Category Archives: Banana republic

A New Stability and Growth Pact? Let’s Drop the Technocratic Veil!

On how economic growth models constrain policy debates and choices among Eurocrats, and why that is no accident.

Elizabeth Warren Flays Former Fed Official Who Saw No Evil on Subprime Loans, Currently Peddling Line That Regulation is Too Costly (to Banks, Natch)

Warren brutalizes a bank crony who has worn regulator’s clothes at the Fed and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Ouch.

#panamapapers – Why Critic Craig Murray Needs the Scorecard Before He Can Name The Players

Craig Murray keeps jumping the gun with his panamapapers pieces

Gaius Publius: Will Sanders Play His Ace?

Sanders lists demands for Clinton if he fails to get the nomination…and it includes demands like single payer that are so far from her current position that it is inconceivable that she will give them lip service.

Did Italy And Malta Actually Agree To Swap Oil Rights For Refugees?

Accusations by a Maltese political leader that Malta and Italy engaged in an oil-for-refugees swap has gotten legalistic responses.

Leaked Memo Reveals IMF (Still) Wants Out of Greece Bailout and Plots to Pressure Germany to Act

A new leak shows the IMF as the least bad actor of the Troika, which given its record as a neoliberal fist in third world countries, speaks volumes about European politics.

A Firm Elizabeth Warren Wants Examined for Statements on Fiduciary Duty Reform is Where the SEC’s Tainted Former Exam Chief, Andrew Bowden, Landed as General Counsel

Former SEC official Andrew Bowden, who resigned over looking too cozy with the SEC, is now general counsel at a firm in Warren’s crosshairs.

Paul Ryan Sorry for Calling Americans “Takers.” Let’s Talk About the Real Takers.

Rana Foroohar’s new book, Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business, addresses what Paul Ryan conveniently left out.

New Zealand Foreign Trusts and the Unaoil Scandal: More Chickens Coming Home to Roost, and They’re Big

First a political fracas in Malta, now a giant international bribery scandal: New Zealand Foreign Trusts cover themselves in more glory

Mainstream Media Ignores Blockbuster Expose of Massive Bribery in Iraq by Unaoil

Fairfax and Huffington Post have broken a monster story on bribery by Unaoil in Iraq that implicates major multinational corporations and officials all over the Middle East. So why the media blackout?

Gaius Publius: The Rebellion Will Not Go Away

Rebellion watch: Why the natives will remain restless.

Marshall Auerback: Donald Trump Understands the Nexus Between Trade and Immigration

By linking immigration and trade, however crudely, Trump has exposed the broader paradox and inherent contradictions which lurk between the two.