Last week, I was reading parts of a report issued by Japanese investment bank Nomura, which started out saying that the “Global Financial Crisis” is over. If I lay out a statement like that side by side with a lot of other things I see, I can only conclude that Nomura doesn’t reside in the same universe I do. Well, it’s either that or they have the idea that a financial crisis is something that exclusively plays down in, and
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OK, this is enough, I’m getting seriously pissed off now. Time to introduce an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while. That is, let’s combine modern technologies. First: Buy lots of 3-D printers. They’ll be real cheap soon. And why not order them from Amazon, just for the perverted irony of it. Second: Use these printers to produce an endless supply of drones. Third: Send those drones out there to spy on (or just annoy) our governments, military, police
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There has been a lot of attention focused on shenanigans at the federal level in the USA this year, with games of brinkmanship and political theatre over the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and the government shutdown. Cheap political points were scored in a series of unedifying spectacles, but there was no serious risk of default, despite the dramatic rhetoric. It is not at the federal level that the rubber meets the road in the US, but at the state
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Well, if you thought you’d seen all the madness and absurdity that could possibly come out of the financial system by now, you are definitely being caught on the wrong flat foot as we speak. And there can be no doubt that much more of this will be revealed as we go along. Jamie Dimon renting Buckingham Palace to celebrate his $13 billion settlement with US regulators is just the beginning, though it’s a pretty clear statement of just how
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Yes that’s right, The Automatic Earth has a new home (again)! It’s been a huge effort with the scarce means we must manage with, but it’s finally here. We hope you feel welcome here, and that we can now pick up where we left off, and start growing again on our way to what we think we should be: the biggest possible picture provider. Our good friend Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock was apparently fined €8000 by the Authorité Français de Marchés
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A report issued by McKinsey Global Institute last week in my opinion warrants more scrutiny than I’ve seen it get so far. It addresses the effect of (ultra-) low interest rates on different segments of economies over the past five years, and it leads to a number of interesting questions. But let me take a step back first. What many at this point may not remember or fully grasp anymore is that quantitative easing (QE) is an unconventional policy used
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying things will happen in this order and timeframe. Just that they’re going to if central banks and treasury departments don’t up the ante. But they will. The question becomes more important now whether it’ll be enough to continue keeping their – presumed – demons at bay. They can’t go on forever. You can inflate asset price bubbles only so much. And then people will lose faith. So the order and timeframe is definitely
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I have a series of podcasts for you today that Nicole did over the past few months, during her present US lecture tour. There’s a podcast from Jim Puplava’s Financial Sense Newshour, where she’s become a very regular and very appreciated guest over the years. Then there’s also two from a site called Doomstead Diner, as well as one from C-Realm, which also features our dear friend and card carrying kiwi Laurence Boomert, who’s accompanying Nicole on the ongoing US
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I was, well, still am, reading up on the latest developments in the wonderful world of Libor, and the name JPMorgan pops up a lot in connection with all that. There’s of course the recent -probably still tentative – $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department. Seeing all the separate cases that have either been settled or are under active investigation in which JP Morgan is mentioned, along with a couple small lists in the WaPo And HuffPo, I
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Some things are simply so funny that they can’t help showing us hidden truths. As anyone who’s ever read Mark Twain or heard Groucho Marx, among many many other voices, will gladly confirm, funny things can make you think, and even reveal tragedy. Not necessarily thigh slapping stuff, just funny things. Fumbling through the Guardian’s webpages on Tuesday, I found what I find is a fine example of just that. Plus, in the very same edition, a bunch of articles
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