Detroit Photo Co Barge Office, New York 1900 And once again the markets are happily and excitedly awaiting more free zombie capital from a major central bank, this time the ECB. Of course this is capital the markets, judging from where stock exchanges find themselves, absolutely don’t need, but, you know, gift horses have foul breath and all that. It’s some 15 years ago since the dotcom bubble started to burst, and half that long since the US (and Spanish,
Read More...
Russell Lee Farmer’s truck at state rice mill, Abbeville, LA September 1938 Sometimes similarities have an entertaining effect. Noticing how the US and China deal with their similar though not identical debt levels in similar though not identical ways made me think of the “it’s turtles all the way down” version of the origins of the universe – which has an ancient Hindu version that says the earth rests on an elephant which rests on a turtle -. It seems
Read More...
John Vachon Liquor store, Palacios, Texas May 1943 An amusing discussion is firing up ever more about what the ECB should do in the face of a – perceived or not – deflation threat. Many voices are clamoring for immediate action, claiming Mario Draghi et al may well already be too late, or even use words like “the spectacular idiocy of EMU policy”, as Ambrose Evans Pritchard does, who’s been on the topic for a very long time. IMF’s Christine
Read More...
Dorothea Lange Drought-stricken farm family near Muskogee, OK August 1939 It’s taken some time, but Nicole is back. Here’s her first article in a hopefully productive cycle: Food insecurity has become a major global issue in recent years, underlying many of the instances of social upheaval around the world. This is both a reflection of the short-term fluctuations in an over-financialized commodity sector and also of the longer-term limits to growth scenario. As an ever greater number of limits are
Read More...
Esther Bubley Greaseball, mascot at Stevens Airport, Frederick, MD October 1943 Since we can all attest to the fact that our financial banking economic system is bust and busted, we should probably look at ways to repair and cure it. And we don’t want to wait for the system to repair itself from the inside with the aid and abetment of its political stooges, revolving door and otherwise, because that will only lead to everyone else paying through the nose
Read More...
NYWT & Sun Newspaper Fire in oil storage tanks, Texas City, Texas April 17, 1947 The latest IPCC report is out, and as predictable as clockwork the reactions are the same old same old lip service, and only that. ‘There is no time to lose’, ‘if we don’t act now, we’re too late’, yada yada. Go do some digging and look for quotes from 10, 20, 40 years ago and you won’t be able to tell the difference. And just
Read More...