Hannibal to Goldman Sachs

Sun Jun 28, 2009 1:07 PM EDT

In Hannibal's day, the name Roman meant a people. Two centuries later, it meant simply a population. What happened?

Continue reading this entry ...

history

Goodbye to American Exceptionalism

Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:53 PM EST

All hell broke loose at Jesus' tomb yesterday.

Continue reading this entry ...

politics

Spectre of Deflation

Seeded on Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:47 PM EDT (The New York Times)

As dozens of countries slip deeper into financial distress, a new threat may be gathering force within the American economy — the prospect that goods will pile up waiting for buyers and prices will fall, suffocating fresh investment and worsening joblessness for months or even …

business, deflation

Clowns in the Twilight Zone

Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:10 PM EDT

A brief word about Claire Bennet, the sweet cheerleader on the TV series, Heroes. Claire, you may recall, was capable of self-regeneration. In other words, Claire needed no physicians: she healed herself. Claire, unlike the U.S. economy, was quite good at this.

Continue reading this entry ...

business, erin-burnett, mark-haines, robert-farzad, nouriel-roubini

The Real Great Depression

Seeded on Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:45 PM EDT (The Cronicle of Higher Education)

In fact, the current economic woes look a lot like what my 96-year-old grandmother still calls "the real Great Depression." She pinched pennies in the 1930s, but she says that times were not nearly so bad as the depression her grandparents went through.

business, depression

Bank Insolvency is the Problem

Seeded on Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:39 PM EDT (Reuters)

The salvation of Wall Street lies through helping Main Street, not the other way around.

business

Dreading Deflation

Seeded on Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:39 PM EDT (CNN/Money)

An interesting piece from 2002 on deflation and reasons for Greenberg's low interest rates now blamed in part for the credit crisis.

business, deflation

Deregulatory Zeal

Seeded on Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:53 AM EDT (The Economist)

Our banking system is highly dependent upon trust. Deregulation removed transparency from the system, leading to a breakdown of trust. When bankers no longer trusted their counterparties, they stopped lending, and the credit market froze.

business

Global Monetary Authority

Seeded on Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:13 AM EDT (FT.com)

As French President Sarkozy meets with Bush at Camp David, it's a good time to review Jeffrey Garten's piece in the FT last month.

business

Hemp and Low Hanging Fruit

Seeded on Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:42 PM EDT (Bloomberg.com)

Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

business

The $58 Trillion Elephant in the Room

Seeded on Thu Oct 16, 2008 2:42 PM EDT (Portfolio.com: Top 5)

The roots of this year's financial crisis go back to a small team of bankers at J.P. Morgan in New York. Now, their invention—credit derivatives—has helped bring down Wall Street and has left Morgan with its biggest exposure of all.

business, j-p-morgan, cds, crash, derivatives

Bottom? No Way!

Seeded on Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:52 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

A better way to think about the economic forecast is that we are at the beginning of a transition period in which our collective spending as a nation will go from roughly 6 or 7 percent more than what we produce to closer to 2 or 3 percent less than we produce, to accommodate an …

business, economy, bubble, recession

Nightmare on Wall Street

Seeded on Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:26 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

Wall Street may become what it once was: a metaphor not for the whole of America, but for wealth and privilege, in contrast to want and suffering.

business

A Great Disturbance in the Force

Seeded on Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:01 AM EDT (Energy Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha)

Now, a loss of 40% or more in market capitalization certainly does imply an adjustment for expected weakness in earnings.

business

Dr. Doom Speaks Out

Seeded on Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:07 PM EDT (Forbes)

"We are already now in a global recession that is getting worse by the day. What radical policy action can only do is to prevent what will now be an ugly and nasty two-year recession and financial crisis from turning into a decade-long economic depression.

business, roubini, recession, depression, tarp

Swimming in Molasses

Wed Oct 8, 2008 3:54 PM EDT

The headline was fun. Its unpleasant word picture is something else entirely, yet we find more and more swimmers jumping into the sticky pool every day and having a slow go. The stickiness is called deflation, or economic lethargy, or even despair.

Continue reading this entry ...

business, iceland, ecb, sec, treasury, russia, deflation

Credit Default Swaps

Seeded on Tue Oct 7, 2008 11:52 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

The dollar value of the naked CDS market, Dinallo testified, accounts for more than the entire annual economic output of all the world's nations.

business, cds, dinallo, aig, waxman

Edge of the Abyss

Seeded on Fri Oct 3, 2008 9:25 AM EDT (The New York Times)

As recently as three weeks ago it was still possible to argue that the state of the U.S.

business, reign-of-terror, financial-market, john-jansen, joel-prakken, economy

Watching Rome Burn

Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:29 PM EDT

(Updated Oct. 7)

Continue reading this entry ...

business, spengler, american-empire, kondratieff, buffett, bailout, depression, toynbee, congress, recession

To Be Free From America

Seeded on Tue Sep 2, 2008 12:45 PM EDT (Newsweek)

The consensus in Washington holds that a revanchist Russia must be stopped before it is too late.

world-news, russia

The Cold War Is Long Over

Seeded on Tue Sep 2, 2008 12:10 PM EDT (Newsweek)

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, on why Russia moved into Georgia.

world-news, lavrov, russia, georgia

How Not To Punish Moscow

Seeded on Tue Sep 2, 2008 12:04 PM EDT (Newsweek)

It appears that Russia will have its way with Georgia and that the west is powerless to do anything about it. In the absence of a willingness to exercise military options, what was intended as "muscular rhetoric" has been exposed as mere bluster and bluff.

world-news, russia, oil, putin, georgia