Author Archives: Yves Smith

Bill Black: SEC Flacks Paint Lehman’s Looters as the Victims of a “Political” SEC

Yves here. With the fifth anniversary of the Lehman collapse nearly upon us, the financial media is awash in crisis-related retrospectives. That’s including more than a little revisionist history. Here, Bill Black corrects the record on some SEC propaganda that the New York Times saw fit to run. The idea that the SEC deemed Lehman’s Repo 105 transaction (which allowed it to hide $50 billion of liabilities, when its total balance sheet was $660 billion) to be not material is such a preposterous notion that, if anything, Black’s treatment is restrained.

Links 9/11/13

Ilargi: No Vigilantes Or Vultures Need Apply

With media and technology becoming faster and more pervasive at a rapid clip, it shouldn’t perhaps be a big surprise to see the ease with which war-mongering news flashes come to dominate the story of the day. But maybe this should be received with an increasing dose of skepticism…

Why Does John Kerry Still Have a Job?

Yesterday, we put up a post on the subject of who won and lost as a result of Obama being cornered into taking up a Russian proposal to destroy Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons rather than launch punitive attacks. A Beltway insider weighted in via e-mail with some pointed remarks:

Michael Klare: DoE Forecasts No Meaningful Change in Fossil Fuel Use by 2040

Yves here. While this post focuses on a newly-released Department of Energy forecast, and forecasting is always a fraught exercise, there’s good reason to see it as realistic. It reflects the power of inertia and entrenched interests. If anything, you’d expect the DoE to present a hopeful outlook on the growth of eco-friendly power sources, given how often Obama talks about “green energy” and “green jobs,” but the authors appear to have steered clear of undue optimism.

Help Kickstart World War III!

OMG, too funny!

Links 9/10/13

Gaius Publius: Are We Having “Bank Deregulation” Crises or “Unrestricted Capital Flow” Crises?

Yves here. For the last four years, we’ve been highlighting research that has found that high levels of international capital flows are strongly associated with frequent and severe financial crises. Gaius describes how more economists are endorsing this idea, and how the proposed trade deals, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the US-EU trade agreement, will only make matters worse.

Obama Blinks on Syria. Who Won and Lost?

This has been a wild afternoon, for a change in a good way.

Bill Black: Not with a Bang but a Whimper – the SEC Enforcement Team’s Propaganda Campaign

The New York Times has one of those “inside” stories that unintentionally demonstrate the collapse of justice and financial reporting. This genre involves the media reporting gravely (and uncritically) the administration’s claims that its failure to prosecute any elite for the largest and most destructive financial frauds in history actually demonstrates the exceptional ethical rectitude of the non-prosecutors and non-enforcers.

The Cat is Now Out!

Thanks for all your kind wishes and suggestions about my trapped cat. Without seeing the bookcase, it was hard appreciate the situation.

Obama Face-Saving Solution on Syria Emerging (Updated)

The Administration seems finally to have woken up to the fact that in trying to escalate in Syria, it has bitten off a ton more than it can chew and may have found a climbdown in the form of having Assad destroy his stockpiles of chemical weapons. Russia, Damascus, and the UK are on board with this idea.

Why I Should Never Go on Vacation

I’ve had such a consistent run of a combination of non-vacations (as in working during my vacation; in 2009, for instance, I had to continue pretty much full on with my drafting of ECONNED while on a visit to Europe) and disasters during vacation to make me leery of the proposition, even when I desperately need a break.

This holiday has proven to be no exception.

Obama on the Verge of Being Handed a Major Defeat on Syria

The Obama Administration is presenting the upcoming Congressional votes on its ~~blank check~~ Authorization to Use Military Force in Syria as justified, irrelevant (since Kerry has asserted that the Administration doesn’t need Congress’ approval can attack even in the face of a no vote), but a done deal nevertheless. None of those claims stand up to scrutiny.

Lynn Parramore: Seven Reasons to Fight Obama on Picking Out-of-Touch Crony Capitalist Larry Summers as Fed Chair

The Fed chairman is the most powerful official Obama will pick— directly affecting each and every wallet in America. As much as anything, this appointment will shape our country’s future.

Obama appears to want Summers, and so do the most powerful people on Wall Street. But he is not the people’s choic