Category Archives: Politics

Wolf Richter: Blowback from Sarkozy’s Election Finance Shenanigans

Europe greeted with excitement—or exasperation—the arrival of the “President of Growth,” François Hollande. And outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that he’d quit politics. He complained about journalists dogging him. “I’m spied on,” he said (ironically). “I hope they will leave me alone.” But that’s precisely what they won’t do because, on May 15, he’ll lose his immunity that has protected him against a ton of malodorous allegations.

Philip Pilkington: Democrats vs. Technocrats – Son of Neoliberal Economist who Manufactured Policies that Led to Argentina’s Default is the Source of Contrary Statistics on Inflation

By Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. You can follow him on Twitter at @pilkingtonphil

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
– Goethe

There is a great deal of truth contained in Goethe’s old refrain. The fewer facts we possess the more certainty we are likely to have. But as facts proliferate, so too does doubt.

Economic statistics are notorious in this regard…

Frontline Takes Issue With Our Critique of Its “Money, Power & Wall Street” Shows

I received this e-mail last week. I will issue my rebuttal Tuesday during the day. Check back in then!

Pollsters Say Hollande Has Won French Election

Now it gets interesting…we have a real rift in the EU, or at least the possibility of pushback against austerianism.

Economists, Liquidity Mongers and the Banker Assault on Financial Reform

This has been a bad stretch for advocates of financial reform – and therefore for the economy as a whole. One after the other, new financial regulations contained in the Dodd-Frank law are being gutted or delayed by regulators and Congress, while the bankers – escorted by a phalanx of paid economists, lawyers and lobbyists – are squealing “wee, wee, wee” all the way home.

Yet Another Mortgage Settlement Gimmie: Conflicting Servicing Standards Play into Hands of Banks

It’s bad enough that the overhyped mortgage settlement was a big victory for the banks at the expense of homeowners and the rule of law. It let servicers out of considerable liability at very low real cost, and even that is offset by the transfer from pension funds and savers to the banks by letting them write down securitized first loans without wiping out bank owned second liens that sit behind them.

But we now learn there are other gimmies that appear to have resulted from negotiating incompetence.

Philip Pilkington: Inflation-Targeting Experiment May Start in Japan… But at What Cost?

By Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. You can follow him on Twitter at @pilkingtonphil

Rumors abound that a deal is fomenting in Japan that might lead to the inflation targeting proposal that so many progressives champion on their blogs being put in place.

The Renegade Economist Speaks with Ann Pettifor

This is the sort of talk that makes Americans jealous of the British. Heterodox economist Ann Pettifor predicted a global debt deflation in 2003 (!) and critiques conventional thinking in the economics discipline. She also has a wonderfully theatrical manner of speaking.

Big Employers Extorting States, Pocketing Employee Income Tax Withholding

Wonder why states are broke? It isn’t just the global financial crisis induced knock-on effects of a plunge in tax receipts and a rise in social safety net payments. Nor is it just pension fund time bombs (note that despite the press hysteria, the problem is unmanageable only in a comparatively small number of states, with New Jersey way out in front, thanks to 15 years of the state stealing from the workers’ kitty, plus a decision to take big risk at exactly the wrong moment, in 2007, which resulted in large losses). A significant unrecognized culprit is companies managing to divert tax revenue from stressed states to their coffers.