold reserves from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), where some speculate it had been committed for sale many times over. Hong Kong wishes to become its own regional Asia market maker for bullion metals. The rest of the world will rein in the Wall Street financial establishment, because the bankers have demonstrated an inability to manage their financial affairs...

Gold Home; Hong Kong Bringing; Jesse's Café Américain; LONDON.

Fri 2009-09-04 19:05 EDT

Lehman downfall triggered by UK and US mix-up

*** Communication breakdown revealed in first-hand accounts of bank collapse *** Blame game goes on as G20 ministers prepare for crucial London talks A breakdown in communications at the highest level between the US and the UK led to the shock collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers in September last year, a Guardian/Observer investigation has revealed. The downfall of Lehman, which triggered the biggest banking crisis since the Great Depression, came after a rescue bid by the high street bank Barclays failed to materialise. In London, the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority all believed that the US government would step in with a financial guarantee for the troubled Wall Street bank.

Lehman downfall triggered; mixed; UK.

Mon 2008-12-15 00:00 EST

London Banker: Fisher's Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions and a possible revision

``I have been both a central banker and a market regulator. I now find myself questioning whether my early career, largely devoted to liberalising and deregulating banking and financial markets, was misguided.''

Fisher s Debt Deflation Theory; Great Depression; London Banker; possibly revising.

Mon 2008-12-15 00:00 EST

London Banker: Deflation has become inevitable

``The extent to which capital has been betrayed in the past quarter century under Bretton Woods II, bank deregulation and the Basle Capital Adequacy Accords is unrivalled in the history of fiat banking.''

becomes inevitably; deflation; London Banker.

Mon 2008-12-15 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: "Deflation has become inevitable"

London Banker

becomes inevitably; deflation; naked capitalism.

Fri 2008-11-07 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: How Lehman Blew Up the City of London

Citi; Lehman Blew; LONDON; naked capitalism.

Mon 2008-08-11 00:00 EDT

London Banker: Snake Oil and Deflation

deflation; London Banker; snake oil.

Mon 2008-08-04 00:00 EDT

London Banker: Fisher's Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions and a possible revision

download Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions (1933), by Irving Fisher

Fisher s Debt Deflation Theory; Great Depression; London Banker; possibly revising.

Mon 2008-08-04 00:00 EDT

London Banker: What's up with the covered bond push?

"Whenever Henry Paulson at Treasury, Ben Bernanke at the Fed and Shiela Bair at FDIC agree on anything, American taxpayers should check for their wallets...When the troubled bank nonetheless fails, our golden circle creditors get the good collateral in an expedited release from FDIC under its new policy statement. The FDIC is left with all the toxic waste assets and liability for depositor insurance claims, with no prospect of recovery"

covered bond push; London Banker; s.