Robert Waldmann Kevin Drum tries to list all proposed explanations for the financial crisis. I see if I can add others after the jump. The Drum roll 1. Housing bubble (i.e., the pure mania aspect of the thing). 2. Massive increase in leverage throughout the financial system. 3. Global savings glut/persistent current account deficits. 4. […]
A note of comparison might come in handy when thinking in big numbers. The top 25 hedge fund managers made a record $25.3 billion dollars in 2009. And despite all those dramatic congressional hearings, average compensation of Wall Street bankers rose by 27 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, banks are hiding their debt with the same […]
Maybe more about this at some point in the future. Consider it a RawShock Test, and feel free to describe what you see in comments.
Lifted from an e-mail by Stormy Financial Times notes that China’s champions-elect are going abroad, in oil, in mining and in car manufacturing, supported in almost all cases by state-owned banks. But the banks themselves are largely staying put. Why? Global chinese capital See charts for China Unfair China Trade Costs Local Jobs Couple of […]
A piece of geek: Williams syndrome, brain function, and an all out social way of thinking.
Robert Waldmann Goldman Sachs accused of (civil) Financial Arson I don’t want to bore readers so I’ll just mention, again, that this wouldn’t have been possible if cash settlement CDS were not allowed. In all other cases it is not legal to insure against a risk that one doesn’t bear. A simple law which says […]
Lifted from an e-mail by Stormy. Another topical thread.U.S. military….massive oil shortage.I have not tracked down the original report….but there has been growing concern from a number of unusual quarters. (I discount the Oil Drum, Matt Simon, et al.) With gas usage in the states at low levels and with oil prices continuing to rise….something […]
I remain very skeptical about the sustainability of the recovery, as the labor market is in shambles and nominal wage growth is unlikely to facilitate “healthy” deleveraging – please see this recent post “Reducing household financial leverage: the easy way and the hard way”. I digress; because you can’t fight the data. And for now, […]
Barkley Rosser at Econospeak takes aim at immigration and worker ratios: Robert Reich says so, “Why More Immigrants Are An Answer to the Coming Boomer Entitlement Mess“, which is also linked to by Mark Thoma. He has been on the Social Security Advisory board and has heard all the tales of coming Demographic Doom due […]
by Bruce Webb Reader BuffPilot has been asking Angry Bear for awhile now to post the following graphhttp://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/If you follow the link you will see that Heritage updated it with new CBO and OMB data this year. That is below the fold.http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/past-deficits-vs-obamas-deficits-in-pictures/ Which I will amplify with the actual CBO Tablehttp://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/Chapter1.shtml I am not sure […]