Category Archives: Credit markets

Why Growth in Finance is a Drag on the Real Economy

New evidence shows that when the financial sector grows more quickly, productivity tends to grow disproportionately slower in industries with either lower asset tangibility or in industries with higher research and development intensity. It turns out that financial booms are not, in general, growth-enhancing.

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Chinese Stock Market Rout Continues; Trading Halted in Over Half of Listed Stocks

The Chinese stock market meltdown is accelerating despite government intervention and is blowing back to commodities markets, including copper and oil, which are trading down based on concern that the stock market plunge is a harbinger of even more economic weakness. And the decline may represent the beginning of the end of the faith in China’s command and control economy.

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Banks are Not Intermediaries of Loanable Funds – and Why This Matters

Problems in the banking sector played a seriously damaging role in the Great Recession. In fact, they continue to. Macroeconomic models failed to explain the interaction between banks and the macro economy. The problem lies with thinking that banks create loans out of existing resources. Instead, they create new money in the form of loans. The traditional model greatly understates bank and macroeconomic risk.

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What If There is No Deal on Greece?

The alarming part of the deadlock between Greece and its lenders is the lack of a plan on the creditor side to develop a Plan B, a sort of mirror image of the Greek government’s claim that its has bet everything on securing a favorable agreement.

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Time to “Fire” Mary Jo White: SEC Covers Up for Bank Capital Accounting Scam Promoted by Her Former Firm, Debevoise

Pam Martens and Russ Martens published a mind-boggling expose yesterday on how the SEC is refusing to stop an abuse by major banks that increases systemic risk.

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