Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2009-11-03 19:36 EST

Obama's Economic Policy Has Doomed the US to Stagnation - Or Worse

Jesse

This was the very moment of Obama's failure, when he allowed Summers, Geithner and Bernanke to establish the principle of "Too Big To Fail" and set up a financial oligarchy at the expense of taxpayers. We would have expected this out of the Treasury under Hank Paulson, but to see this kind of policy error favoring Wall Street over the US taxpayers from a government elected on the promise of reform is inexcusable, a disgrace. ...(Bloomberg) Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the world's biggest economy is suffering because of the U.S. government's failure to nationalize banks during the financial crisis.

doomed; Jesse's Café Américain; Obama s economic policy; stagnated; worse.

Credit Writedowns Mon 2009-10-26 09:20 EDT

Warren: The middle class ``became the turkey at the thanksgiving dinner"

Below is a YouTube clip featuring Elizabeth Warren, the chair of Congress' oversight panel of TARP (the Troubled Asset relief Program), the bailout started by Hank Paulson and passed by Congress. In it she talks about her fears regarding the lack of real regulatory reform in the world of finance and how this is setting [...]

became; credit writedowns; middle class; Thanksgiving dinner; Turkey; Warren.

Jesse's Café Américain Fri 2009-10-23 09:53 EDT

The US Needs to Get Less Competitive

Jesse

The hobgoblin that is often used by the Wall Street banks is that if this or that reform is introduced, it will lessen their competitiveness, and their craftiest and most clever employees will leave the country to work for foreign banks. Is that supposed to be a threat? That sounds like a plan. And let them deduct the price of a one way coach class ticket... It is time for a real change, in most cases bringing back what was taken apart over the past twenty years...[jesse's reform proposals]

competitions; Jesse's Café Américain; needed.

naked capitalism Wed 2009-10-14 12:03 EDT

New York Times: Missing in Action on Health Insurance Lobby Duplicity

...the dubious reporting object lesson is the New York Times, on what is supposedly its most prized beat: Washington DC political reporting. The Times ran two articles that verged on sycophantic in its coverage of the health insurance industry as it moved its chess pieces on the health care reform game board. The Times acted as close to a PR outlet...The Financial Times reports tonight that the health insurance industry, after its great show of making nice to the Obama administration, backstabbed it on the eve of a key vote. Do we see any coverage of this duplicity in the US media, much less the New York Times? [excellent commentary by kevin de bruxelles ``Washington General'' and DownSouth ``political theater, perfect dictatorship, and junkyard dogs'']

action; Health Insurance Lobby Duplicity; missing; naked capitalism; New York time.

naked capitalism Tue 2009-10-13 20:47 EDT

Guest Post: The REAL Battle Over America's Banking System

George Washington of Washington's Blog

...the battle isn't between bankers versus outsiders. It is between the giant New York money-centered banks and the rest of the country...monetary reformers argue that letting banks create credit and money and then charge high interest rates creates massive levels of debt for states and taxpayers. They argue that the power to create money should be reclaimed by the government and taken away from the private banks...

America's banking system; Guest Post; naked capitalism; real battle.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2009-10-13 20:19 EDT

Stiglitz: The Banks Must Be Restrained, The Financial System Must Be Reformed

Jesse

Stiglitz characterizes the reforms being put forward by the US Congress as completely wrong, and harmful...compare what Joe Stiglitz is saying with the ponderous mendacity of Larry Summers, and you may better understand why Obama's policies are doomed to failure.

bank; Financial System; Jesse's Café Américain; reform; Restrain; Stiglitz.

The Big Picture Sun 2009-10-11 17:12 EDT

Andy Xie: Why One Bubble Burst Deserves Another

...Lehman died in vain. Today, governments and central banks are celebrating their victorious stabilizing of the global financial system. To achieve the same, they could have saved Lehman with US$ 50 billion. Instead, they have spent trillions of dollars -- probably more than US$ 10 trillion when we get the final tally -- to reach the same objective. Meanwhile, a broader goal to reform the financial system has seen absolutely no progress...The lesson from the Lehman collapse seems to be, ``Take whatever you can and, when it crashes, you get to keep it.'' How governments and central banks have dealt with this bubble will encourage more people to join bubble making in the future.

Andy Xie; Big Picture; bubble burst deserves.

The Big Picture Sun 2009-10-11 16:08 EDT

Kaptur & Johnson on Bill Moyers

Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson and US Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) report on the state of the economy... MARCY KAPTUR: Think about what these banks have done. They have taken very imprudent behavior, irresponsible. They have really gambled, all right? And in many cases, been involved in fraudulent activity. And then when they lost, they shifted their losses to the taxpayer. So, if you look at an instrumentality like the F.H.A., the Federal Housing Administration. They used to insure one of every 50 mortgages in the country. Now it's one out of four. MARCY KAPTUR: Because what they're doing is they're taking their mistakes and they're dumping them on the taxpayer. So, you and I, and the long term debt of our country and our children and grandchildren. It's all at risk because of their behavior. We aren't reigning them in. The laws of Congress passed last year in terms of housing, were hollow. ... SIMON JOHNSON: And Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff has a saying. He's widely known for saying, `Never let a good crisis go to waste'. Well, the crisis is over, Bill. The crisis in the financial sector, not for people who own homes, but the crisis for the big banks is substantially over. And it was completely wasted. The Administration refused to break the power of the big banks, when they had the opportunity, earlier this year. And the regulatory reforms they are now pursuing will turn out to be, in my opinion, and I do follow this day to day, you know. These reforms will turn out to be essentially meaningless.

Big Picture; Bill Moyers; Johnson; Kaptur.

Jesse's Café Américain Sun 2009-10-11 15:55 EDT

The Speculative Bubble in Equities and the Case for Deflation, Stagflation and Implosion

Jesse

As part of their program of 'quantitative easing' which is another name for currency devaluation through extraordinary expansion of the monetary base, the Fed has very obviously created an inflationary bubble in the US equity market...The monetary stimulus of the Fed and the Treasury to help the economy is similar to relief aid sent to a suffering Third World country. It is intercepted and seized by a despotic regime and allocated to its local warlords, with very little going to help the people...quantitative easing that is not part of an overall program to reform, regulate, and renew the system to change and correct the elements that caused the crisis in the first place, is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme...The most probable path is a lingering death for the dollar over the next ten years, with a productive economy that continues to stagger forward under the rule of the financial oligarchs.

Case; deflation; Equities; implosion; Jesse's Café Américain; Speculative bubbles; Stagflation.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-10-08 16:28 EDT

Gold: Until the System Is Reformed and Trust Is Restored

Jesse

Gold has obviously broken out of a big inverse Head and Shoulder formation, possibly an ascending triangle if you prefer that for reliability. In combination, as they often are, this is a powerful sign of buying pressure, accumulation and a sharp rise in price...despite the obvious efforts of the monied interests to disparage it publicly while accumulating it privately, is rising because the US dollar is being used badly, is being weakened by the failing schemes of a corrupt combination of the government and financial interests...gold is telling us...the era of the US Dollar as the world's reserve currency is over...

gold; Jesse's Café Américain; reform; restore; Systems; trust.

zero hedge Tue 2009-09-22 16:22 EDT

Top Goldman Lobbyist Barred From Communicating With House's Financial Services Committee

In a rare example of testicular fortitude, Barney Frank has "banished" Goldman's Michael Pease from communicating with the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. According to Reuters, the Goldmanite, and former committee staffer, has been "asked" not to interfere with the Congressional panel for a period of 12 months. According to Barney Frank aide Steven Adamske: "Mr. Paese left our offices in September 2008, and was not allowed to communicate with any committee members or staff for a period of one year due to normal ethics restrictions that apply to all House and Senate employees. Out of an abundance of caution due to the nature of financial regulation reform, the chairman has extended Mr. Paese's recusal for another year." Pease "was the committee's deputy staff director before he quit to work for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association as a lobbyist. Goldman hired him in April.

communications; House's Financial Services Committee; Top Goldman Lobbyist Barred; Zero Hedge.

naked capitalism Tue 2009-09-22 11:32 EDT

Guest Post: If Credit is Not Created Out of Excess Reserves, What Does That Mean?

George Washington

We've all been taught that banks first build up deposits, and then extend credit and loan out their excess reserves. But critics of the current banking system claim that this is not true, and that the order is actually reversed...Steve Keen explained that 25 years of research shows that creation of debt by banks precedes creation of government money, and that debt money is created first and precedes creation of credit money...monetary reformers like Ellen Brown argue that the entire banking system is based upon a fraud. Specifically, she and other monetary reformers argue that the banks have intentionally spread the false reserves-and-credit first, loans-and-debt later story to confuse people into thinking that the banks are better capitalized than they really are and that the Federal Reserve is keeping better oversight than it really is...Monetary reformers argue that the government should take the power of money creation back from the private banks and the Federal Reserve system.

created; credit; excess reserves; Guest Post; meaning; naked capitalism.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2009-09-22 09:15 EDT

Confessions of a 'Flationary Agnostic

Jesse

I have no particular allegiance to either the hyperinflation or the deflationary camps. Both outcomes are possible, but not yet probable. Rather than being a benefit, occupying the middle ground too often just puts one in the middle, being able to see the merits in both arguments and possibilities, and being unwilling to ignore the flaws in each argument...The growth rate of dollars is slowing at the same time that the 'demand' for dollars, the velocity of money and the creation of new commercial credit, is slowing. GDP is negative, and the growth rate of money supply is still positive, and rather healthy. This is not a monetary deflation, but rather the signs of an emerging stagflation fueled by slow real economic activity and monetization, or hot money, from the Fed. The monetary authority is trying to lead the economic recovery through unusual monetary growth. All they are doing is creating more malinvestment, risk addiction, and asset bubbles...Using money as a 'tool' to stimulate or retard economic activity is a dangerous game indeed, fraught with unintended consequences and unexpected bubbles and imbalances, with a spiral of increasingly destabilizing crises and busts. The Obama Administration bears a heavy responsibility for this because of their failure to reform the system and restore balance to the economy in any meaningful way.

confessed; Flationary Agnostic; Jesse's Café Américain.

Tue 2009-09-22 08:17 EDT

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

Swedish Lex

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.

Sun 2009-09-20 12:17 EDT

Michael Hudson - financial economist and historian

Publications by financial economist and historian Michael Hudson, on finance and accounting, real estate and history of ancient Near East (reform, taxation, monetary, investment, instability, poverty, development, globalisation, real estate, statistics, property, land, value, reform, taxation, rent, Henry George, international, finance, IMF, World Bank, critique, euro, policy, Sumer, economic, history, Babylonia, usury, interest, rates, ancient, U.S., imperialism, privatization, urbanization, national, income, accounts, wealth, distribution, money, credit, monetarism, criticism, creditary, financial)

Financial economist; historians; Michael Hudson.

naked capitalism Sun 2009-09-20 11:53 EDT

Financial Reform: Not happening but the need is clear

Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns

If you are looking for reform in the financial sector, the moment has passed. And only to the degree that the underlying weaknesses in the global financial system are made manifest and threaten the economy will we see any appetite for reform amongst politicians. So, as I see it, the Obama administration has missed the opportunity for reform...Steve Keen, an Australian economist whose theories are heavily influenced by Hyman Minsky, has a cogent analysis of the true structural deficits in the current economic model...today we have finally reached a level of debt which is so great that another reflation is impossible. The collapse is now....unlike Keen, I am not convinced the time is now...What I would like to see is economic thought leaders developing a blueprint of a financial crisis strategy which tackles both the immediate crisis issues (liquidity) and the structural, regulatory and monetary issues that create financial volatility (solvency). When crisis does occur, I believe it will be systemic in nature due to the forces Keen so lucidly explains. Therefore, a blueprint which is 1) heavy on tactics and, 2) if implemented in a real systemic crisis, is likely to work, builds credibility. This is political capital which will carry over to longer-term preventive strategies and reforms.

clear; Financial reform; happened; naked capitalism; needed.