Three weeks, ago, I wrote LIBOR was a criminal conspiracy from the start. An avalanche of articles have been written on LIBOR since, and I think an update is in order, which also gives me a chance to delve a little further into the bold statement in that title. It's not that I'm a big fan of using terms like conspiracy, not at all, but then again, neither am I a fan of constantly being lied to. The average Joe
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The book of Job We've spent some time talking about the psychology of loss on TAE – see, A Glimpse Into the Stubborn Psychology of Fish, A Glimpse Into the Self-Destructive Psychology of Sharks, The Short Story of How We Lose. The fact is, though, that these discussions remain abstract and hypothetical for most people who are relatively well-off in the developed world, and it will always be that way until we actually see the people around us losing most
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Robert Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller index for US housing and author of Irrational Exuberance, has an interesting perspective on markets. Unlike the vast majority of economists, he recognizes both the role of speculative fervour in driving prices to over-reach themselves as a bubble develops and the fact that bubbles and their aftermath are swings of positive feedback inherently grounded in ponzi dynamics. As such, his position has considerable overlap with ours at The Automatic Earth: Markets and the Lemming
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Sometimes it helps to get back to the basics, which, in the context of debt-based money, is the fact that the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned central bank that exists in contravention of the U.S. Constitution, pursues illegal policies and is completely unaccountable to the people. In fact, it is more unaccountable to the people than the White House, Supreme Court or any other public insitution of the United States. The following is a re-post of an article I wrote
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St Paul's from the south west in 1896. In mid-October 2011, a group of Occupy protesters in London set up tents and encamped outside of St. Paul's Cathedral for almost four months before finally being evicted by the Corporation of London. At first, the Church welcomed the protesters and preached to them, acknowledging the ways in which governments and banks were clearly contravening Christian teachings. After a few days of lost revenue due to the presence of the Occupiers, though,
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I don't really know why it is, but as much as I see pundits and experts and everyone in between address the euro mudbath lately, nobody seems to have caught on to the two main events (inflexion points?!) that shape the latest reincarnation of said bath. So here's for them, and you, and anyone who's not yet tired of the story: Event no. 1: it’s not so much that it's an entirely new notion, it's the realization that it has
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“Pie eating contest, Jefferson school, 8/2/23.” Still more pie-eating in Washingon, D.C. National Photo Company Collection glass negative We all know Einstein’s definition of Insanity – “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time”. And more than a few people have applied that to the Eurozone sovereign debt debacle. Case in point – Greece and Spain. It didn’t take more than a single day for the EU officials visiting Greece to figured out
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Image: Secret Safe Books The Tax Justice Network just issued a report that shines a revealing light on secret funds of the earth's wealthiest. Indeed, if these funds were added to the official wealth of the 139 countries investigated, these would turn from debtors (to the tune of $4.1 trillion) to creditors (worth $10.1-13.1 trillion). Revealed: global super rich has at least $21 trillion hidden in secret tax havens At least $21 trillion of unreported private financial wealth was
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German magazine Der Spiegel dropped a bombshell this morning in an article which is for now available only in German. My German is quite decent. Here's the original and my translation: IWF will Griechenland-Hilfen stoppen (IMF wants to stop Greek help) Griechenland könnte schon im September pleitegehen. Der Internationale Währungsfonds hat nach Informationen des SPIEGEL der Brüsseler EU-Spitze signalisiert, dass er sich nicht an weiteren Hilfen für das Land beteiligen werde. Greece could go bankrupt as early as September. Spiegel
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One day after the EU finally sanctioned the €100 billion bailout for Spain's banking system, for which the sovereign will remain on the hook, according to German finance minister Schäuble, who said there was no way the banks would be bailed out directly, developments were fast and furious. A second remark by Schäuble may yet come back to haunt him. Germany: Spain doesn't need sovereign bailout "There is absolutely no reason to speculate, beyond this (bank aid) application, about a
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