Homosexual brain resembles that of opposite sex: study PhysOrg Blogger arrests hit record high BBC. I am not certain that this is as meaningful as it seems, since the number of bloggers is also at a record high. Exposing Bush Administration Corruption Stephen Lendman. I was plenty upset about Clinton corruption too (please, the commodity […]
Read more...How little resolve our central bank has. We said we thought Fed was unlikely to raise rates, or if it did, it would be at most 25 basis points between now and year end., which falls in the category of being cosmetic. The central bank has been particularly, one might say unduly, attentive to the […]
Read more...It’s one thing to read an apocalyptic alarm from, say, a blogger or a newsletter writer. It’s quite another to see it coming from an analyst at a large institution, in this case AIG. Bernard Connolly is deeply critical of central banks, not just of their recent actions but also of their very existence, and […]
Read more...I’ve had less cause of late to criticize the Wall Street Journal as the paper has made strides in its coverage of the credit markets. However, today’s paper has a story in which ideology appears to have compromised its reporting. Today Charlie McCreevy, EU internal markets commissioner, is to outline proposals for closer, tougher oversight […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reports that criminal charges against the managers of the failed Bear Stearns hedge funds, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, are imminent. The Journal also indicates there are no charges pending against Bear Stearns or any other Bear executives. Pray tell, why not? The funds were clearly under the supervision of Bear […]
Read more...PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The world’s first climate change “refugees” Irin Asia Ebb and flow of the sea drives world’s big extinction events PhysOrg Why We Can’t See America’s Ziggurats in Iraq Tom Englehardt. On US mega-bases in Iraq, which are well covered in the military press but hardly mentioned in the popular media. Bush pledges […]
Read more...Today’s New York Times provides an interesting bit of context for investment banks woes: losses from July 2007 to present roughly equal the profits earned from the beginning of 2004 through that date. The story merely alludes to the question of whether the rich bonuses of the boom years were warranted, but broaches another topic […]
Read more...The Fed has tended to dismiss the inflationary impact of rising energy and food prices, arguing that they aren’t significant until they lead to inflationary expectations and higher wage demands. Yet in Japan, where zero inflation to deflation has been the norm, and workers, like their American peers, lack bargaining power, not only have inflation […]
Read more...In a board meeting where it was believed that Martin Sullivan, AIG CEO, would resign, the expected took place. Robert Willmustad has been designated CEO of the insurer. From the Wall Street Journal: Robert Willumstad, a former Citigroup Inc. executive and chairman of the board of American International Group Inc., has been appointed chief executive […]
Read more...We’ve read from time to time that European banks have been launching deals, and not particularly good ones at that, solely for the purpose of using those securities as collateral for loans from the ECB. However, we hadn’t seen a longer-form treatment of that phenomenon. The Economist has decided to step into the breach. The […]
Read more...With the financial system on the exam table, it has been more than a bit troubling, that certain questions are neglected in serious academic/policy debates. The discussion of possible remedies focuses on regulatory solutions, everything from requiring mortgage brokers to be licensed to increasing financial institution capital requirements and having much greater harmonisation, as the […]
Read more...Institutional Risk Analytics has an informative, engaging interview with Martin Mayer, who is a professional polymath (he is the author of 34 books, former banking columnist, art critic, film critic, and currently a guest scholar at Brookings). I very much recommend reading the entire piece and provide some tidbits below. From Institutional Risk Analytics: Mayer: […]
Read more...Dead dolphins: Navy admits use of anti-submarine sonar off Cornish coast Telegraph Companies get OK to annoy polar bears PhysOrg Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan Reuters. After this, no one should be permitted to criticize bloggers for their reporting standards. This piece even has a little video. Cheney’s false comment on oil drilling attacked AP. […]
Read more...The headline summarizes the observations of economist Paul De Grauwe, who takes central banks to task for their reliance on so-called Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models (DSGE). De Grauwe objects to some of the fundamental assumptions embedded in them (consumers are rational and all have the same preferences, any disruptions are the result of external […]
Read more...A solid column from Bloomberg’s Caroline Baum on what she sees as the market’s irrational expectations for the Fed. Key points: Investors focused on Bernanke’s remarks about inflation and the dollar, when he also stressed the less than robust growth outlook The last time the central banks said it saw inflationary risks predominating it wound […]
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