Archives for: The Recession

3

Capitalism Without Bankruptcy is Like Catholicism Without Hell

by Mitch Feierstein about 7 years 10 months ago

Barack Obama was recently on the stump, defending the latest set of lackluster jobs figures. Obama blamed ‘serious headwinds’ including higher gas prices and, more recently, the developing crisis in the Eurozone. Having handed much of the blame to foreign oilfields and European crises, he returned to more familiar ground, bashing a Republican-controlled House for blocking some of the proposals in […]

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3

An America divided against itself: US debt is way past the ceiling

by Mitch Feierstein about 7 years 10 months ago

Barack Obama made a speech recently pledging his opposition to (yet another) game of chicken over America’s debt ceiling. “This is the United States of America,” he told his audience. “We’re not some banana republic. This is not a deadbeat nation. We don’t run out on our tab. We’re the world’s bedrock investment – the […]

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The dual mandate of the Federal Reserve is a good one. It is charged with ensuring stable prices and maximum employment. That’s a good basic recipe, one which served the country well. And notice what isn’t there. The Fed is not charged with distorting natural market pricing mechanisms to the point of perverting risk. It […]

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0

Cyprus: Rules for Sanctioned Deposit Confiscations

by Mitch Feierstein about 10 years 11 months ago

THE ENFORCEMENT OF RESTRICTIVE MEASURES ON TRANSACTIONS IN A SITUATION OF EMERGENCY DIRECTIVE OF 2013 Order under articles 4 and 5 WHEREAS there is a substantial lack of liquidity and a significant risk in the outflow of deposits which are likely to endanger the survival of the credit institutions with a chain reaction that could […]

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24

Currency Wars Have Begun: Central Banks in Denial or Worse

by Mitch Feierstein about 11 years 1 week ago

Here’s a piece of recent news that you almost certainly missed: A large consumer products company, Johnson & Johnson, announced a one-off loss owing to a 32 percent currency devaluation in Venezuela. The reason I expect you missed that less-than-seismic piece of news is that, unless you happen to be particularly fascinated in Johnson & […]

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Over the coming weeks, we’re going to be hearing a lot about the ‘fiscal cliff’: the threat that some 5% of GDP is going to be ripped out of the economy in a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. A fiscal slow-down on that scale will almost certainly trigger recession. The CBO thinks so, though their numbers look […]

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  Last week, the Bank of England declared its intention to print another £50 billion. Hardly anyone noticed. That £50 billion will bring the Bank’s total money printing to around £425 billion, or about one quarter of British GDP. No one cares. This evening, the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its own plans for another […]

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Another day, another faux bailout. Today European finance ministers agreed to let the Spanish banks get the first €30 billion slice of their bank bailout.  Those same finance ministers are also set to approve a year’s delay in the deadline given to Spain for reaching a budget deficit of 3% of GDP. That won’t, of […]

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Will Spain Quit The Euro First?

by Mitch Feierstein about 11 years 10 months ago

Regular readers of Planet Ponzi will remember that I’ve got a thing about inflation. You know: inflation is bad, printing money makes more of it, isn’t it about time we stopped making a bad problem worse? Trouble is, though, constant repetition of a theme gets boring after a while. Yes, fuel prices are up. Yes, […]

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Goldman & Friends

by Mitch Feierstein about 11 years 11 months ago

Doing God’s Work: Can you spot the difference?  It’s OK for firms to make money. That’s what they’re there to do. But real firms, durable ones, the ones who care about their reputation, their future, and the generations that come after, have figured out that you need to take care of yourself by taking care […]

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