Economy and Society

The Public Sector and the Common Front in Quebec – Published on Socialist Project.ca, by David Mandel, July 25, 2010.

The previous round of negotiations in Quebec between the rightwing provincial Liberal government of Jean Charest and the public sector unions in 2005 was ended abruptly by the adoption of a special law that unilaterally imposed wages and conditions on the workers, while providing draconian penalties for any disturbance to the normal functioning of public institutions. The special decree (Bill 142/Law C-43) was quite a remarkable attack on public sector collective bargaining, even by the standards of the Quebec state.   Continue Reading…

Published on People’s World, by Andre Sepulveda and Jim Lane, July 27, 2010.

Have you ever wondered how seven important Latin American nations are coping while defying the International Monetary Fund and “free trade” neoliberalism? With partial guidance from Tariq Ali and Mark Weisbrot as co-writers, U.S. film director Oliver Stone brings his talent into the effort of explaining something that is entirely new to the south of the United States. As Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela, to one degree or another, break with imperialism for the first time in our combined American history … //  Continue Reading…

Linked with Meine Frage vom 29. Juni 2010. – Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Editors, July 24, 2010.

… (Kenneth J. Arrow – excerpt): … There was an argument about the “burden of the debt,” in the 1960s; it was summed up in an excellent paper by Franco Modigliani, who, however, did not go into the implications for future counter-cyclical policy.  Without going into details here, the point emphasized by Modigliani was the displacement of private investment. His model presupposed the absence of the Ricardo effect; if there were a Ricardo effect (prediction of future tax burdens due to debt issuance), then Keynesian policies could not possibly be effective, since people would increase saving to compensate for the deficit. Hence, the same argument that deficit financing is stimulating implies that public debt can be a burden. Continue Reading…

The US is Insolvent and Faces Bankruptcy as a Pure Debtor Nation – Published on Global Research.ca, by Washington’s Blog, July 25, 2010.

As the Financial Times notes, the head of China’s biggest credit rating agency has said America is insolvent and that U.S. credit ratings are a joke: … //

… The Scary Part:

I chatted with the head of a small investment brokerage about the China credit rating story. Because he gives his clients very bullish, status quo advice, I assumed that he would say that China was wrong. To my surprise, he simply responded: Continue Reading…

Watch this 3 videos:

• THOSE WHO BETRAYED GOT RICH,
• NEW FINANCE BILL WILL NOT PREVENT ANOTHER CRISIS
• GOLDMAN ‘TOO BIG TO PROSECUTE’

published on the RealNewsNetwork, by Paul Jay, July 24, 2010.

My comment: but we the people would be stronger, if only we would be clever and united enough to do so. The question is not to ask Obama to make it for us, as he can be shot down at any moment … and then what? So, will we wait that the people is shot down? Shot down by starvation? by fear? by waiting for God?

Published on Global Research.ca, by Tom Burghardt, July 21, 2010.

… Greasing the Wheels:

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC) state in their 2010 Annual Report that “money-laundering is the method by which criminals disguise the illegal origins of their wealth and protect their asset bases in order to avoid suspicion of law enforcement and to prevent leaving a trail of incriminating evidence,” and that financial institutions, particularly U.S. and European banks are key to efforts to choke-off illicit profits from the grisly trade.

The trouble is these institutions, along with U.S. intelligence agencies, are the problem.  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Bob Chapman, July 20, 2010.

The crisis affecting Europe is nothing new. It goes back three years and the beginning of the credit crisis, 60% of the subprime CDOs, collateralized debt obligations, had been sold to European institutions. These were the mortgage bonds, which contained a variety of toxic waste, which the rating agencies, S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, in collusion with banks and brokerage houses, had sold as AAA bonds, when in fact their ratings should have been considerably lower. The holders of these bonds in many instances became insolvent and had to be bailed out by capital injections from central banks, most of the funds were lent by the Federal Reserve.  Continue Reading…

… or an absurd plan for the global economic crisis

Published on Canada.com, by Paul Jay, July 16, 2010.

… Yet they want to halve their deficits by 2013.  How are they going to cut government spending and increase demand at the same time?

They acknowledge that some stimulus spending may still be necessary to stop the world from sinking deeper into recession. But by 2013 they want government deficits to plummet. How will they pull it off? It’s already in the works; cut social-safety-net programs with a focus on social security and public pensions.    Continue Reading…

Kopp-Verlag, von Michael Grandt, 16. Juli 2010.

Von einem »historisch heiklen Aspekt« sprechen schweizerische Medien hinsichtlich der schlimmsten Steuerhinterziehung in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten, in den über die UBS-Bank auch ehemalige Naziopfer verwickelt sein sollen … //

… Hintergrund:

Die Schweizer Großbank UBS ist ein globales Finanzinstitut mit Hauptsitz in Zürich und Basel, das in mehr als 50 Ländern der Welt vertreten ist und über 64.000 Mitarbeiter beschäftigt. Im laufenden Geschäftsjahr wird ein Reingewinn von 15 Milliarden Schweizer Franken erwartet. Damit ist sie die weltweite Nummer zwei in der Vermögensverwaltung. Doch trotz dieser positiven Bankdaten und -zahlen erlitt ihr Image einen immensen Schaden: Die UBS verhalf vermögenden US-Bürgern jahrelang zur Steuerflucht, darunter sollen auch Familien von Naziopfern sein. Continue Reading…

With dismemberment looming, the FSA finds its claws – Published on The Economist, July 8, 2010.

NOT so long ago the Financial Services Authority (FSA), London’s erstwhile “light-touch” regulator, was widely regarded as a paper tiger exerting only minimal control over Britain’s largely laissez-faire financial system. Yet faced, after the general election in May produced a new government, with the prospect of being broken up and absorbed into the Bank of England, the tiger appears to have located its claws. What happened?  Continue Reading…

Senate to Vote on Financial Reform: Is it too Little, too Late to Keep the Economic System from Crashing Again?

Published on Global Research.ca, by Danny Schechter, July 15, 2010.

… Financial reformers like Mary Bottari of Banksters USA is happy with the provision for a new consumer protection agency, explaining, “The Bureau has independent regulatory and enforcement authority over a wide array of consumer financial products such as credit cards, mortgages, and even payday loans. Unfortunately, auto dealers escaped its jurisdiction and the institution will be housed at the Federal Reserve.”  Continue Reading…

Published on Current Concerns, by ts, June 12, 2010.

ts. Now and then it is worthwhile to read a book a second time, in particular if it contains texts, whose basis are real historical events placed in an unusual context. Precisely in times like these, when the media are full of comments on the vast financial and economic crises, when trillions of money supplies for major bank bailouts are blithely printed and then saddled on the taxpayer; when states face bankruptcy, because they cannot master their debts any longer; when an immense inflation is imminent and it is again the population that will suffer as a result of it; in times in which, under the cover of “freedom” to transfer capital funds, money must be regarded as a new weapon of mass destruction, in which the greed seems boundless, in which newspapers are full of the problem of interest and compound interest, in which even the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” – usually not averse to banks – uses the term “monster” to describe the financial markets and the debt problem; in times like these books can sharpen the senses and enable a view on the general context, which might get lost in the daily routine. Continue Reading…

Published on IPS, by Emilio Godoy, July 5, 2010.

… Non-governmental organisations from across the Americas are demanding that the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank institute policies that favour sustainable energy and help mitigate climate change. Civil society groups sent letters to the two institutions, both headquartered in Washington, about the IDB’s strategy on climate change and the World Bank’s long-term energy policy.

In the case of the IDB, 10 NGOs from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and United States told the regional bank it should reduce its projects’ contribution to climate change, respect communities’ rights, make accounting more transparent, finance the development of renewable energy sources and phase out fossil-fuel sources and hydroelectric dams. Continue Reading…

The Economist’s upcoming debate between Dani Rodrik (Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy, JFK School of Government, Harvard), and Josh Lerner (Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School) …  this debate will happen online, and starts on July 12th 2010. – Published on The Economist, July 11, 2010.

Governments around the world are desperate to jump-start economic growth. Having bailed out banks and carmakers, some want to go further and direct public money to other sectors and firms. In June, copying recent efforts from America, Britain, China, France and Korea to boost manufacturing, Japan launched a drive to channel funds to five sectors including cultural industries and infrastructure. Is this a doomed-to-fail resurgence of central planning? Are states ever able to predict the industries of the future? Is it always a mistake for governments to pick winners, or is it, as some people argue, naive to think that industries flourish without state aid in some more or less obvious form? … (full text).

Small print of BP Statistical Review of World Energy is troubling

Published on The Guardian.co.uk, by Jeremy Leggett , June 9, 2010.

Big as BP’s problems are as a result of failed risk assessments, it will very probably soon become worse. Growing numbers of people doubt its annual review of oil reserves, published today. Society builds its oil dependency on key cultural statements of faith about secure supply, such as BP’s annual announcement that there is 40 years of supply or more, and no danger of supply falling short of demand, so ambushing oil-addicted economies.

You would think that BP’s risk-assessment failures in the Gulf, and in US refineries, would make the company measured, given the stakes in this particular assessment. The reverse seems true.  Continue Reading…

Published on UN.org /Development Policy and Analysis Division.

World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) is a joint product of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the five United Nations regional commissions … //

… The report cautions that despite these more encouraging headline figures, the recovery is uneven and conditions for sustained growth remain fragile. Credit conditions are still tight in major developed economies, where many major financial institutions need to continue the process of deleveraging and cleansing their balance-sheets. Continue Reading…

a Website Focused on Building Wealth and Financial Freedom (mainly Discussion Forums)

In the left column of the Mainpage, click on the question: Where does money really comes from? Question posted on Friday, 22 June 2007!

• (2007! I think, meanwhile we should had taken the time to understand this mess, instead of running in 2008 into a crash !!! – Therefore again my eternal same question: How long will it take until (not all the dumbest, but maybe 10% of the more clever) humans are able to meet to force our governments to stop this nonsense – the nonsense paying back THIN AIR to the banks?
• The whole DEPT QUESTION, STATE FAILURES, INSOLVENCY PROBLEMS would radically change!
• WHY our governments and their experts (inclusively mainstream medias) do not inform peoples about this mess? Are they blackmailed, are they not clever enough? Are they too much afraid? Or are they part of it?
  
• ARE WE TOO MUCH AFRAID – OR/and ARE WE JUST TOO SILLY TO CHANGE ALL THAT? And: yes, we are all part of it. So what, now we have to change it!).

Some Answers in the following Discussion-Forum: Continue Reading…

Publié sur Voltairenet.org, par par le groupe d’expert au Comité joint du Développement de la Banque mondiale et du FMI – Washington, le 25 avril 2010, sur Voltairenet le 6 juillet 2010.

Nous reproduisons ici le résumé du plan de réforme des institutions financières internationales élaboré par le département des Affaires économiques et sociales de l’ONU. Le groupe d’expert qui l’a rédigé reflète parfaitement les souhaits de la classe dirigeante mondiale. Son idée principale est de créer une monnaie de réserve mondiale gérée par le FMI, et un système de gouvernance économique mondiale qui encadrerait les politiques économiques des Etats-nations: … (long texte entier).

Published on political affairs pa, by Joel Wendland, July 1, 2010.

The U.S. Department of Labor this week announced an award of $27 million in National Emergency Grants to four key Gulf Coast states to assist workers displaced by BP’s ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The states are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“Working families in the Gulf Coast have been dealt a tremendous blow by this oil spill, and they are facing serious long-term challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in a press statement. “They need and deserve our help now.”  Continue Reading…

Published on the Blog of Real-World Economics Review (first on The Nation), by Dean Baker, July 5, 2010.

… In short, the story of economic weakness being the result of a broken banking system is a complete fabrication. This is a good story if your intention is to get more money to the banks. It is not a good story if your goal is getting the economy back to full employment.

The real story is a very simple one of a burst housing bubble. At its peak in 2006, the wealth created by that bubble and the smaller bubble in nonresidential real estate was generating more than $1 trillion in annual demand. This took the form of more than $500 billion in excess construction demand, as builders rushed to complete projects that commanded bubble-inflated prices. It also led to more than $500 billion in additional consumption, as people spent based on $8 trillion worth of bubble-generated home equity.  Continue Reading…

(see: National Health Service NHS Executive on wikipedia) – Published on The Telegraphe.co.uk, by Laura Roberts, July 4, 2010.

The report comes as the health service faces cuts to frontline services to reduce the deficit. An investigation found that 320 hospital, ambulance and health authority chiefs are paid more than David Cameron’s annual salary of £142,500. Of those 58 are paid more than £200,000 a year. Financial experts described the salaries as “unsustainable”.

The number of high-earners has increased 50-fold since Labour came to power in 1997. Prior to that only six NHS officials were paid more than John Major, who then earned a salary of £101,557. The highest paid was Ian Miller, Interim Director of Finance and Investment for South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, who earned £310,000 for nine months work from April 2009 to January 2010 … //  Continue Reading…

issue no. 53, 26 June 2010 – former post-autistic economics network, back issues at paecon.net.

Download the 163 pdf-pages.

… short abstract of: Beyond growth or beyond capitalism? by Richard Smith USA, on page 28 ff: … Abstract: Recent publications have revived interest in Herman Daly’s proposal for a Steady-State Economy. This paper argues, first, that the idea of a steady-state capitalism is based on untenable assumptions, starting with the assumption that growth is optional rather than built-into capitalism. I argue that irresistible and relentless pressures for growth are functions of the day-to-day requirements of capitalist reproduction in a competitive market, incumbent upon all but a few businesses, and that such pressures would prevail in any conceivable capitalism. Secondly, this paper takes issue with Professor Daly’s thesis, which also underpins his SSE model, that capitalist efficiency and resource allocation is the best we can come up with. I argue that this belief is misplaced and incompatible with an ecological economy, and therefore it undermines Daly’s own environmental goals. I conclude that since capitalist growth cannot be stopped, or even slowed, and since the market-driven growth is driving us toward collapse, ecological economists should abandon the fantasy of a steady-state capitalism and get on with the project figuring out what a post–capitalist economic democracy could look like.

See also the other 6 long articles … (full long 163 pdf-pages).

Published on Global Research.ca, by Shamus Cooke, June 30, 2010.

The most powerful nations in the world met recently at the G-20 in Toronto and managed to agree on only one thing of significance: the need to reduce deficits, “half by 2013.” Implied by the statement is the need to lower deficits via “austerity,” meaning eliminating or reducing social programs.

Why does every mainstream political pundit or corporate CEO fanatically agree that reducing deficits is the most important thing to do now? Let Obama explain:   Continue Reading…

Published on guru focus, June 23, 2010.

Giving a speech in Berlin, I feel obliged to speak about the euro because the euro is in crisis and Germany is the main protagonist. Unfortunately I didn’t get the timing right because the crisis has both a fiscal component and a banking component and the situation of the banks is just now approaching a climax. A comprehensive analysis will have to await the publication of stress test results. The best I can do at this moment is to put matters into a historical perspective.

I believe that misconceptions play a large role in shaping history and the euro crisis is a case in point. Continue Reading…

Published on WSWS, by Dennis Moore, 24 June 2010.

… The Department for Work and Pensions anticipated that with the introduction of ESA (see also on wikipedia) there would be an expected 21,000 additional appeals. Statistics suggest this figure is up to 50,000 in the first year. This has had a significant impact on the already overstretched workload of advice/advocacy agencies.

The DWP expect 50 percent of claimants who appeal to be found fit for work. They are then moved onto Jobseekers Allowance, a benefit dependent on the claimant actively seeking work and accepting any work that is offered, however unsuitable. Continue Reading…

Picked up on Weitzenegger’s Website for International Development Cooperation, and its Newsletters.

Published on African Economic Outlook AEO, article not authored nor dated.

Weak infrastructure and institutional policies of many of the countries in Africa are partly responsible for poor intra-African trade. For instance, only 29.7% of the African road network is paved. The continent’s railway network is also very poor. These factors contribute to high transport costs on the continent as compared to the rest of world. For example, shipping a car from Japan to Abidjan costs USD 1 500, while shipping that same vehicle from Addis Ababa to Abidjan would cost USD 5 000. Continue Reading…

Published on political affairs pa, by Joel Wendland and Peter Zerner, June 2, 2010.

… Signs of Recovery?

Although we have started to see the first fruits of Obama’s Recovery Act, with over 500,000 jobs created in the past three months, the economy must do much more to meet the needs of all working families. While few working families are out of the woods, unemployment remains disproportionately high for African American and Latino workers, who face home foreclosures, school closings, and declining public services. Congress needs to pass a comprehensive jobs bill in proportion to the size of the unemployment crisis, such as the Local Jobs for America Act authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. The push to create jobs should contain four essential features:  Continue Reading…

TARP: Troubled Asset Relief Program on wikipedia - Published on People’s World, by Dean Baker, June 11, 2010.

WASHINGTON (PAI)–When politicians demand the public do something because of the dictates of financial markets, it is best to hold on to your wallet.  Back in September of 2008, both GOP President George W. Bush and the Democratic leadership in Congress insisted that if we did not immediately hand over $700 billion to the banks, the whole financial system would grind to a halt.

The threat worked: The banks got their $700 billion from Congress and much more from the Fed, with few questions asked.  As a result, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and the rest are now as profitable as ever and once again paying out record bonuses to “top performers.”  Continue Reading…

Linked with Jerry Mazza – USA. – Published by Online Journal, by Jerry Mazza, June 14, 2010.

Do you have this feeling that despite all the press, you don’t really have a clue what’s going on down there in the oil-hemorrhaging Gulf, that is, with either the spill or BP. Except that the whole situation is getting worse by the minute? But here’s some light for thought.

Despite huge amounts of advertising as a Green Company, BP was named by Mother Jones Magazine as one of the “ten worst corporations” in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights record. “In 1991 BP was cited as the most polluting company in the US based on EPA toxic release data.”  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Mike Whitney, June 12, 2010.

… From Bloomberg News:

• Jean-Claude Trichet said the European Central Bank ECB will extend its offerings of unlimited cash and keep buying government bonds for now as it tries to ease tensions in money markets and fight the European debt crisis.
• “It’s appropriate to continue to do what we’ve decided” on sovereign bonds, ECB President Trichet said at a press conference  in Frankfurt today. “We have a money market which is not functioning perfectly.”Trichet’s ECB is buying debt and pumping unlimited funds into the banking system as part of a European Union strategy to stop the euro region from breaking apart. While Trichet refused to bow to some investors’ demands for more details on the bond purchases, he said the ECB plans to offer more help to financial institutions struggling to raise cash in money markets.
• The ECB will give banks access to unlimited three-month funds at a fixed rate in July, August and September, he said. The measure is a key tool used by the ECB since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.” (Bloomberg)
• It’s Christmas in June. By providing a safe location for overnight deposits, limitless funding for collateral that the market will no longer accept, and a (bond) purchasing program that keeps asset prices artificially high; the ECB is performing all the tasks of the market while eliminating all the risks.  Trichet has made protecting the banking system the primary responsibility of the EU superstate.
• “We have the best track record on price stability over 11 1/2 years in Europe and among the legacy currencies,” Trichet boasted. “What we have done and what we do with the same purpose is to help restoring an appropriate functioning of the monetary- policy transmission mechanism.”

Trichet’s actions have nothing to do with the so-called “monetary-policy transmission mechanism”. They’re a straightforward bailout of banks which invested in sovereign bonds that are steadily losing value.  Greece has already received loans that will cover its funding needs through 2012.  Trichet’s bond buying-spree and lavish liquidity provisions are a lifeline to his banking brethren who are trying desperately to keep their chestnuts out of the fire. The ECB boss is merely helping them shunt their losses onto the public’s balance sheet, like Bernanke has done in the US.

For the EU to survive, the member states will have to create a governing authority that can implement fiscal policy. Regrettably, Trichet has  usurped that authority while circumventing the normal democratic process. It’s not Trichet’s job to arbitrarily underwrite the bad bets of reckless speculators or to prevent the market from clearing because some of his banking buddies might go broke.  That’s well beyond his mandate.  The ECB needs to be reigned in and Trichet’s powergrab stopped. The European Union should be based on more than the profitability of its banks. (full text).

Published on The Economist, June 3, 2010.

Despite its current sense of Schadenfreude (german: pleasure derived from seeing others in suffering or in trouble), Britain has much to fear—politically and economically—from the euro crisis.

WIDE-EYED Labour politicians had their loftier illusions beaten out of them by 13 tough years in power. A boom must end eventually, they learned the hard way, and spending alone cannot build Jerusalem. There was a loss of innocence about Europe, too. It was once modish to regard the public’s anti-Europeanism as a flimsy thing, propped up by tabloid jingoism and easily dispelled by any government willing to make the case for the European Union (EU). Yet under Tony Blair, their most avowedly Europhile prime minister, Britons actually grew more hostile. Continue Reading…

Published on MoneyControl’s News Center, by Yasheng Huang, June 04, 2010.

In India, and even in China, growth has proven to be compatible with individual liberty … //

… China and India are unambiguous success stories of economic reforms and globalisation. This much we know and agree upon. Although scholars debate about the relative importance of different economic policies, to the extent there is any consensus, most would agree that the cumulative effects of the policy package adopted in the two countries have worked in delivering growth … //  Continue Reading…

The task of sorting out banking is far from finished – Published on The Economist, May 27, 2010.

… Build up the buffers:

Yet the assumption must be that crises will still happen. Hence it is vital that banks carry bigger safety buffers of capital and liquid assets. This job has been outsourced to the Basel club of regulators, which aims to finalise its proposals by the end of the year and implement them by December 2012. Behind the scenes an almighty brawl is raging (see article). Banks dislike some of the fine print and also claim that the cost of “Basel 3” will force them to raise the price of loans, devastating the economy. The French Banking Federation, for example, reckons it could eventually knock more than 6% off the euro zone’s GDP. Continue Reading…

Linked with CADTM (its Homepage). – Published on Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt CADTM, by Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt, May 28, 2010.

Protests have been taking place regularly for months in Greece to express opposition to the austerity plan the Greek government, European leaders, and the International Monetary Fund decided to impose on the Greek people. Today, the leadership of this country is no longer in the hands of its elected officials, but has been placed under the authority of the IMF and European institutions, which means an absence of any democratic control. Several general strikes have already taken place since the beginning of 2010 in response to a call from all the unions and left-wing political parties. The exemplary Greek struggle echoes what happened in Eastern Europe in Romania, Hungary, and Latvia, and in other Balkan countries such as Bosnia, or in Ireland and more recently Iceland, which have all faced similar austerity plans.  Continue Reading…

Published on Telegraph.co.uk, BST, 26 May 2010.

Banks must face new taxes to avoid repeating the ‘unacceptable’ bail-outs of failed banks that cost taxpayers billions, the European Union’s chief financial regulator warned.

European banks may face taxes on the size of their balance sheets, on how much they owe other institutions or on how much profit they make, Michael Barnier, the EU’s Financial Services Commissioner said on Wednesday.

The cash raised would be used to pay for future bail-outs.  Continue Reading…

Published on News Center, by Reuters, May 25, 2010.

… But the rest would be used to bring down the deficit. Government advisory bodies – known as “quangos” – would lose 513 million pounds in funding. There would be a hiring freeze across the civil service and almost all departments would have to find savings.

This news has just come in and complete details will follow shortly. We can send you an email alert when the details come.
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The business ministry, for example, will have its budget cut by more 800 million pounds. Continue Reading…

Will the Ban on Naked Short Selling Reverse the Slide of the Euro?

Watch this video of 5.02 min., published on Global Research.ca, by F. William Engdahl, May 22, 2010.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Euro currency is at risk and that Europe faces its greatest challenge since the EU was formed. It comes as stock markets in Europe and Asia tumbled on the surprise news that Berlin was banning types of ’short selling’ where investors profit by betting that shares will drop in value.

(Global Research Articles by F. William Engdahl).

Linked with Michel Chossudovsky – Canada. – Published on Global Research.ca, by Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall, for May 25, 2010.

The following text is the Preface of The Global Economic Crisis. The Great Depression of the XXI Century, Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (Editors), Montreal, Global Research, 2010, which is to be launched in late May … //

… Our Analysis in this Book:  Continue Reading…

Linked with European Network on Debt and Development EURODAD.

Published on EURODAD, by a report by Eurodad & Third World Network,  20 April 2010.

In an effort to respond to the global financial crisis, the G20 dramatically strengthened the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in developing countries, including in low income countries (LICs). To address the urgent financing needs of LICs, the G-20 boosted the Fund’s concessional lending capacity, which in 2014 will be ten times higher than before the crisis.  Continue Reading…

Published on The Market Ticker, by Karl Denninger, May 18. 2010.

If you thought the German government was going to be a lapdog for Sarcozy, or worse, was going to fellate Brussels and the ECB, you got a rude shock today. It appears that the German Government has just plain had enough of the crap that the banksters have tried to pull, and has decided to do what Barack Obama should have done in early 2009. That is:

• No more naked credit crap, especially against sovereigns but not only against sovereigns.  No insurable interest, no CDS – period.
• Naked shorting will now be actually stopped in 10 leading financial institutions.
• Germany has had it with naked shorting of Gold, and specifically noted bank manipulation of gold prices via naked shorts beyond intent or ability to deliver.
• Germany has also said that they’re not going to permit Euro derivatives that are not a “bonafide” FX hedge.  That is, no more naked bets on Euro movements either.
• Hedge funds are going to be regulated, position size limits mandated and enforced, reporting enhanced and a transaction tax is coming. Continue Reading…