Yearly Archives: 2014
“Summer” Rerun: Quelle Surprise! Hank Paulson and Goldman CEO Talked to Each Other a Lot!
As I like to say, I started out on Wall Street when it was criminal only at the margin. The unseemly coziness between Goldman and keygovernment agencies in critical episodes during the crisis illustrates how much standards of conduct have deteriorated.
Read more...Climate Change Triage: What Do You Protect – Money or People?
The coming climate change dislocations force choices as to who and what is sacrificed.
Read more...Links 12/30/14
Wolf Richter: It’s Official – Inflated Home Prices Strangle US Housing Market
Mortgages are hard to get, and inventories of homes for sale are low: Those have been the dominant reasons cited by the industry to rationalize the crummy home sales that have disappointed pundits for over a year. But now those memes have been debunked by homebuyers themselves.
Read more...Why Getting Rid of Loan Officers Hurt Banks and the Economy
Economists seldom take note of the fact that the degradation of skills at major banks has had serious macroeconomic effects. One example is the abandonment of loan officer training and branch manager autonomy at big banks.
Read more...Links 12/29/14
Thomas Ferguson: U.S. Midterm Election Voter Turnout at Pre-Civil War Level
“People are saying, who needs this? And they’re sort of nonvoting for a new America.”
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: The Euro’s First Inkling – A Piece in Lieu of Best Wishes for 2015
Lambert here: How about that DeGaulle! And “exorbitant privilege” has a nice ring, doesn’t it? By Yanis Varoufakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens. Originally published at his website. As 2015 is approaching, seemingly pregnant with crucial challenges for Europe, the euro and all those who have to live with it, I […]
Read more...Links 12/28/14
The Awnings of Walmart: Adding Ugliness to All the Other Indignities Foisted on the Poor
Why does Walmart foist ugliness on its shoppers and associates?
Read more...Don Quijones: How the Trade in Services Agreement Lets Big Brother Go Global
A new leak shows that the even-more-secret-than-the-TTP-and-TTIP Trade in Services Agreement is worse than you imagined.
Read more...Links 12/27/14
Google Further Crapifies Search, Exploiting Both Users and Advertisers
Is Google cooking its goose by optimizing search to maximize revenue extraction from advertisers?
Read more...“Summer” Rerun: On the Sanctity of Wall Street Pay
“Sanctity of contract” means something considerably different in practice than the Wall Street money men would have you believe.
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