The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Wed 2009-10-14 11:52 EDT
The world's central banks are starting to get serious about diversification, and it all started when the Federal Reserve started monetizing debt...[dollar losing reserve currency status]
Central banks snubbing; Dollar; economic populist; Mind 2 Cents; speaking; Time.
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Tue 2009-10-13 20:44 EDT
Roundup of anti-dollar sentiment and prospects as dollar loses reserve currency status.
Dollar; economic populist; love; Mind 2 Cents; speaking; Time.
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Sat 2009-10-10 13:19 EDT
New America Foundation, Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program, Michael Lind is on a roll. He's pulling in a host of economists and policy formulators who really are speaking truth, interviewing them an' putting 'em on the Internets. You're going to love these interviews with Thomas Palley, Ralph Gomory, Pat Choate and Peter Morici.
economic populist; Friday Movie Night; Michael Lind Presents; Mind 2 Cents; speaking; Time.
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Sat 2009-10-10 13:14 EDT
...the Administration and the Democratically-controlled congress are dead set on re-inflating the housing bubble. There are two proposals at play: 1) extending the first-time homebuyer tax credit and 2) Increasing the loan limit amounts for Fannie, Freddie and FHA.
bubble; economic populist; Mind 2 Cents; re-inflate; speaking; Time; Unofficial Economic Policy.
Bruce Krasting Sat 2009-10-10 12:57 EDT
FHFA's Acting Director Edward DeMarco provided written testimony to the Senate today...From July 2007 through the first half of 2009--combined losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaled $165 billion. In the first half of 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together reported net losses of $47 billion. Since the establishment of the conservatorships, the combined losses at the two Enterprises depleted all their capital and required them to draw $96 billion. The combined support from the federal government exceeds $1 trillion. The short-term outlook for the Enterprises remains troubled and likely will require additional draws...
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Sat 2009-10-10 12:53 EDT
Our mortgage finance system is broken. It needs some serious restructuring or a complete overhaul. We can learn a lot about a new structure from the Danes. The Danish mortgage system is one of the oldest and most sophisticated housing finance markets in the world...Danish mortgage system is a pass-through system that allows mortgage borrowers to benefit from close to capital market financing conditions. In the Danish system, borrower/homeowner don't obtain a mortgage from a mortgage loan originator such as a bank or mortgage lender. They borrow from investors in a transparent and standardized bond market through a mortgage credit institution (MCI). MCI issues bonds in the bond market that match as much as possible the amount and maturity of the borrower's mortgage. The beauty of this system is that a mortgage is exactly matched and balanced with an actively traded bond. MCIs play the vital roles of advisors to the borrower/homeowner and bearer of the credit risk of the mortgage -- they remain ``on the hook'' in the event of delinquency or default. They are mortgage credit insurers. The MCI originator bears full responsibility for timely payments from the borrower/homeowner. So, MCI has an incentive to make sure borrower/homeowners obtain a mortgage loan that is affordable for that family. Meanwhile, bond investors worry about only interest rate risk, with complete insurance on the mortgage that backs the their bond investment. This makes for a highly efficient system.
economic populist; Mind 2 Cents; New Mortgage Finance System; proposed; speaking; Time.
Jesse's Café Américain Sat 2009-10-10 11:50 EDT
The breakdown of US dollar reserves being held overseas in the attached article of news is interesting, even though estimated. I am curious to see when Kevin Phillips and Chalmers Johnson start speaking to this as this sort of historic change is in their respective ballparks. Of course, there is always the option to listen to those in the American financial media who dismiss the internationally respected and well-connected Robert Fisk as a commie crank, a liberal web spinner, and a tinfoil conspiracty theorist.
De-dollarise; implications; Jesse's Café Américain; oil markets; plans; rooted.
Thu 2009-10-08 17:10 EDT
Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population? The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts -- Iceland's bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe -- but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders. Support in Iceland for joining the EU has fallen to just over a third of the population, while Latvia's Harmony Center party, the first since independence to include a large segment of the Russian-speaking population, has gained a majority in Riga and is becoming the most popular national party. Popular protests in both countries have triggered rising political pressure to limit the debt burden to a reasonable ability to pay...
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Mon 2009-09-21 14:33 EDT
There once was a time when the Federal Reserve abhorred the idea of monetizing debt. That day is long over. In the second quarter, the most recent for which data is available, the Fed bought $164 billion out of the $339 billion in net new Treasurys sold. In the mortgage-backed debt markets, the Fed has been buying upward of 80% of the bonds issued by agencies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. ZeroHedge helps to put this number into perspective: the Fed was a greater factor in UST demand than all three traditional players combined: Foreigners, Households and Primary Dealers, which amounted to a $158 billion in net Q2 purchases.
50; economic populist; Fed Accountable; Mind 2 Cents; speaking; Time; Treasury purchases.
The Guardian World News Sun 2009-09-20 10:57 EDT
Nicolas Sarkozy called for a "great revolution" in the way national wealth is measured today, throwing his weight behind a report which criticises "GDP fetishism" and prioritises quality of life over financial growth. Speaking days before the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, France's president urged the rest of the world to follow his example as he ordered a shake-up in research methods aimed at providing a more balanced reading of countries' performance. Endorsing the recommendations of a report given to him by Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, he said governments should do away with the "religion of statistics" in which financial prowess was the sole indicator of a country's state of health.
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Fri 2009-09-11 17:54 EDT
Buried in a Washington Post article: 90 percent of all new home loans are funded or guaranteed by taxpayers...taxpayers are on the hook for most of the loans that are still being made if they go bad. And they are also on the line for any losses in the massive portfolios of old loans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or back more than $5 trillion in mortgages.
90; economic populist; Mind 2 Cents; Residential Loans U.S. taxpayer backed; speaking; Time.
Taibblog Wed 2009-09-02 09:06 EDT
``the Fed's decision to brag publicly about a few loans that are actually performing is sort of scary -- it speaks to a level of intellectual desperation and magical-thinking unusual even for a banker in the subprime/MBS era''
Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT
The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Tue 2009-04-21 00:00 EDT
``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.
Sun 2008-10-26 00:00 EDT
``We will pay because the only language we have to describe our world is that of our oppressors because we have been taught to think in Wall Speak.''
