Category: Global Financial System
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
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."
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
Reviewing Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" - Naomi Klein is an award-winning Canadian journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. She writes a regular column for The Nation magazine and London Guardian that's syndicated internationally by the New York Times Syndicate that gives people worldwide access to her work but not its own readers at home.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Gold Bull Market as OECD and IMF Warn of Global Financial Instability / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
Investment Climate Changes - Think back to two months ago. Now think back to today. There have been some big changes in confidence levels, not only in global growth, but the financial structures of the world. Lots of reassuring words are flying around, but few are convinced that all is well. This would not matter so much but some of the statements of concern have come from the leading figures in the globe's main financial institutions. Mr. Ben Benanke has warned that the U.S. Trade deficit is unsustainable, he also warned of a potential waning of foreigner's appetite for U.S. Treasury securities. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 07, 2007
Are The Banks In Trouble? / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Whitney
“ The new capitalist gods must love the poor – they are making so many more of them .” Bill Bonner, “The Daily Reckoning”
“ The hope of every central bank is that the real problem can be kept from public view. The truth is that the public---even professionals on Wall Street---have no clue what the real problem is. They know it has something to do with derivatives, but none of them realize that it's more than a $20 trillion mountain of unfunded, unregulated paper that has just been discovered to not have a market and, therefore, no real value… When the dollar realizes the seriousness of the situation---be that now or sometime soon---the bottom will drop out. ” Jim Sinclair, Investment analyst
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Sovereign Wealth Funds – A Controversial New Power in Global Markets / Forecasts / Global Financial System
By: William_R_Thomson
The imbalanced global economy of recent years, where the US ran huge current accounts deficits of USD 800 billion or so and emerging markets built up huge surpluses of foreign exchange, is passing from a benign period to one that could bring the openness of investment markets into question and engender a lapse back into financial protectionism.
Ten years ago Asia, Russia, Latin America were broke and In crisis having to obey the dictates of the International Monetary Fund to pull themselves out of the hole the markets had dug for them. With the oil price hovering in the teens, OPEC had no spare funds either. In the midst of the tech boom the US was top dog and ruled the roost.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 27, 2007
US Fed - A "Slow Motion Train Wreck" / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
These days, financial/market punditry seems to follow two opposite lines of thinking. It ranges from the predominant view that world economies are growing and sound, problems in them minor and fixable, and current volatility (aka turmoil) is corrective, normal and a healthy reassessing and repricing of risk. Contrarians, on the other hand, believe the sky is falling. Most often, extreme views like these turn out wrong and are best avoided. Things are never that simple and hindsight usually proves only Cassandra was good at forecasting although calling market tops and bottoms wasn't her specialty. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Reserve Bank of Australia gets it Wrong on Financial Markets / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Gerard_Jackson
Last week the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates. Glenn Stevens, the Reserve's governor, told the house of representatives standing committee on economics, finance and public administration that he did not regret the decision. He said: “It has been a little bit difficult to read what the current trend in inflation is over recent quarters”. Let me see if I can help out here. Inflation, Mr Stevens, is a monetary expansion.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Stock Market Investments - Take More Profits Now! / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Money_and_Markets
Larry Edelson writes: I'm just back from Asia with visits to Thailand, Singapore, Manila and Sydney. And I'll get right to the bottom line: I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that overseas economies will continue to explode higher.
However, my on-the-ground experience from this trip also tells me that even Asian economies could hit some headwinds over the next few months.
I attribute this to three forces …
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Making Money vs Creating Wealth - Migrating to New Energy Paradigms Part 5 / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Brian_Bloom
Making money is not the same as creating wealth. The objective of this article is to facilitate an understanding of this deceptively simple statement which, in turn, will facilitate an understanding of the dimensions of the problems now being faced by humanity. Hopefully, this will lead to a realization that these problems – most of them – are soluble within a relatively short space of time.
Perhaps this anecdote will help to set a mental framework:
A long, long time ago I was number two ‘opening bat' for my school's First XI cricket team. I played sport six days a week in those days and had great hand/eye co-ordination. In my mind I can still recall the pleasure of opening my shoulders and smacking a loose ball for six over the bowler's head. The ball would connect with the “sweet spot” of the bat and soar into the bleachers above the sight screen at the far end of the field. It didn't happen often – but when it did, wow!
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Making Sense of the Currency Market Turmoil / Currencies / Global Financial System
By: William_R_Thomson
How far will the US$ fall? Will yen 'carry trade' positions unwind swiftly? Experts give their take on these and related concerns
OVERVIEW
The combination of a sliding dollar, an unwinding of yen 'carry trades' (whereby yen are used to finance investment or speculation in higher- yielding currencies) and a credit crunch in US markets has sent financial markets reeling around the world. Volatility is back and global asset valuations are looking shaky.
The Business Times gathered together an impressive array of experts to discuss just how serious the situation is - and where investors should look for refuge in the storm.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 26, 2007
On the Evolution of Civilizations / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Christopher_Quigley
The essence of the myth of the Western tradition is the ideal of an independent life lived in liberty and dignity through family and community . This liberty and independence promotes enterprise and action. Such a myth engendered the human initiative which gave birth to such epoch-changing developments as paper money, financial credit, steam power, the combustion engine, steel hull shipping, electricity, wireless communication, television, air flight, nuclear power, the micro chip and the Internet.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 16, 2007
Cyclical Stock Market Highs – Secular Trends – And The Sinking Of The USS Titanic / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: Captain_Hook
A great deal has already been written on this subject as it pertains to both stocks and commodities, with Michael Alexander's work a shining example in this regard. Of course if you were to compare how the markets are behaving in relation to how conventional analysis along these lines was foretelling what we should expect back at millennium's turn, one might be quite surprised today.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Dash for Cash Goes Global / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Adrian_Ash
"...How much intangible debt now needs to be squeezed into how much real money...?"
IS THIS WHAT a credit crunch feels like on the ground? Way behind the curve of my own domestic finances as ever, I've been trying to raise a fresh mortgage on my house – well, for around half of its outstanding value, at least.
In fact, I'm just one of 750,000 borrowers in the United Kingdom about to come out of a two-year fixed deal to find interest rates have risen from 4.50% to 5.75% since late 2005 – and all of the lenders I've approached just raised their rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sovereign Wealth Funds / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Hewitt
Central banks have traditionally kept their reserves in relatively low-yielding, highly liquid government securities, agency debt, money-market instruments and bank deposits. The most current official IMF figure for official worldwide foreign currency reserves is US$5.89 trillion. At US$1.35 trillion, China holds the world's largest pool of official reserves, followed by Japan with US$911 billion and Russia with US$403 billion.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Crack Up Boom Part IV - Gold, Oil and the Dollar / Commodities / Global Financial System
By: Ty_Andros
The Crack-up Boom Series Part IV Introduction
The Crack Up Boom series is exploring the unfolding “Indirect Exchange” (as detailed by Ludvig Von Mises), that dollar holders will be using to exit their holdings now and eventually is will be followed by all holders of fiat currency holdings no matter which country is perpetrating the “fraud” of confiscation of wealth through the printing and credit creation process that all such monetary schemes evolve into. The “Crack Up Boom” will drive an inflationary global expansion to inconceivable heights over the coming years. Asset prices will skyrocket as people do what they always do when threatened, they will modify their behavior and do the things necessary for “SELF PRESERVATION” of their families, countries, economies and their wealth. Let's take a look at Von Mises description of the CRACK UP BOOM once again:
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 25, 2007
Banks Fight to Postpone Day of Reckoning on Bad Loans Defaults Crisis / Economics / Global Financial System
By: Axel_Merk
The U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world leapfrogged in recent days: aside from goods and services, we are now importing “consensus based crisis management” from Japan. Out of fear that a cleanup of bad loans would trigger widespread defaults, Japanese banks got themselves deeper and deeper into trouble by hushing up the problems. We are talking about the crisis at Bear Sterns' subprime hedge fund. The crisis shows that major adjustments on how the market prices risks are overdue; this may have negative implications for stocks, bonds, commodities as well as the dollar.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Your Financial Edge - Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere and What Can Go Wrong - China / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
By: John_Mauldin
In this issue:
Your Financial Edge
Blame It on Stability
That Day of Reckoning
A Billion Here, A Billion There
Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere
What Can Go Wrong: China
600 Home Runs, Calgary, and La Jollay
This week we look at length at an outstanding new book just hitting the bookstores by good friend Paul McCulley (of Pimco fame), called Your Financial Edge . The main themes will give me an opportunity to weave in a few thoughts about some recent data, and a lengthy telephone interview with Paul, done just before writing this week's letter, will bring us up to date on his current thinking. I think readers will take away a few good ideas, so let's jump right in.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 18, 2007
Super Heroes of Central Bank Policy / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Adrian_Ash
"Is it a bird, is it a plane...or is it a central banker wearing his underpants over his trousers...?"
JUST HOW POWERFUL are the world's central bankers? As comic-book super heroes go, these mild-mannered scholars would no doubt confess that they look a bit weedy.
The massed talents of the Federal Reserve or Bank of England, for instance, hardly ever leap over tall buildings in a single bound. Ben Bernanke and Mervyn King don't own a flowing cape between them, not judging by the multi-year wait for long-dated bond yields to catch up with their gently rising overnight base rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Should Self-Sufficient Countries Trade? / InvestorEducation / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Hewitt
Countries that are self-sufficient have enough resources to meet the demands of their citizens. Such countries do not need to trade, but there is advantage to be gained by trading. These benefits are three-fold: reduced prices, a tradable surplus, and/or reduced work hours for their citizens.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Global Bond Bear Market on the Back of the Inflationary Boom Ahead / Interest-Rates / Global Financial System
By: Ty_Andros
- First Stage in motion, with small signs of wake up!
- Ethanol Blow Back
CRACK-UP BOOM, part II
In this edition of the “Crack-up Boom” series, we will begin to discuss more in depth how the CRACK-UP BOOM is principally dollar-based now and we will show its fingerprints in US-based money flows, both into and out of the United States, as investors begin to take the actions necessary to protect themselves from the ensuing tsunami of inflation which can be expected.