"In summary, while Canadian public policy is not universally better than in the United States, and its political orientation is at least somewhat more left of center, there is a rationality to it that has been missing from the US over the past decade or so. It is worth examining why this might be so. Begin with monetary policy. Unlike the Federal Reserve System, which was always a politby ProjectC - ProjectC
"By no means do I want to idealize Ukrainian politicians. I am certain that there are also plenty of scoundrels among Ukraine's politicians and bureaucrats. I am speaking of the corrupt officials who change their convictions and alliances and who can swear fealty to freedom of the press one day and take pleasure in extinguishing those freedoms the next. But because Ukraine's lby ProjectC - ProjectC
By London Banker 17 October 2008 Source The title of this diary is a quote from the Vietnam era that sums up for many the arrogance and pointlessness of American aggression in Asia two generations ago. It keeps coming to mind each time I read President Bush’s (paraphrased) statement this week: We had to nationalise the banks “to preserve the free market.” There is no free market when theby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Today, Wall Street risk intermediation is a bloody wreck; the securities and derivatives markets are in complete disarray; the deeply impaired Wall Street firms have no choice but to rein in lending for securities speculation; and the hedge fund industry is in the midst of a massive de-leveraging and industry collapse. The market for creating, pricing and distributing finance is in completby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Rothbard supposes that if we do not return to the classical gold standard with realistic prices of gold, the international monetary system is condemned to constant shifts from floating exchange rates to fixed exchange rates and back again. Both these systems bring insoluble problems, function badly and finally collapse. This prediction can be changed only by a fundamental change in the Amerby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Born wanted to shine a light into the dark. She had offered no specific oversight plan, but after months of making noise about the dangers that this enormous market posed to the financial system, she now wanted to open a formal discussion about whether to regulate them -- and if so, how. Greenspan, Rubin and Levitt were determined to derail her effort. Privately, Rubin had expressed coby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Long lines of nervous customers waiting to withdraw their savings -- the images of 1931 have been burned into Germany's collective memory. They have become symbolic for the world economic crisis that began in 1929, plunged millions of people into unemployment and poverty and eventually led to the Nazis' rise to power in 1933. ... Instead of billions or even hundreds of bby ProjectC - ProjectC
How Risk Models Failed Wall St. and Washington By James G. Rickards Thursday, October 2, 2008; Page A23 Source Crooked mortgage brokers, greedy investment bankers, oblivious rating agencies and gullible investors have all been faulted in the financial crisis, and there is bipartisan agreement that regulators were asleep at the switch. It's all well and good to call for substantial neby ProjectC - ProjectC
Now we need the leadership to use them. By PAUL VOLCKER OCTOBER 10, 2008 Source Today, the financial crisis has reached a critical point. The sharp decline in the stock market and its volatility dramatically make the point. More important if less visible, the flow of credit through the banking system and the financial markets is seriously impaired -- even in part frozen. For months, thby ProjectC - ProjectC
There is a safe way to securitize home loans. By GEORGE SOROS OCTOBER 10, 2008 Source The American system of mortgage financing is broken and needs a total overhaul. Until there is a realistic prospect of stabilizing housing prices, the value of mortgage-related securities will erode and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's efforts will come to naught. There are four fundamental proby ProjectC - ProjectC
By John Authers in New York and Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong October 10 2008 Source World equity markets plunged again on Friday, ending a week-long dive that matched falls seen in the Great Crash of 1929. Amid mounting fears that the frozen credit and money markets posed an imminent risk of a global recession, the pressure for a co-ordinated rescue by the world’s economic policymakers, meby ProjectC - ProjectC
"The crisis was caused by the largest leveraged asset bubble and credit bubble in the history of humanity were excessive leveraging and bubbles were not limited to housing in the US but also to housing in many other countries and excessive borrowing by financial institutions and some segments of the corporate sector and of the public sector in many and different economies: an housing bubble,by ProjectC - ProjectC
"Those who will yet be born, may they enter the tomb and see what is inside. You who enter this tomb, look and try to understand. Read and restore these inscriptions." -- <a href="é</a> Tomb 33 1 Aug, 2008 Source Hidden beneath the most popular tourist destination in Egypt, the Valley of the Kings, lies a maze of corridors and chambers that have remained hiddenby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Martin Hutchinson October 06, 2008 Source Since November 2000, this column has warned of a wide variety of economic and market disasters that have appeared impending. With almost 400 columns, a number have been plain flat-out wrong, as well as the innumerable ones that were more or less repetitive of previous effusions. Nevertheless, in the last few months, this column’s varying predictioby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Pieces vs. Courses The final problem to be discussed may be the major problem, the dominant reason, although not the only one, why the computer has been such an abysmal failure in assisting learning and solving the major problems of education. Most of what has been produced are short pieces of software. Seldom have the computer and its related technologies been used as the basis for fuby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Touching is an important means for information, exchange and communication. It is a form of communication that is very important for living and surviving. Touching is essential in our life. To put it more strongly, without touching we cannot live. A specific form of touching is the touch between air and lungs. If we cannot touch the air that surrounds us to breathe vital elements into our lby ProjectC - ProjectC
"The leveraged speculating community played an integral role in the overall Credit Bubble and more specifically to the Bubble in Wall Street Finance. They were instrumental in both spurring financial sector Credit creation/leveraging and directing the Flow of Finance to the asset markets. And the more the leverage and the greater the Flow to inflating markets, the higher the returns generaby ProjectC - ProjectC
** Plasma physicist Hannes Alfvén & physicist Enrico Fermi "Alfvén's discovery of hydromagnetic waves is another example of an original idea having a far-reaching impact on multidisciplinary science. On purely physical grounds, Alfvén concluded that an electromagnetic wave could propagate through a highly conducting medium, such as the ionized gas of the sun, or in plasmas anywheby ProjectC - ProjectC
"When Paulson dumps out his 700 billion in treasuries it's going to be at the short end. That will drive up rates for short-term treasuries. This will obviously draw even *more* deposits into the treasury MMs. That means even less in the commercial MMs and thus less working credit, the eventual commercial MM product. Hence Paulson's billions remove working capital by competing forby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Martin Wolf Published: September 30 2008 19:22 Source It is just over three score years and ten since the Great Depression. Judged by its rejection of the plan put forward by Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, Congress believes it is time to risk another one. That slump was, arguably, the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century: it was, among other things, responsible for the events thby ProjectC - ProjectC
"What the mainstream is truly missing here en masse is that another tsunami is building right behind the finance fiasco, and that it will render moot the whole reeking cargo of schemes and wishes that comprises the Great Bail-out. I am speaking of the global oil problem. In fact, the problems in banking and money currently roaring in the center ring of the world circus, can be described cateby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Murad Ahmed, Technology Reporter September 29, 2008 Source A network of 100,000 computers providing the greatest data processing capacity yet unleashed has been created to cope with information pouring from the world’s largest machine. The Grid is the latest evolution of the internet and the world wide web and computer scientists will announce on Friday that it is ready to be connectedby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Doug Noland September 25, 2008 Source For our country’s sake, I hope our Washington politicians can work out a mindful financial sector bailout package over the weekend. Not that I am pro-bailout or for government intervention. It’s just that our financial system is teetering at the precipice. Last night’s federal takeover and “sale” of Washington Mutual, our nation’s largest bank failby ProjectC - ProjectC
"Many diplomats are convinced that the road ahead will be even worse than it is now, as we may be witnessing only the beginning stages of a major economic crisis that calls for the declaration of a global state of emergency by the UN, per the advice of Panama and other states. This may not be such a bad idea, seeing how in the host country, the United States, the Republican presidentialby ProjectC - ProjectC
'This move has the full-hearted support of Pamela Jones, the editor of intellectual property law news site Groklaw. Jones says, "When such obvious problems are revealed as we saw in the OOXML saga, it would be a crying shame if no one did anything about it. ISO/IEC made it clear that improvement is not to be expected from within. I commend IBM for its stand. It restores my faith that noby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Bill Clinton Special to CNN Source NEW YORK (CNN) -- If we want to build a stronger, more sustainable world for future generations, one with more partners and fewer enemies, we have to work together. The challenges of our day transcend politics, religion, geography and gender -- and in turn, so must we. This has been a month of historical calamities, natural and man-made, from Haiti tby ProjectC - ProjectC
"I am not surprised that our policymakers nationalized Fannie and Freddie. It was predictable that the Treasury and Fed were forced into wholesale bailouts and unprecedented liquidity operations. That Washington had to step up and guarantee money fund deposits is not all too surprising. Ditto with the upwards of $1 Trillion of Congressional authorizations, with policymakers bumbling throuby ProjectC - ProjectC
By Nouriel Roubini September 21 2008 Source Last week saw the demise of the shadow banking system that has been created over the past 20 years. Because of a greater regulation of banks, most financial intermediation in the past two decades has grown within this shadow system whose members are broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity groups, structured investment vehicles and conduits, monby ProjectC - ProjectC
"...On last Wednesday, investors were so gripped with fear and desperate for a haven that they poured into the bills even though the yield was nonexistent. In effect, they were willing to pay the government for keeping their money safe. As a glance at the chart shows, that hasn't happened since the Depression. ... ...if regulators hadn't been asleep, banks probably would haby ProjectC - ProjectC
"This is the derivative nightmare that everyone has been warning about. They booked all these derivatives assuming bad things would never happen. It was like writing fire insurance, assuming no one is ever going to have a fire, only now they’re turning around and watching as the whole town burns down.” -- Peter Schiff, the president of Euro Pacific Capital Buffett's swaps 'timby ProjectC - ProjectC