Category Archives: The dismal science

Are Rising US-China Tensions Pointing to a Rupture?

Relations between the US and China have been deteriorating. Although both sides have poked each other in various ways (Obama meeting with the Dalai Lama, China dissing Obama in Copenhagen by standing him up for a meeting, some tit for tat on tariffs), the major, unresolved bone of contention is China’s pegging of its currency, […]

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Book (and Other Hot Topics) Chat on FireDogLake

I chatted at the Book Salon on FireDogLake on Saturday (yes I screwed up completely in not notifying Naked Capitalism readers). The conversation was hosted by masaccio and led to a wide ranging discussion. The chat started with his summary of the book: Yves Smith brings the same clear and concise writing to ECONned: How […]

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Guest Post: No One’s Issuing Credit—Why Are Auerback and Parenteau?

By John Ryskamp, an attorney and author of The Eminent Domain Revolt Why, in their article on Latvia’s austerity budget, are Marshall Auerback and Robert Parenteau giving Latvia credit for warm, fuzzy feelings? Especially in the context of Draconian cuts? It’s because Auerback and Parenteau don’t know what they want—their emotions are not grounded in […]

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Auerback/Parenteau: Coming to a Country Near You: Let a dozen Latvias bloom?

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist and Rob Parenteau, CFA, sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge, editor of The Richebacher Letter, and a research associate of The Levy Economics Institute Want to see the real consequence of smash mouth economics? Forget about Greece and take a look at Latvia. Its 25.5 per cent […]

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Can We Please Refrain From Consensus-Defending Narratives When the Consensus Was Wrong?

I’m having a Dean Baker moment. Baker’s blog Beat the Press engages in short-form shreddings of the economic reporting of the day, with the New York Times and the Washington Post his favorite targets (for instance, Baker at least once a week criticizes the MSM for relying on forecasts from economists who failed to see […]

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Alford: Rethinking Monetary Policy in the Light of Asset Bubbles

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. Low rates have a more powerful effect on driving financial assets than on driving the economy. -Jeremy Grantham, GM0 […]

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Parenteau: Leading PIIGS to Slaughter, Part 2

By Rob Parenteau, CFA, sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge, editor of The Richebacher Letter, and a research associate of The Levy Economics Institute Reader note: please see yesterday’s post for a discussion of the fiscal balances map. As evident from the financial balances map, there are a whole range of possible combinations of current account […]

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Parenteau: On Fiscal Correctness and Animal Sacrifices (Leading the PIIGS to Slaughter, Part 1)

By Rob Parenteau, CFA, sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge, editor of The Richebacher Letter, and a research associate of The Levy Economics Institute The question of fiscal sustainability looms large at the moment – not just in the peripheral nations of the eurozone, but also in the UK, the US, and Japan. More restrictive fiscal […]

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Euro in Big Hedge Funds’ Crosshairs

The Wall Street Journal is not the first to comment on the magnitude of the wagers against the euro (the Financial Times took note nearly two weeks ago: “Speculators raise record bets against euro“). But the Journal offers a spectacle sure to inflame sentiment in Europe: that of major hedge funds feasting first on lemon-roasted […]

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Auerback: Bernanke Fesses Up: America Has No ‘Insolvency’ Issue

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. Usually, we dread the regular Congressional testimonies of the Fed Chairman. They generally constitute a mix of obfuscation on the part of Mr. Bernanke mixed with political grandstanding on the part of Congress. But occasionally, a glimmer of truth comes […]

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Martin Wolf is Very Gloomy, and With Good Reason

Martin Wolf, the Financial Times’ highly respected chief economics commentor, weighs in with a pretty pessimistic piece tonight. This makes for a companion to Peter Boone and Simon Johnson’s Doomsday cycle post from yesterday. Let us cut to the chase of Wolf’s argument: Now, after the implosion, we witness the extraordinary rescue efforts. So what […]

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Interview with Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics

From “Financial Economics, Deregulation and OTC Derivatives: Interview with Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism,” The Institutional Risk Analyst, February 22, 2010 “Wall Street once ran from a graveyard to a river. It now runs from an ocean to an ocean, and beyond. It has become, in Dr. Charles A. Beard’s measured words, a new Appian […]

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Alford: My Nominee for Worst Macro Paper, Ever (Courtesy the Fed’s Ministry of Truth)

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. It is award season and I would like to nominate the 13-author “Preventing Deflation: Lessons from Japan’s Experience of […]

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Countdown 3/2/10: Excerpt from Econned

Folks, the time has come when I must start shamelessly promoting my book, Econned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism, which is being released March 2, 2010. I thought the extract below would give readers an idea of what the book is about, with one caveat. Econned goes into some detail about […]

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Greece Rescue Collides With the Policy Trilemma

A fair number of policy commentators are hewing to the view that somehow the EU will cobble together some sort of solution to the Greek fiscal mess because the alternatives look vasty worse. As Paul Krugman noted: Now what? A breakup of the euro is very nearly unthinkable, as a sheer matter of practicality. As […]

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