Chris Menon interviews the author of the best-selling Planet Ponzi on the housing bubble, market manipulation, gold and the subversion of democracy Monday, 16 June 2014 at 09:49 Chris Menon: In Planet Ponzi you’ve written about the huge debt bubble that was created over the past 30 years. For those who haven’t read your book, how […]

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 […]

  The return of the undead Berlusconi to return to Italian politics. Mario Monti to quit (and return to Goldman Sachs for a annual honorarium of $50,000,000). The Italian long bond to go to 600 basis points over bunds. Investors to notice that Italy is still in the position of having massive debts and a […]

There’s a lot of talk about Europe at the moment, but it’s kind of the way you talk about flooding when the waters don’t reach your house. Sure, it must be real tough for the poor saps whose couches are bobbing around in their living rooms — but meantime, what’s for dinner? Unfortunately, that European […]

You know those summer thunderstorms we used to have? You’d be sitting out in a warm garden somewhere, sipping something cold and white, looking at lightning flashing on the horizon and counting the seconds until you could hear the thunder. Well, it’s like that now, only the gap between the flash and the rumble is […]

I don’t want to crow, but I’ve been predicting this for years: the writedowns of Greek debt, accompanied by swingeing austerity conditions, popular unrest, and (shortly) Greek exit from the Euro. You don’t have to take my word for that: my book, Planet Ponzi, pretty much mapped out the course we’re now taking. But although […]

Five weeks ago, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was a happy man. He said, ‘The [Greek] problem is solved. How happy I am a solution to the Greek crisis … has been found.’ Which is good. Everyone, even presidents, deserves a little sunshine.  Looking on the bright side: France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy should not think […]

Rumors have been circulating for some time about the health of French banks. Those rumors play a huge part in the recent surge in worries about the creditworthiness of the French state. After all, the Irish banks came pretty close to bankrupting Ireland. The British banks knocked a huge hole in the British government balance […]

You’ll recall, I’m sure, that the newly formed M. Feierstein Ratings Agency broke the news that France has lost its AAA rating. Although we’re a newly formed agency and, if you want to be pedantic about it, we have only ever issued one rating, nevertheless we like to think of ourselves as a market leader. […]