The FOMC today announced plans to buy $300B in treasuries and up to $750B in mortgage-backed securities, effectively agreeing to print a trillion dollars. Well, we knew the money had to come from somewhere. When the federal government wants money, there are four places they can get it: 1) Take from other parts of the […]
In a strange piece of spin, the New York Times says today that the financial crisis will wind up being good for China. It’s an unconvincing position to say the least. It’s true that, unlike the West, China has no trouble with currency exchange or stock markets, which are state regulated, or bank failure, because […]
AIG Executives have been given huge bonuses with taxpayer money, and everyone is furious. AIG claims that they have contractual obligations which predate the largest private sector bailout in history. Politicians say these obligations are secondary to satisfying taxpayers who are keeping them above water. Pundits, smelling blood in the water, have come out in […]
U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, interviewed by Charlie Rose, says Capitalism will be ‘profoundly different‘ going forward. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s comments should come as no surprise. Neither should the fact that a leading global economist recently noted, rather matter-of-fact-ly, that “the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism has failed.” But more on that point later. For […]
The Future of Capitalism
The credit crunch has destroyed faith in the free market ideology that has dominated Western economic thinking for a generation. But what can – and should – replace it? Over the coming weeks we will conduct a wide-ranging debate on this dominant political issue of the day.
President Obama welcomed Brazil’s President Luiz Ignacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva as the first Latin American leader to the White House to discuss, energy, agricultural and economic trade issues between the two hemispheric partners.
A riveting, detailed account of the undoing of Bear Stearns in 2008. ‘How it happened, and why, is the subject of William D. Cohan’s superb narrative that chronicles the fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street. Bear Stearns serves as the Rosetta Stone to explain how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations and truly bad decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system.’
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World By LIAQUAT AHAMED (Penguin Press, 2009) Reviewed by Jose Nocera for the New York Times ‘Book Review’ section, The ‘Lords of Finance’ offers a grand narrative of the events leading up to the Great Depression. Liaquat Ahamed, a former World Bank economist and investment fund manager, […]
“Tight credit markets and the global economic downturn are rapidly swelling the population of U.S. companies with high default risk and weak liquidity. The Bottom Rung, a new Moody’s database and quarterly publication, captures and comments on these low-rated companies.” March 10th marked the inaugural debut of Moody’s newest ratings publication by its Global […]
Jon Stewart, of Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show,’ skewers the hypocrisy of the financial news media claim to deliver “ahead of the curve” insider knowledge and access to business and financial decision-makers. In reality, all they appear do is to act as cheerleaders for Wall Street by rallying investors to “Buy! Buy! Buy!” as the Market tumbled over a cliff.
President Obama hosts British PM Gordon Brown at the White House. Brown wants to engage President Obama in a ‘gobal new deal’ era of coordinated economic policy at next month’s G-20 Summit in London, stating: ‘Globalisation is not an option, it is a fact.’
Charlie Rose interviews Fred Mishkin, Nouriel Roubini, et al. This is a concise — but informed — discussion of where we are, and where we need to go as far as the current American banking and financial crisis. The interview by Charlie Rose of Fred Mishkin (Columbia University), Nouriel Roubini (NYU), Mark Zandi (Moody’s) and others […]
Clifford Levy writes an incisive peice about the current Ukranian financial crisis in today’s New York Times. The Ukrain experience has close parallels to what’s happening in the U.S. and western Europe, but on a smaller stage. Could this be where we are headed..??
http://www.worldpress.org/ World Press Review is an excellent aggregator of breaking news headlines and analysis from the often forgotten corners of the world. The paper covers the major industrialized Markets; but it does a much better job of reporting from the dusty, but relevant , corners of the world. Expect to see well written analysis from […]
http://www.ft.com/world The Financial Times of London’s (now commonly known as ‘FT’) World Page website is an adequate, though not among the best, compendiums of world headlines. It provides a decidely Anglo-American perspective on world affairs. While you’re there, however, also take a look at the ‘World Markets Data’ and the ‘Global Economy’ page — which […]