Arthur Siegel 2nd Avenue Rush Hour, Detroit 1942 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
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Library of Congress Dallas motorcade minutes before shooting November 22, 1963 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
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Toni Frissell “Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy” 1957 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
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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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Dorothea Lange Social Security Tattoo August 1939 “Unemployed lumber worker goes with his wife to the bean harvest, Oregon” 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
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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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Bob Lerner Robert Kennedy at a drive-in Spring 1960 “John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Democratic presidential nomination campaign in Bluefield, West Virginia”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
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Harry W. Frees Adopted kitten 1914 “Puppy ‘mother’ in costume holding kitten ‘baby’”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
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