Michael Hudson on Parasitic Financial Capitalism
An interview with Michael Hudson on his latest book, Killing the Host, which focuses on the destruction wrought by financial capitalism.
Read more...Category Archives: Derivatives
Glencore, Commodities Traders, and Systemic Risk
Mega commodities trader Glencore and its big peers are looking wobbly. How worried should you be?
Read more...Wolf Richter: Bankers Threaten Fed with Layoffs if it Doesn’t Raise Rates
Yes, banks really do want the Fed to raise interest rates.
Read more...Libor Trader Sentenced to 14 Years for Market Manipulation. So What About His Bosses?
While it’s gratifying to see former UBS trader Tom Hayes go to jail for large-scale Libor bid rigging, his bosses had to have known what he was up to. So when will we see their indictments?
Read more...Republican Rank-and-File Lines Up Against Financial Regulation
Let us not kid ourselves that the Democratic party is also for the most part out to gut financial regulation.
The only reason that there is more space between Congressional Republicans and Democrats than usual is the pro-business, pro-bank “blue dog” wing of the Democratic party has gotten deservedly slaughtered in the last two Congressional elections for selling out what used to be the American middle class. So the more progressive-minded survivors are a bigger faction on a relative basis than they once were.
This Real News Network interview with Bill Black covers both a critical slice of the history of financial regulations (or more accurately, its rollback) as well as some of the current dynamics.
Read more...Lies, Damned Lies, and Greek Statistics
A detailed account of the long and tortured history of budget fakery in Greece and how it is has been aggressively defended by successive Greek governments. A tidbit from the post: one section is labeled “When revising wrong statistics is treason.”
Read more...AIG Bailout Trial Judge Rebukes Fed for Overstepping Its Powers but Awards No Damages
The long-anticipated verdict in the AIG bailout trial came yesterday, and the Fed is not happy.
Read more...Michael Hudson: Global Financialization – The State of Play in Ukraine and Russia
Michael Hudson gives a wide-ranging interview on the state of financial capital, with emphasis on fresh events in Ukraine and Russia.
Read more...Memo to Readers: If You Want to Beat Big Finance, You Need to Be Able to Take the Fight to Their Terrain
We are now 35 years into a finance-led counterrevolution. If you care about income inequality, student loan debt slavery, foreclosure abuses, and other products of the success of this effort, it behooves you, as Sun Tzu urged, to understand your enemy.
Read more...Perry Mehrling: Derivatives Remain a Blind Spot in the TBTF Debate
Current proposals to deal with the too big to fail problem fall way short as far as disarming derivatives risk is concerned.
Read more...SEC Vindicates Deutsche Bank Derivatives Whistleblowers Eric Ben-Artzi and Matthew Simpson
Three SEC whistleblowers have been proven right in charging Deutsche Bank with misreporting its biggest derivatives risk,. the bank, predictably, looks to have gotten off easy.
Read more...Elizabeth Warren Throws Down Gauntlet, Calls for Genuine Financial Reform
Elizabeth Warren makes a bold call for wide-ranging, serious financial reform.
Read more...Why Did Commodity Prices Move Together?
As strange as it may seem, most economists loudly disputed the notion that the rise in commodity prices, particularly in the first half of 2008, was in large measure due to financial speculation. More and more analytical work (such as comparisons of price action in commodities trades on futures exchanges with ones that have large markets but are not exchange-traded, like eggplant, a staple in India, and cooking oil) have dented the orthodox view.
Read more...Elizabeth Warren Strikes Back as Citigroup Tries to Blackmail the Democratic Party
Citigroup tried to get back at Elizabeth Warren and her allies for daring to call out The Bank That Must Not Be Named. The move looks to have backfired.
Read more...Bill Black: How FCIC Spurned Its One Chance at Greatness
How the FCIC not merely ignored but actually suppressed information that revealed what and more important, who, drove the crisis.
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