Author Archives: Yves Smith

Countdown!

Only four hours remain in the Naked Capitalism fundraiser. Show your support of critical thinking, merciless evisceration of lame punditry, deep diving into turbid financial waters, and cute animal pictures.

Final Hours of Fundraiser, Closing in on Our Targets

The Naked Capitalism community has spoken loudly and clearly. You’ve said you want this site to be more effective and you’ve been willing to provide tangible backing for your desire to have us demystify finance, call out chicanery in high places, parse propaganda, and in our small way, help promote the creation of a more just society.

We’re close to both our donor and financial targets.

Curtailing Intellectual Monopoly: The Insanity of US Copyright Law

Yves here. While our focus is on finance and economics, rentier capitalism is on the march , seemingly across the entire economy. One of the troubling examples is the expansion of intellectual property rights. The idea that seeds could be patented would be dismissed as ridiculous 40 years ago; we now have Monsanto controlling critical parts of our food supply as a result of its successful IP strategy.

Rajiv Sethi gives an update on the copyright front, where the Republican Study Committee (the RSC) issued a policy document that found, mirabile dictu, that copyright law had become skewed toward protecting content owners/creators.

Wow! Met Our Fourth Goal, on to Our Fifth!

Thanks to your generous and speedy responses, we’ve met our first four targets: upgrading site support and hosting (which should lead to faster loading times and quicker resolution of reader problems), nice ex-post facto honoraria to our loyal guest bloggers, 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 827 donors, we’re over 80% of the way to our goal of 1000 contributors for this fundraiser.

Our fifth goal is hiring an intern.

Links 11/18/12

Greenspan’s Switch to Debt Scaremongering

Stephanie Kelton provides two video clips to underscore the point that until quite recently, Greenspan made the point that MMT types do: that the US as a currency issuer, can always pay its debts.

Tell University of Western Sydney They are Dopes for Planning to Dump Steve Keen

The Australian press is giving raspberries to a plan by the University of Western Sydney to pretty much eliminate its economics department, which would result in Steve Keen and other instructors being fired. Keen is a well known and respected heterodox economist, so this move looks particularly misguided.

Cathy O’Neil: Support Naked Capitalism

By Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist and member of the Occupy Wall Street Alternative Banking Group who blogs at mathbabe

Being a quantitative, experiment-minded person, I’ve decided to go about helping Yves Smith raise funds for Naked Capitalism using the scientific approach.

Links 11/16/12

Harry Shearer: Naked Capitalism – A Beacon in the Fog of Disinformation

By Harry Shearer, satirist, author, filmmaker and host of Le Show

I don’t even remember now how I don’t even remember now how I first came upon Naked Capitalism. What I do know is that, in the welter of myth and theology that passes for the preponderance of public discussion of economic issues, this site has been a beacon of fact, empiricism and skeptical reporting.

Quelle Surprise! New York Fed Chair Dudley Confirms that TBTF Lives, Big Firms Still Can’t Be Resolved

The New York Fed’s William Dudley gave a surprisingly candid, meaning not positive, assessment of the state of the Too Big to Fail problem in a speech yesterday at the Clearing House’s Second Annual Business Meeting and Conference. From the text of his speech (hat tip Richard Smith):

The Most Dangerous Choice for SEC Chairman

In a new column in the New York Times, Simon Johnson points out that Obama is likely to be appointing a new SEC chairman soon. He describes two alternatives: choosing a friend of the industry versus someone who might actually be willing and able to regulate it. Johnson believes that a tough-minded chairman should not only enforce the rules but “actively seek to change the conventional wisdom around finance.”

The Sucking Sound of (At Least Some) Skilled Workers Leaving the US

Defenders of the Obama Administration’s indifference to high levels of unemployment often claim the problem isn’t readily remedied because the US suffers from “structural unemployment”. That’s really wonkese for blaming the victim. No sirreebob, the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough jobs, but that the workers are no damned good, as in they don’t have the right skills for our new super duper information based economy! In mainstream media outlets, claims like this are usually followed by a business owner saying there clearly aren’t enough skilled employees, he can’t hire any good machinists for $13 an hour. Generally speaking, Mr. Complaining Boss is offering below the going rate, but why let pesky details spoil a good narrative?

You don’t have to look hard to find evidence against this argument.