Real Reasons Bankers Don’t Like Basel’s Rules: Clive Crook – Bloomberg. Why bankers’ whining about higher equity requirements is just that: A much-cited paper by Stanford’s Anat Admati and colleagues — “Fallacies, Irrelevant Facts, and Myths in the Discussion of Capital Regulation: Why Bank Equity Is Not Expensive” — should have ended this debate once […]

I’ve gone on about this elsewhere, but thought I should bring it up front and center here. While everyone hyperventilates about government debt, they don’t seem to be aware of the massively greater load of private debt, and its spectacular runup compared to government debt: This from Steve Keen’s latest. (It’s not very long. There […]

by Mike Kimel A Modest Forecast: The Average Real Growth in Ireland will Exceed 10% a Year From 2012 to 2014  You read the title correctly: the Irish economy will grow by more than 10% next year. Now, hearing that, you might be asking yourself: “Is this guy for real? He must be nuts.”  Because […]

I’m stealing this headline directly from Sandwichman. He sez: No it doesn’t. It almost never is. To pay back government debt, you have to run a budget surplus, and while there may be modest surpluses from time to time, they don’t add up to more than a minuscule fraction of all the accumulated debt. But […]

My Economics Professor in MBA School, Peter Klein, lectured fondly of the Indian (as in subcontinent, not AmerInd) “entrepreneurs” who risked life and limb going through rubbish heaps looking for scrap metal and other items that could be sold. Despite the risk—I’m not writing metaphorically when I say “risked life and limb”—it was the best […]

In the midst of an essay on Louis C.K., Bob Lefsetz (chez Ritholtz) explains what the Lemieuxes and (now, sadly) Mannions of the world keep ignoring: One of the reasons artists have lost power is they no longer lead.It’s kind of like our President. He’s so busy appeasing people thateven his natural constituency is turned […]

A couple of our gentle Bears have suggested that I repost this over here. Ask and ye shall receive. It’s a good complement to and demonstration of the point I tried to make in my last post. From Mike Konczal: Their model is obviously telling them that whatever (non-)actions they’re taking at the moment will solve […]

Let’s start with the basics: Increased inflation results in (in a sense, is) a wealth transfer from creditors to debtors. Debtors get to pay off their loans in less-valuable dollars — dollars that can’t buy as much real-world stuff, stuff that humans can consume, that they value. If you’re holding a hundred million dollars in bonds — […]

Dylan Ratigan interviews Yves Smith on  where the money goes (h/t rjs): Smith: Investors Are Afraid of Suing the Big Banks for Fear the Government Will RetaliateOn this episode of Greedy Bastards Antidote, we’re covering a new term from our upcoming book. This week, we’re focusing on extractionism. Joining us to discuss it is Yves […]

Often  participating in econoblogging is done by an older crowd.  I  receive requests by younger potential econobloggers to read some of their posts, but often such posts are lacking in enough documentation and thoroughness of understanding for publication here.  My hope is that this young woman becomes the exception.  Re-posted with authors permission   Dan […]