Category Archives: Doomsday scenarios

Beyond Credit Rating to Stabilizing an Unstable Economy

The third part in a three-part series on how to fix what is wrong with credit rating agencies.

Instability in Capitalist Economies and a Better Way to Think About Credit Risk

Instability in capitalist economies comes from the quest for profit. And that has implications for credit ratings that are often ignored.

How Private Credit Rating Agencies Reinforce Global Economic Instability—and What We Can Do About It

A look at a fundamental point of failure in our financial system, rating agencies, and potential remedies.

Michael Hoexter: Democratic Party Platform 7/1/16 Draft Would Lock In Catastrophic Climate Change

Why the Democratic party plans for taking on climate change are grossly inadequate.

China Destabilizes Global Economy by Exporting Deflation Through Currency Devaluation

China is behaving badly by trying to maintain growth at the cost of worsening deflation in the rest of the world.

Political and Financial Contagion from the Italian Banking Crisis: Italy’s Exit?

Eurocrat rigidity about half-baked, never-tested bail in rules could turn an Italian banking crisis into a full bore financial and political meltdown.

Brexit Empty Threats: The UK’s Fantasy of Becoming a Big Tax Haven

How a naive idea about the UK becoming a big fat tax haven to stick it to the EU reveals a lot about official and pundit thinking.

Crisis After Brexit: Let Us Put An End to the Old Europe of Denigrators

Europe’s tall order for combatting Brexit: “What is called for is a union so good that people will want more of it.”

Wolf Richter: The Big Unravel – US Commercial Bankruptcies Skyrocket

Commercial bankruptcies rose at a much bigger clip in early 2016 than in recent years. How worried should we be?

Unfounded Debt Fears Block Economic Recovery

Debt scaremongering as voodoo economics.

Puerto Rico ‘Rescue’ Bill to Reinforce Colonial Relationship with US

Not surprisingly. Puerto Rico is about to get a big dose of austerity…..which Latvia-style, will push more people with skills to leave.

Brexit: Huge Spanner in the Works – Negotiation of New UK Trade Deals Verboten Till Exit Complete

“Tortuous” does not even begin to describe how hard it will be for the UK to strike post Brexit trade deals. Negotiations cannot begin until the UK has left the EU.

Brexit: Why the UK is Unlikely to Have a General Election Soon

Explaining the not-well-understood UK general election rules and how they play into the Brexit calculation.

Brexit: Does Invoking Article 50 Require the Approval of Parliament?

Gaming out whether Parliament can or will try to stop the British Government from invoking Article 50.

Patrick Cockburn: How Neoliberalism and Cold War Obsessions Fractured the Middle East

How neoliberalism, the resource curse, and military interventions by Washington and its allies, profoundly destabilized the Middle East.