Sun 2008-07-06 00:00 EDT
"The System is Broken. We're Entering a Two Economy Society": An Interview with Michael Hudson, by Mike Whitney; democracy precedes oligarchy; reframing tax policy; fraudulent conveyance applied to minimize foreclosure; "Credit is a product that's almost free to create. Its main cost of production is the lobbying expense to buy Congressional support."
broken; Economy Society; enters; interview; Michael Hudson; Systems.
Sun 2008-07-06 00:00 EDT
Jesse's Café Américain: Lessons from the Panic of 1907: "almost all panics and crashes are preceded by sustained periods of artificial growth, not based on improvements in productivity, but by a false expansion in the money system, aided and abetted by speculators and financiers." "almost all panics and crashes involves relatively small groups of people who seem to be at the heart of the matter, and are closely interlinked into small cartels of corrupted self-dealing, involving the accumulation of enormous personal fortunes." "always the overextension of credit and excessive leverage" "A free and just society is not a prize to be won or a gift that can be bestowed; it is a recurring commitment, an enduring obligation."
Wed 2008-05-28 00:00 EDT
review of Jamie Galbraith's "The Predator State" by L. Randall Wray; "market solutions are designed to enrich a favored oligarchy through a spoils system administered through the states structure"
Conservatives Abandoned; Economist's View; free market; liberalism; Predator state.
Tue 2008-05-13 00:00 EDT
by Brad Setser; perhaps "the rise in inflation in the Gulf and China and the difficulties both are facing trying to sterilize the rapid growth in the foreign assets is an indicator that there is a small risk that the US also might end up being a bit too large for the emerging world to save"
Wed 2008-04-16 00:00 EDT
Large OTC Markets + Excessive Leverage + Fair Value Accounting = Systemic Risk, by The Institutional Risk Analyst; FAS 157; JPMorgan "an uncapitalized, $76 trillion OTC derivatives exchange with a $1.3 trillion asset bank appendage"
Sat 2008-04-12 00:00 EDT
Hillary's Flimsy Case, by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone; Obama "running as a symbol of a new politics...But if it were to get out that he's not that...then he quickly morphs into a different kind of symbol, a symbol of how an essentially bankrupt political system can seamlessly repackage itself to a fed-up marketplace by making cosmetic changes, without altering its basic nature." "In American politics, always look for the worst possible scenario to emerge triumphant"
Tue 2008-04-01 00:00 EDT
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 2008-03-31 00:00 EDT
Buffett versus Greenspan on derivatives; "the development of credit derivatives has contributed to the stability of the banking system", or "rapidly growing trade in derivatives poses a "mega-catastrophic risk" for the economy"; 2007-07-04
Wed 2008-03-19 00:00 EDT
Fri 2008-02-22 00:00 EST
Between The Lines > Inside Bernanke's Brain - The Fed's Response To The Crisis, by Aaron Krowne; "Fed doesnt actually control rates, at least not directly. It only sets a TARGET"; "in times of great distress (as now), the rates can get away from the Feds grasp, and it becomes important to distinguish. Specifically, if the Fed were to try to force the funds rate up to the 4.5% target while they were naturally trading around 3%, they would actually have to WITHDRAW liquidity from the system, causing a catastrophic deflationary spiral."
Tue 2008-02-12 00:00 EST
by Lee Adler; "Fed has aggressively collapsed the size of the System Open Market Account...to withdraw billions of dollars of what is, in essence, margin buying power from the trading accounts of the Primary Dealers"
Feds Eunuchs Reveals True Selves; Technicolor; Wall Street Examiner.
