There has been an interesting lack of commentary on an effort underway by Newt Gingrich and his allies to enable state governments to declare bankruptcy as a way to slash pension obligations, and given the lack of mention of other creditors, perhaps only pension obligations.
The latest sighting was via an article today in Pensions & Investments:
Read more...The party line is everything is fine in bank land….even Eurobank land. But some recent developments suggest otherwise.
The business news on Europe has pretty much daily updates on the unfolding and linked sovereign debt/ bank solvency crisis. The officialdom insists this looming problem can be resolved but most observers think it can’t be in the absence of a fiscal union, which is a political bridge too far right now.
In a not-widely-noticed replay of pre-crisis conditions, the cost of swapping euros into dollars to the same high level observed last May, when sovereign crisis fears were at a peak.
Read more...Well, I suppose one can defend the lies testimony offered by American Securitization Forum executive director Tom Deutsch before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday if one subscribes to the Through the Looking Glass theory of usage: ` When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I […]
Read more...We’ve had a series of posts (see here, here, and here) on the judge’s decision in a case called Kemp c. Countrywide, which provided what appeared to be the first official confirmation of what we’ve long suspected and described on this blog: that as of a certain point in time post 2002, mortgage originators and […]
Read more...The US stock markets are harboring the fond notion that the sovereign-bank debt pile-up in Europe has no real implications across the pond, no doubt out of professional participants’ hope to retain solid gains thorugh year-end bonus setting. The debt markets are saying otherwise. Credit market risk aversion typically precedes a stock market correction, but […]
Read more...John Authers of the Financial Times provides an update on corporate cash-hoarding. In brief, it’s getting worse due to probably-warranted executive nervousness about business prospects. As Authers puts it: Corporate chieftains the world over have lots of cash, and want to hold on to it. It is a critical symptom of a new Age of […]
Read more...I was going to relegate this story to Links, but it is escalating before my eyes. North Korea is known for saber rattling and firing rockets that conveniently fall in the ocean when the verging-on-starvation nation needs a handout. But even at the outset, its latest move looked uncomfortably more belligerent than its usual ploys. […]
Read more...Yves here. Normally I put up cross posts without additional commentary, but I wanted to offer a couple of observations about this post. While this piece is admittedly a bit heavy on economist-speak, and readers may differ with the policy recommendations, = it gives an even-handed account of the early rebound during the Great Depression […]
Read more...We indicated yesterday that the Irish government had been in the process of trying to steer an inevitable rescue operation towards salvaging its bloated, cancerous banking system rather than a government bailout, which would not only further reduce national sovereignty but also saddle Erin with debt that could not be restructured. Stratfor describes how the […]
Read more...In negotiations, understanding where you have leverage relative to your counterpart is key. Ireland appears to be engaged in a quiet staredown with the EU, evidently with the objective of securing a rescue of its banks rather than its government. In case you managed to miss it, Ireland is in the midst of a long […]
Read more...It’s more than a bit puzzling when readers get upset when once in a great while, we point out how the case against banks on a particular issue is overstated. The reaction seems to be that we’ve suddenly gone soft on financial firm miscreants, which is about as wide of the mark as you can […]
Read more...Hope you enjoy the second part of our discussion on Real News Network. Part 1 is here. More at The Real News
Read more...Keynes, himself a successful investor, was alert to the danger of a disproportionate level of speculative activity. His oft-repeated remark: Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country […]
Read more...By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and Roosevelt Institute Fellow As any student of Economics 101 realises, you can control the price of something, or the quantity, but not both simultaneously. In announcing its decision to purchase an additional $600bn of treasuries last week, the Federal Reserve presumably intended to create additional stimulus to an […]
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