Yearly Archives: 2012

4:00 TODAY: Occupy the SEC March to the Fed and the SEC: Enforce the Volcker Rule!

UPDATE 10:30PM Alexis writes in:

If others want to comment, there is still time, the deadline is midnight. Occupy the Comments!

rule-comments@sec.gov
regs.comments@federalreserve.gov
regs.comments@occ.treas
Comments@fdic.gov

Here’s the rule itself: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/11/07/2011-27184/prohibitions-and-restrictions-on-proprietary-trading-and-certain-interests-in-and-relationships-with

Links 2/13/12

The Global Minotaur: An Interview with Yanis Varoufakis

Yves here. I hate to throw a spanner in the works, but as much as Varoufakis’ view may sound persuasive, I strongly suggest you read Andrew Dittmer’s translation of a very important paper by Claudio Borio and Piti Disyatat of the Bank of International Settlements, “Global imbalances and the financial crisis: Link or no link?”

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist who currently heads the Department of Economic Policy at the University of Athens. From 2004 to 2007 he served as an economic advisor to former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. Yanis writes a popular blog which can be found here. His latest book ‘The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy’ is available from Amazon.

Interview conducted by Philip Pilkington

Philip Pilkington: In your book The Global Minotaur: America, The True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy you lay out the case that this ongoing economic crisis has very deep roots. You claim that while many popular accounts – from greed run rampant to regulatory capture – do explain certain features of the current crisis, they do not deal with the real underlying issue, which is the way in which the current global economy is structured. Could you briefly explain why these popular accounts come up short?

Marshall Auerback: Greece – A Default is Better Than the Deal on Offer

By Marshall Auerback, a portfolio strategist and hedge fund manager

Pick your poison. In the words of Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, the choice facing Greece today in the wake of its deal with the so-called “Troika” (the ECB, IMF, and EU) is “to choose between difficult decisions and decisions even more difficult. We unfortunately have to choose between sacrifice and even greater sacrifices in incomparably more dearly.” Of course, Venizelos implied that failure to accept the latest offer by the Troika is the lesser of two sacrifices. And the markets appeared to agree, selling off on news that the deal struck between the two parties was coming unstuck after weeks of building up expectations of an imminent conclusion.

In our view, the market’s judgment is wrong: an outright default might ultimately prove the better tonic for both Greece and the euro zone.

The killing of Greece

As you have probably heard, the Greek parliament, if you can still call it that, has passed the austerity bill. Overnight Athens has erupted in protest with a reported 80,000 people on the streets and up to 30 buildings on fire.

Pavlina R. Tcherneva: Why the Job Guarantee is Superior (Wonkish)

By Pavlina R. Tcherneva, PhD., Assistant Professor of Economics at Franklin and Marshall College, Research Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability.

A few weeks ago I called for a technocratic debate on the merits of the Jobs Guarantee (JG), relative to other fiscal policies. A number of bloggers took the charge but the debate was not immune to ideological biases, which proved the starting point of my piece that one cannot separate fact from theory or ideology (and by ideology I do not mean the derogatory use of the word, but that which signifies ‘ontology’ or a ‘world view’). What I didn’t expect is for friends and sympathizers to resurrect one particularly invidious charge we have long heard from MMT deniers, namely that MMT is pushing authoritarian policies.

Egyptians Call for National Strike and Civil Disobedience Marking Mubarak’s Downfall

“We know the way to Tahrir Square.”

Links 2/12/12

Europe’s black cygnets

Although the Greece default is the very obvious European black swan at the moment I thought it would be prudent to point out two other things happenning in Europe over the next 12 months that certainly have the potential for evolving from a cygnet into something bigger.

Mortgage Settlement as Attorney General Sellout: Deal is Not Done, and Final Version Guaranteed to be Worse Than Advertised

You know it’s bad when banks are the most truthful guys in the room.

We Will Be on Harry Shearer’s Le Show Tomorrow

Check here to find your local station and broadcast time. Hope you can tune in!

Links 2/11/12

“By 2015, [X] is Going to Represent 95% of the Content on the World Wide Web”

Be one of the first to find out….

The Grexit is coming sooner or later

One more post today, this time on Europe. I wrote this outline for Italy in November before the ECB’s Italian job. I didn’t and still don’t see an Italian exit or default as a baseline. However, a Greek exit for the eurozone has been my baseline for a number of months. Citigroup’s Willem Buiter has […]

What the Mortgage Deal Reveals About The Obama Administration

Edward Harrison here. I was reading Yves’ excellent post on The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement and I thought about a post I wrote a year ago on what this was all about. I am re-posting this post verbatim below but I just want to say a few words first. […]