Author Archives: Yves Smith

Links 10/9/14

Stephanie Kelton: Last Day, Last Chance for NC’s 2014 Fundraiser!

Thanks to the generosity of many loyal readers, we’ve beaten our goal of having 1000 donors participate in our fundraiser. We are now at 1044 and have raised our target to 1100. We are still short by $8,510 of our goal of $16,000 for more original reporting. Let’s see if we can meet both targets in this final day of our fundraiser!

Michael Klare: Obama’s Oil Weapon

Here Michael Klare argues that the use of energy as a weapon has become even more central in US foreign policy under Obama.

Michael Perelman: Globalization, “Free Trade,” and Food as a Strategic Weapon

Yves here. Michael Perelman gave a wide-ranging talk in Ankara called the Anarchy of Globalization which focused on the local impact of globalization. The presentation was wideranging and included a discussion of the evolution of usage and theoretical concerns.

We’ve extracted a section below, on the role of “free trade” agreements and one of their not-widely-recognized side effects, that of weakening food security. The case study is Mexico.

Trying to Talk Sense About Demography

If you acknowledge the economic and resource implications of demography, you need to favor no or few child policies. But that remains a third rail in politics and economics.

Links 10/9/14

Gretchen Morgenson Collects a Scalp: Blackstone Ditches Private Equity “Termination Fees”

There’s nothing like seeing the good guys score a goal. We have two this evening. One is a win by David Sirota, whose reporting on San Francisco’s plan to shift up to 15% of retiree funds into hedge funds appears to have led to a climbdown by the city. Sirota uncovered an unreported conflict of interest by the consultant recommending the change, who also operates a hedge fund of funds. Admittedly, CalPERS’ recent announcement that it was exiting hedge funds entirely also put pressure on the city to reverse course.

But Gretchen Morgenson collected an even bigger scalp in the form of Blackstone halting a practice that she highlighted in a May article: that of taking “termination fees” when portfolio companies are sold. However, as we discuss later, as positive as this move appears, this is almost certainly Blackstone throwing a big, visible bone to investors in the hope of deterring an SEC enforcement action.

“A Seriously Bad-Ass Online Newspaper”

Over the next year, I’m excited to work with all of you to continue to puncture the perceived monopoly of wisdom that Very Serious People have over economics and finance.

Wow! Met Our Fourth Target, On to Our Fifth: More Original Reporting

Thanks to your generous and speedy responses, we’ve met our first four targets: more upgrades to the user experience and other site tech support (which should lead to faster loading times and quicker resolution of reader problems), nice ex-post facto honoraria to our loyal guest writers, travel/conference expenses and coverage, and vacation and partial weekend coverage. Let me stress again that these are all things that your donations have and continue to make possible. And at 919 donors, we’re over 90% of the way to our goal of 1000 contributors for this fundraiser.

Our fifth goal is funding for more original reporting. It may sound peculiar to ask for this as this. Yes, I know, it may sound peculiar to ask for that at this point in the fundraiser. Shouldn’t we have asked for that sooner?

ISIS Battles Kurds Over Border Town Kobani To Maintain Oil Trade

Yves here. One needs to read past the spin on the combatants and the hectoring of the Turks in this post. It does serve to explain why Kobani is a critical piece on the chessboard of the struggle in Kurdistan.

Masaccio: The Shaky Foundation of Neoliberal Economics – Life-Cycle Savings

ves here. Readers may know that we regularly savage neoliberal economics, which we often refer to as “mainstream economics.” For instance, that’s why we so often take aim at Paul Krugman, who despite his leftist inclinations, never takes them very far because he is intellectually hostage to a flawed, destructive orthodoxy.

Here masaccio makes a point that the many enthusiastic reviewers of Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century have skipped over, namely, that his book indicts orthodox approaches and conclusions. Masaccio then focuses on a glaring example of where neoliberal economic theory does not match up with real-world behavior, in its life cycle savings theory.

Links 10/8/14

Mark Ames: Why Finance is Too Important to Leave to Larry Summers

Welcome to the world of running a small website. The estimable Mark Ames, who is as much a litterateur as journalist, promised, promised, promised us a fundraising post, but told us he just can’t deliver the piece. I know Mark didn’t do this casually; he was a publisher himself, at The eXile in Russia and then with its US incarnation, The eXiled.

But Mark did give us a hard-to-beat post three years ago, and it deserves being reprised. So enjoy!

NJ Pension Fund Scandal: Chris Christie’s Nose is Getting So Long He Needs to Get a Hacksaw

If you see politics as a form of bloodsport, there’s nothing more fun that seeing a politician start attacking a reporter. That almost without exception means the charges have hit a weak spot, that the incumbent has little to no valid defense and instead starts lashing out.

In this case, it’s particularly amusing to see New Jersey governor Chris Christie as the would-be pugilist. We are seeing that while Garden State pols may be great on the offensive in bare-knucle fights, they have a glass jaw when put on the defensive.

Here, the combatants are International Business Times reporter, David Sirota, against various officials with close ties to Christie who administer state pension funds. Sirota has been making a mini-speciality of state pay-to-play scandals.