Author Archives: Yves Smith

California Treasurer and CalPERS Board Member John Chiang Introduces Private Equity Transparency Bill

California Treasurer John Chiang’s private equity transparency bill has been launched. How does it stack up?

Links 2/23/16

Bill Black: Krugman Triples Down on His Smear of Friedman and Bernie

Krugman has really lost it.

Delhi’s Wasteful “Smart City” for Its Elites: Bloomberg’s Parasitical Model for the Future?

Be warned: “Smart city” is the new code word for pampered, resource-hogging enclaves for the elite.

Krugman and His Gang’s Libeling of Economist Gerald Friedman for Finding That Conventional Models Show That Sanders Plan Could Work

Krugman has made maliciously false statements about economics professor Gerald Friedman. Demand that the New York Times issue a correction and that Krugman apologize.

More Evidence That CalPERS Board (and Staff?) Does Not Understand Finance

Another foot-in-mouth moment at CalPERS, this time by the president of the board, Robert Feckner.

Syriza Sells Out Former Ally, Palestine, to Form Ties with Israel, and Indirectly, Germany

Syriza looks again to have overestimated its negotiating skills and has been outfoxed by Israel.

Links 2/20/16

The ECB’s Original Sin and Franco Modigliani’s Long View

Franco Modigliani foresaw how the ECB and the Eurozone architecture had an anti-growth bias and proposed remedies that were ignored.

The China Delusion

Why the path forward for China is fraught from both an economic and political standpoint.

Links 2/19/16

The Crackpot Realism of Clintonian Politics

Why “liberal” defenses of Clinton policies are a textbook case of crackpot realism.

The Financial Times’ Revisionist History on Hedge Funds’ Failure to Deliver Manager Outperformance, or Alpha

Repeat after me: hedge funds produce little to no alpha, and contrary to what the Financial Times would have you believe, investors have known that for quite a while.

Michael Hudson Discusses the Federal Reserve and the Global Fracture

Explaining how the Federal Reserve and central bank policies like QE, saved the banks at the expense of wrecking the real economy.