Archive for the ‘Financial crises’ Category

September 21st, 2011

Perhaps because if it makes money it’s not a “rogue” trade. Teason doth never prosper …

September 15th, 2011

One of the most annoying things about the troglodyte right is its celebration of “Tax Freedom Day” where supposedly you are no longer working for the government.  As soon as they start saying that they don’t want to benefit from Social Security, Medicare, national security, food safety, environmental protection, education etc. etc. then we can [...]

September 12th, 2011

The Vickers report on banking reform in the UK: ring-fence retail banking.

August 31st, 2011

If Mark has his way, Rick Perry’s assertions that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme will not get thrown down the memory hole.  Unfortunately, our last Ponzi scheme is already hurtling downward. If you think about it, a large part of American (and global) prosperity rests on a real Ponzi scheme: the financial system.  I’m actually [...]

August 24th, 2011

Why to be suspicious of CDS prices as indicators of sovereign bond risk.

June 11th, 2011

NAACP and the National Council of La Raza find themselves allied with financial industry figures in opposing new mortgage rules. Count me among the skeptics.

May 9th, 2011

Banks as giant vampire termites!

May 2nd, 2011

Noted development economist Hernando de Soto thinks Wall Street is backsliding into the informal economy of Third World slums.

April 19th, 2011

…which Matt will win because he will channel his Inner Tarantino and slice my head in half. But before then, let me express some skepticism that Matt’s rational actor utility-maximizer will come through for us. 1)  Strictly speaking, it seems to me that the competitive market theory does not imply that firms will always maximize [...]

April 19th, 2011

Lots of talk across the blogosphere regarding Standard & Poor’s “downgrading” of US Treasury debt.  But let’s recall the source. Standard & Poor’s, together with Moody’s, is one of the great dupes of the recent financial crisis (villains, if you are more cynical).  It repeatedly issued AAA ratings to what we now know — and what any sharp-eyed [...]