Category: Global Financial System
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Expert Views on the Stock Market Credit Crisis and Global Economy / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: John_Mauldin
This week we do something a little different in our Outside the Box. Every weekend I get a very information-filled blog called Investment Postcards from Cape Town ( http://www.investmentpostcards .com ) by Dr. Prieur du Plessis. In it he highlights what he thinks is the most important portion of the writings of 10 to 15 analysts from around the world on the state of the economy and investing, and summarizes the news and data. I find it very useful, as Prieur generally finds a lot of interesting pieces that I miss and go on to read in my effort to stay on top of the markets. You can subscribe on your own if you like by activating the subscription option on the blog.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Shadow Banking System Crumbling as Losses Double to $500 Billion / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: John_Mauldin
This week look at a short but very important piece by Bill Gross. He has my same concern about credit default swaps, but he puts a number to it. He thinks the cost to the world economic system could be in the $250 billion dollar range. Add that to the $250 billion in losses due to the subprime markets, and you are starting to talk real money. The Shadow Banking System is at the center of the problem. I trust you will find this of interest.
Bill Gross was just named Fixed Income Manager of the Year by Morningstar. He sits on the largest pile of bonds in the world at PIMCO and is their Managing Director.
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Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Coming Economic Depression & Christmas On Threadneedle Street / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
The address of the Bank of England is Threadneedle Street , EC2 London. Martha and I could not have been closer. On Christmas day, we were at the Threadneedles Hotel at 5 Threadneedle Street . But proximity to the Bank of England is measured not by distance but by influence. Those closest to the Bank of England are the moneylenders.
England 's reign as a world power actually began on Threadneedle Street . Then, no bank had its own building and bankers were but goldsmiths who lent money and rented space to do business. But after the moneylenders cut their bargain (and it was a bargain) with King William of England , things were never to be the same, either for England or the moneylenders—or the world.
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Monday, January 07, 2008
NO Economic Decoupling Instead Greater Interdependence - 2008: The Year of Reckoning ? / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Brent_Harmes
What lies dead ahead for our economy.- The main stream press is finally waking up to the economic realities that are starting to affect us here and now. The January 7, 2008 Forbes magazine has an article by Ernest Zedillo, (former President of Mexico and current Director of The Yale Center for the study of Globalization) titled, 2008: Year of Reckoning . This article is written by a very studied and intelligent man that has seen first hand the effects of currency and borrowing problems. He sees major problems dead ahead for the global economy and I think he absolutely hits the nail on the head with his analysis. Here are a few quotes from that article along with my comments: Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Bond Markets Train Wreck Imminent? / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Paul_Tustain
Next week may hold some unpleasant surprises – you may profit from an early warning.
YESTERDAY WE LEARNED that the British government's guarantee to bail out Northern Rock's creditors is worth a staggering £100 billion. That's £5,000 [$10,000] per British household. This week the European Central Bank made $500 billion available through money market operations. And only last week $110bn of new money was created by central bank loans with artificially low rates and reduced-quality security. This is money creation on an epic scale.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Global Financial Crisis Consequence of the Biggest Housing Bust in US History / Housing-Market / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Whitney
The wreckage in the housing market just keeps piling up. Sales of existing homes in October dipped 23.5% from last year. Prices on new homes dropped 13% year over year. Third quarter foreclosures skyrocketed to 635,000, a 94% increase over last October and an all-time high on the Misery-Meter. The real estate market is in free-fall and the real trouble hasn't even begun yet.
California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida are mired in a full-blown housing depression. Inventory is off-the-chart. Presently, there's a 10.8 month backlog and the numbers are steadily rising. If foreclosures continue at the current pace, by the end of 2008, there'll be a 14 month inventory. That means that every builder in the country could take off his tool-belt right now and stop working FOR MORE THAN A YEAR before the market would clear. Contractors would be filling out job-applications at Red Lobster or looking for an empty street-corner with a tin cup.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Subprimes Hit Dervatives Shadow Banking System / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: John_Mauldin
This week in Outside the Box we will look at Bill Gross of Pimco's latest essay, addressing the ever expanding economic repercussions of the poorly understood CDO/CLO market, the off balance sheet structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and the economic abyss Bernanke and Company are attempting to lead the market out of with neither light nor guide. Bill sits on the top of the largest bond firm in the world, so they have some very unique insights into what is happening. I always pay attention to what Bill says, and you should too.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
G7 Creating Rolling Asset Bubbles That Implode - Fingers of Instability, Part 14 / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Ty_Andros
In This Issue- 3 Fingers of Instability
- Moral Hazard, Herding Cats and Shades of Japan !
- Ghosts of Christmas “Future”
- Shocking News!
Introduction
The “fingers of Instability” series will be wrapped up next week (in the months and years ahead we will bring you short vignettes). It's been a fun and enjoyable mental exercise but it has now unfolded pretty much as outlined since it began. It is prelude to the next chapter in the unfolding demise of the G7 and its financial and monetary systems. But it has a long way to run (several decades in my estimation) and the opportunities are generational in scope. Wealth will shift from one group to another and change the face of the Globe.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Catch-22 for US Fed and Global Economy On Interest Rates / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Captain_Hook
What can I tell you, but I told you so. Finally, Europeans are waking up to the fact cake eaters on Wall Street intend to devalue their way out of their problems, as forecast here on these pages recently. This is because it's really beginning to hurt, and it now appears the US intends to make the currency trade a one way event in postponing any pain like the stock market.
The only problem with this brand of thinking, if you can call what price managers are doing these days thinking, is a good old-fashioned currency crisis , which should go a long ways in waking up slumbering societies around the world in turn, along with keeping gold in the forefront. This should become even more apparent today with Bernanke speaking, where already yesterday a panicky Fed was pandering the mob by hinting at lower rates.
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Saturday, December 01, 2007
Are We Heading for Hyperinflation or Deflation? - At Philosophical Crossroads / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Brian_Bloom
For some unfathomable reason, the human mind tends to think in terms of extremes. For example: “Death or Glory”, “Success or Failure”, “Accelerating growth or Collapse”.
Thus, the questions being asked in today's financial world seem to be revolving around whether we are facing “hyperinflation or depression”. All of which begs the questions: Why does it have to be at one or the other extreme? Why can't there be something in between? Alternatively, why can't there be a paradigm shift which renders the very question irrelevant?
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Monday, October 29, 2007
The Bank of the South: An Alternative to IMF and World Bank Dominance / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
In July, 2004, the IMF and World Bank commemorated the 60th anniversary of their founding at Bretton Woods, NH to provide a financial framework of assistance for the postwar world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan. With breathtaking hypocrisy, an October, 2004 Development Committee Communique stated: "As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions....we recommit ourselves to supporting efforts by developing countries to pursue sustainable growth, sound macroeconomic policies, debt sustainability, open trade, job creation, poverty reduction and good governance." Phew.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Losing the Peace Incentive - Israel As Warning - Part 8 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Conventional wisdom once thought economic growth and prosperity required peace and stability. No longer. Post-9/11, the terror scare was ignited, wars rage in Iraq and Afghanistan, more war is threatened on Iran, oil prices touched $80 a barrel, the WTO Doha Round trade talks collapsed, and "a golden period of broadly shared growth" prevails (at least until the recent credit crunch). How come?Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, October 05, 2007
Capitalism and Freedom Unmasked / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
An era ended November 16, 2006 when economist Milton Friedman died. A torrent of eulogies followed. The Wall Street Journal mourned his loss with the same tribute he credulously used when Ronald Reagan died saying "few people in human history have contributed more to the achievement of human freedom." Economist and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called him a hero and "The Great Liberator" in a New York Times op-ed; the UK Financial Times called him "the last of the great economists;" Terence Corcoran, editor of Canada's National Post, mourned the "free markets" loss of "their last lion;" and Business Week magazine noted the "Death of a Giant" and praised his doctrine that "the best thing government can do is supply the economy with the money it needs and stand aside." Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Return of Trade Tariff Wars / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Gerard_Jackson
Kevin Rudd is signalling that a Labor Government would introduce another tariff regime. Rudd’s threat basically rests on two arguments, whether he knows it or not: The main one being that tariffs are needed to protect Australian manufacturing before it disappears. Then there is the subsidiary argument that tariffs are needed to protect jobs and real incomes. It is now time to give some basic economic facts another airing:Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, October 01, 2007
The Rise of the Disaster Capitalism Complex - Shock Therapy in the USA - Part 5 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Richard Nixon knew before the rest of us that Donald Rumsfeld is "a ruthless little bastard." He also has a knack for making enemies even inside the Pentagon he ran as Defense Secretary. He planned to "reinvent warfare for the twenty-first century (making it) more psychological than physical, more spectacle than struggle, and far more profitable" than ever before.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Shock Doctrine: Lost in Transition: Slamming the Door on History - Part 4 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Before the Berlin Wall fell, Lech Walesa became a labor hero in Poland and the West by defying the Moscow-controlled government and getting away with it. Solidarnosc (Solidarity) spread from its Gdansk roots to the country's mines, shipyards and factories and within a year had 10 million members. They won the right to bargain but wanted more. They aspired to take over the state and institute their own alternative economic and political program. It's radical centerpiece was to transform huge state-run companies into worker-run cooperatives so Solidarity members could be empowered in their own "socialized enterprise."Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Macro Musings: Northern Rock Exposure / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Justice_Litle
BY NOW YOU HAVE probably heard about Northern Rock—the UK mortgage bank that got, er, rocked.
"It was a very British bank run," portfolio manager Tim Price reports. "The queues were orderly, but the emotional impact will scar people for generations."
What's remarkable is how long it's been since the last one. Northern Rock was Britain's first bank run since 1866.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Shock Doctrine: Surviving Democracy - Part 3 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Chicago School dogma became known as Thatcherism in Britain, but its prime minister wasn't an early adherent. Margaret Thatcher thought Chilean shock therapy wasn't possible in a democracy like the UK because voters wouldn't buy it. Three years into her first term, her approval rating was lower than George Bush's. She was in danger of not being reelected and didn't dare risk imposing bitter economic medicine that would sink her chances. That is, until destiny intervened on April 2, 1982 when Argentina invaded the British-held Falkland Islands off its coast that was unimportant to either country except for the political hay to gain from war.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Chile The First Test - The Bloody Birth of the Counterrevolution - Part 2 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Reviewing Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - Introduction ,
Part 1 - Two Doctor Shocks - Torture and Chicago School Fundamentalism
Counterrevolution began 34 years ago in Chile on another September 11 that should have been unimaginable and had to seem surreal. There were tanks in the streets and fighter jets attacking government buildings in a scene all too real and deadly. It played out in Santiago and around Chile and was just the beginning of a long nightmare.
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Saturday, September 22, 2007
Two Doctor Shocks - Torture and Chicago School Fundamentalism - Part 1 / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Reviewing Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" - IntroductionFollowing a crisis shock, another quickly follows. The corporate piranhas exploit disorientation with economic "shock therapy" along with "police, soldiers and prison interrogators" with torture their method of choice "to build a model country (by) erasing people and then trying to remake them from scratch."
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