Category Archives: Banking industry

Wall Street Has Been Gambling With Student Loan Debt For Decades

As the student debt crisis continues to mount, major financial institutions are making record profits from student loan asset backed securities.

How Europe’s Greedy Lending to Africa Is Driving the Migration Wave That Fuels the EU’s Xenophobic Politics

How Europe is creating the conditions in Africa that lead to migration….and the underlying stresses are set to get worse.

Facebook’s Libra Faceplant: Beware of CEO Bright Ideas

Libra is going nowhere fast.

The People’s Money (Part 1)

An explanation of the Federal Reserve money system.

The IMF Convenes in Washington, Deaf to the Suffering It Causes Across the Planet

A brief reminder of the IMF record of failure and harm.

Bad Debts Make Good Profits – But What Are the Social Costs?

As European borrowers choke on debts they can’t repay, due to a significant degree to austerity-induced weak economies, financial profiteers swoop in to take advantage of the distress.

Mark Carney’s Trojan Unicorn — Are Central Banks Considering Stealth Nationalization in Sovereign Digital Currencies?

Mark Carney talks about digital soverign currencies. But is he really describing nationalization? And if so, whither the commercial banks?

The End of Super Imperialism?

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s proposal to invent to replace the US dollar as the key reserve currency with a “synthetic hegemonic currency.”

Interest Rate Derivatives Trading Explodes to $6.5 Trillion/Day

Interest rate derivatives trading spikes over last 3 years; the UK currently dominates. Will this continue post-Brexit?

The Financial Times’ Martin Wolf Discovers that Rentier Capitalism and Financialization Increase Inequality and Hurt Growth

Martin Wolf has a big think about what is wrong in and discovers rentier activity.

The Two Sides of Government Guarantees for Banks

Not all guarantees are created equal, and what that means for banks.

Marshall Auerback: We Are Clearly Living in a Bizarro Capitalism Era—And It’s Time to Change How the World Manages Economies

Central banks don’t have the tools to address our problems. It will take well-constructed fiscal policy to set right our topsy-turvy economy.

How Richard Vague Discovered Gravity: An Interview + Book Review of A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises

Richard Vague extends his work on the dangers of private debt via his new book, A Brief History of Doom, on the role of debt in financial crises.

Bretton Woods Institutions: Enforcers, Not Saviours?

The two Bretton Woods institutions the have huge credibility deficits due to the policy conditionalities and advice they have dispensed to developing countries in recent decades.