Author Archives: Yves Smith
Republican Rank-and-File Lines Up Against Financial Regulation
Let us not kid ourselves that the Democratic party is also for the most part out to gut financial regulation.
The only reason that there is more space between Congressional Republicans and Democrats than usual is the pro-business, pro-bank “blue dog” wing of the Democratic party has gotten deservedly slaughtered in the last two Congressional elections for selling out what used to be the American middle class. So the more progressive-minded survivors are a bigger faction on a relative basis than they once were.
This Real News Network interview with Bill Black covers both a critical slice of the history of financial regulations (or more accurately, its rollback) as well as some of the current dynamics.
Read more...Dealing With Mass Killings in America: Funding Our Children, Not Our Wars
As mass killings become more common in the US, law enforcement agents fixate on and unduly publicize cases with jihadist links. As this post describes, that serves as an excuse for even more intensive surveillance.
Yet as Mark Ames described in one of the first works on these rampages, in his book “Going Postal,” there were no obvious similarities among the perps. They weren’t all, or even often, isolated losers. They did not typically come from broken homes. They were generally of above average intelligence. Aside from being disproportionately male, the other common thread was that they had been bullied.
If Ames’ observations still hold true, the lack of distinctive demographic or behavioral predictors of those who go on rampages means that heightened surveillance is at best another form of security theater, and at worst an excuse for Stasi-like dossier-gethering.
Read more...Why Carbon Taxes Would Be the Ultimate Energy Game-Changer
Carbon taxes are one of the most effective ways to curb the use of fossil fuels and promote renewable energy sources. And they also help businesses because providing for a predictable price of carbon encourages investment. Has their time finally arrived?
Read more...Links 8/1/15
Testing the Global Central Bank Swap Network
Central bank swaps are in some ways quite similar to a standard commercial FX swap, but the differences are important and significant.
Read more...The Challenges of the Greek Crisis
An overview of how the Greek crisis is stressing international institutions as well as (sadly and predictably) Greece itself.
Read more...More on the Systemic Risk of Bank IT Systems
Why financial firm IT is a bigger and more imminent source of systemic risk than you might think.
Read more...Links 7/31/15
The Ideology of the S&P Threat to Downgrade Brazil to Junk
Why you should look hard at the rationales and motives of ratings agencies like S&P in giving sovereign debt downgrades.
Read more...Paradise Burning: Why We All Need to Learn the World ‘Anthropogenic’
When fire can eat a rainforest in a relatively cool climate, you know the Earth is beginning to burn.
Read more...Gaius Publius: The Rorschach Candidacy of Hillary Clinton
What you can learn from applying the Hillary Clinton Rorschach test to friends and family!
Read more...Links 7/30/15
Lies, Damned Lies, and Greek Statistics
A detailed account of the long and tortured history of budget fakery in Greece and how it is has been aggressively defended by successive Greek governments. A tidbit from the post: one section is labeled “When revising wrong statistics is treason.”
Read more...Wolf Richter: Housing Bubble Means American Dream Withers at Record Pace
Despite the current housing “buying panic,” the soaring prices, and all the hoopla round them, there is a fly in the ointment: overall homeownership is plunging.
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