Arnold Genthe New Orleans organ grinder 1925 Once again, to close off the year, we promote our new set of video downloads, Facing the Future. Sales have been OK, but not more than that so far. And we simply do need the revenue to increase, quite a bit, in order to be sure we can carry on our work in 2014. Everybody who’s ordered the videos so far, loves them; we haven’t seen even one negative review. So why should
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National Photo Co. Roller Coaster Dips, Montgomery County, Maryland 1928 There is a crisis a-brewing in China that evolves around interest rates, with interbank rates as, let’s say, the initial center piece. The underlying cause of the crisis is that both official banks and the shadow banking system seek to escape the restrictions placed on the financial system by the government and the central People’s Bank of China (PBoC), who in essence want to set all interest rates and all
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Lewis Wickes Hine Indianapolis Market 1908 Despite the media talking up optimism and recovery, people are not seeing the supposed good news playing out in their own lives. As we have discussed here many times before, the squeeze continues on Main Street, while QE has generated asset bubbles at the top of the financial food chain. Complacency reigns, but this is the endgame. Increasingly delusional collective optimism, based on illusory wealth for the few, has ben the driving force for
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G.G. Bain (colorized) “Christmas tree, Madison Square, NY” 1913 May you and yours spend the holidays wrapped up together tightly in a warm blanket of love and light and grace. And spread it from where you are, for miles and miles and many light years around you. Every single living being in this world we call home is in great need of grace. And light years of light. And the greatest of these is love.
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John Vachon Grand Grocery in Lincoln, Nebraska 1942 I would like to get your thoughts on one of the most basic questions in an economy: what is value, what creates value, and how can value change or even fluctuate? Sometimes it’s best to take a step back and make sure we properly (re-)define the terms we use, lest confusion rules the day. As a reference for the question(s) I want to use two articles I read over the past week.
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Byron “The close of a career in New York” 1905 Ben Bernanke announced a cut in QE by $10 billion a month this week, the financial press can’t stop talking about it and – what they call – “analyzing” it, and I still, after 8 years of Ben in the chair don’t know what puzzles me most: the quantity of attention paid to all things Bernanke, or the quality of it. I mean, I know why the press do it,
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Marjory Collins The Iceman Cometh January 1943 Ice man near St. Patrick’s, Mulberry Street, Little Italy, NY Often when I want to write some simple comments on recent events, I start poking around a bit, and so much pops up that I think I should include, before long I don’t know how to start anymore, or finish, let alone appear coherent in between. Like in this case where Europe is the (intended) topic. But here goes, and I hope you
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Unknown Molten Lava And Papaya Trees 1960 Kilauea eruption near Kapoho, Hawaii Nicole Foss: Countries caught in the grip of financial crisis, with austerity measures compounding their problems, are continually being told to follow Iceland’s example. The assumption is that if a state can disregard the claims of the banking sector, it can address the threat of financial crisis relatively painlessly and get back to ‘normal’ quite quickly. Iceland is held up as an example, but the situation is actually
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Theodor Horydczak “Pies and paper pie plates” 1933 A great video interview from Dutch business TV channel RTL-Z with a very dear and close friend of The Automatic Earth, Steve Keen (who did several presentations together with Nicole), the only economist in the world who I take serious, and certainly not because we agree on everything; we don’t. But Steve is as close as one can get to taking economics to a scientfic level: see what the numbers say, not
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Harris and Ewing Small Change 1927 Washington D.C. : Today only, two for one! Plant your tree in Automatic Earth this Christmas! It was a race against the clock, but we’ve managed to get it to you for the holiday season. In Facing the Future, easily the most dense and jam-packed presentation we’ve made available yet, The Automatic Earth first delves into the depths of the crisis and then moves beyond it into the range of options available for us
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