A look back makes the outlook easier: A speculative boom in 1929 leads to a stock market crash and recession, the budget deficit increases, the austerity policies drive the economy into a depression. Tensions within and between countries increase, scapegoats are sought, anti-Semitism and protectionism are spreading.
The end of the "Golden Age" of cqapitalism and the rise of neoliberalism (tags)
The rise of the neoliberal world economic system marked by the dominance of financial markets – whose financial superstructure collapses over us – resulted from the radical economic crises of the early 1970s that seized nearly all western industrial countries.
At universities, the reality of the financial casino is taboo (tags)
When buying or selling, high-speed trading can bring profits a few milliseconds or microseconds ahead of other high-speed trading bidders. These speculative trades have nothing to do with the good functioning of the financial markets. On the contrary, prices can be manipulated.
The Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle (tags)
Toward the end of the Cold War, capitalism created a military horror: the neutron bomb, a weapon that destroys life while leaving buildings intact. During the Fourth World War, however, a new wonder has been discovered: the financial bomb.This new bomb destroys the polis (nation)
Battle for Social Democracy and Unfettered Capitalism (tags)
Two opposing schools of thought face each other at the sickbed: neoliberalism and social democracy. Didn't the death-bells of neoliberals ring in the course of the financial market crisis? Were not neoliberals unmasked who first caused the whole mess with their deregulation?
95 Theses Against the Rule of the Financial Markets (tags)
The financial markets have made themselves independent of the real economy. As the selling of indulgences led to Martin Luther's 95 Theses in 1517, the rule of speculative financial markets has led to revenue shortfalls of US cities and states. Tax havens hide between $22-33 trillion.
Promoting Sustainable Economics (tags)
The protagonists of neoliberal globalization seek to fight the devastations – for which they bear responsibility – by the same means that cause the devastations. Now is the time to seize the opportunity and build up economic policy pressure to enforce the development of an economic order that is sustainably oriented...
Numerous economists had predicted falling real estate prices and rental prices during the pandemic. But prices are rising. Once again, economists are surprised that reality does not want to follow their models... Central banks are squeezing even more money into the financial markets than ever before.
For a democratic polarization (tags)
The new world economic crisis has shown yet again that one can't leave it to the market to provide for a strong economy. In any case, it is a truism that a community with a certain quality of life depends to a great extent on resources that the market does not produce.
Disempowering the US cartels (tags)
Technology corporations mostly form oligopolies, if not monopolies. U.S. President Joe Biden is signaling that his administration wants to crack down on monopolies... Klobuchar's bill aims to boost antitrust action in many ways: it seeks to increase funding for the FTC and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
Why Karl Polanyi Still Matters (tags)
In The Great Transformation (1944), Karl Polanyi explains why the economy must be embedded in society and society must not be embedded in the economy. He describes land, labor and money as "fictitious commodities" since they cannot be multiplied and created on the market.
Resistance against Agropoly (tags)
Food sovereignty remains the most important political program of the strongest international movement to date for a transformation of the food system: away from the agropoly of a few corporations. Tina Goethe is a sociologist and responsible for the area of the right to food at the Swiss organization Bread for All.
Financial Markets and National Socialism (tags)
Joseph Goebbels was appointed "Reich Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda "7 on March 15, 1933.: "The people should begin to think and react in a unified way. [...]" They should stand behind the actions of the government with full sympathy and support.
Our normality is not returniing (tags)
If the government's response to the debt accumulated during the crisis is austerity, it will make the situation even worse. It is therefore right to call for a more active and visionary state policy that shows a way out of the crisis. What form will these policies take?
The Forgotten History of the Financial Crisis (tags)
In the United States between late 2008 and early 2009, 800,000 people were losing their jobs every month. By 2015, over nine million American families would lose their homes to foreclosure—the largest forced population movement in the United States since the Dust Bowl.
Hayek and the Social Question (tags)
Hayek, author of Road to Serfdom, said the market was self-healing and market outcomes were just outcomes. In his book "Submission is Freedom," Schreiner explains how public investments and market corrections are vital.
Is Capitalism Out of Order? (tags)
Growing debt is actually not a big problem in a growing economy as long as it does not grow faster than the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt mountain of the capitalist world system is growing much faster than the world economic output.
Don't Panic. Solidarity. Read (tags)
Some experts are sure that the only thing that will stop the virus permanently is for everyone to stay at home for a few weeks. Model China. The drastic quarantine has obviously worked, if you believe the Chinese government, the number of inflected people is decreasing.
Karl Polanyi on Unfettered Capitalism (tags)
Karl Polanyi condemned profit greed and deregulated markets. Today's capitalism critics are his heirs and don't know it. An unfettered capitalism is responsible for the world coming out of joint. "Finance capital was put in the driver's seat."
The Financial Market Casino Controls Politics (tags)
Financial markets seem to be the measure of all things. Corporations are subsidized with trillions. In their "competition," small and medium-size businesses are the fools. A complex subsidy jungle exists in nearly all states, a "socialism for the rich" or "new feudalism."
The financial economy uncoupled from the real economy.
Ten Years After the Financial Crash (tags)
US economic statistics are dubious since financial markets are based on financial products and money out of nothing. Tax havens, micro-second betting, stock buybacks and corruption through lobbying are market-distorting and cause revenue shortfalls.
Markets as a Fetish, Globalization, and Dissent Management (tags)
Economic inequality must be reduced and democratic participation regained. Resisting tax avoidance, financial market regulations, climate policy, and globally combating poverty should be priorities.
The rulers want to divert from the real causes of the refugee wave and from their own misdeeds because the cause of the misery is an exploitation crisis of capital and the greed of mammoth world corporations. Only the prospect for a future in their country can stop refugees.
Finance Capitalism and the Digital Economy (tags)
The financialization of the economy and the rise of the commercial Internet are directly connected... At the beginning of the digital economy, as Marianna Mazzucato and others showed, was an investing state that took over the installment financing for digitalization.
Against Market Radicalism (tags)
Capitalism is not "the end of history" as the American Francis Fukuyama postulated in 1992. The system question is open! The economy should be re-embedded in society. What seems rational in microeconomics collides with the irrationality of maximum profits as en end-in-itself
Interview with Social Philosopher Friedhelm Hengsbach (tags)
The financial markets have uncoupled from the real economy since the middle of the 1970s. Politicians listen and react to every sound from the financial sector. Who paid for the bank bailout? The general public or the state made itself poor and guaranteed capital.
The World Dependent on Central Banks (tags)
The situation seems extremely contradictory. The global economic and financial system has been clinically dead since 2008. It only functions because it is artificially kept alive by the central banks like a patient in the intensive care unit $!8 trillion was pumped into the global system.
The systemic reasons for the crisis are more important than a sudden fall in prices. Stocks are held on average 22 seconds, not 6 months or ten years. Real-capitalism is a plus-sum game. Financial capitalism is a zero-sum game.
Crisis 2.0: A Policy for the 99% (tags)
The capital surpluses are a constant source of new speculative waves and maneuvers. The crisis of state finances is mainly a crisis of tax refusal. The elites shifted the tax burden from businesses and high incomes to consumer taxes and fees.
Is Economic Speculation a Form of Structural Violence? (tags)
According to neoclassical economic theory, the financial markets return to equilibrium. Problems only occur because of state intervention. The roaring twenties led to an enormous stock euphoria. In 2018, companies inflate their stocks in a $70 billion stock buy back program.
Rethinking Economic Policy! (tags)
The economic crisis calls for social-democratic answers. The fading mass purchasing power (in Germany) is due to the increasing inequality of income and wealth. Deregulation promotes social problems like precariousness and greater income inequality.
The Financial Crisis in the Light of the Social Market Economy (tags)
In 2007 and 2008 the US housing market almost completely collapsed. The crisis was brought about by a combination of state- and market failures. Extensive deregulation and violation of the liability principle were jointly responsible.
Experience the unseen (until now) record of fbi dirty laundry:
Janet Yellen's Storytime (tags)
The US economy is not picking up speed, wages are not rising and the situation on the labor market has not improved... The world economy did not get going again after the greatest wealth redistribution in the history of humanity.
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
New Nafta Interpretation allows Mexican 18 Wheelers into U.S> Markets (tags)
According to "Overdrive" Magazine April 2015 a new interpretation of NAFTA's 1996 agreement between Mexico City's Partido Revolucionario Institutional and PAN party of Vicente Fox will allow the Mexican Trucking Industry to compete for picking up and delivery jobs in U.S. markets 50 stat
Wall Street Rally: Hold the Cheers (tags)
Wall Street
Differing Views on China (tags)
China
markets
markets
TISA vs Public Services, 28 pp (tags)
The TISA is among the alarming new wave of trade and investment agreements founded on legally binding powers that institutionalize the rights of investors and prohibit government actions in a wide range of areas only incidentally related to trade.
The Lie of the Weak State (tags)
The good condition of German labor markets is in reality in a catastrophic state...Unemployment is an "act of violence" against every unemployed person and represents an enormous waste for society as a whole.
Everyone could work less instead of terminating people. Ways could be organized through shared activity for using the gained freedom in services of everyday life...Breaking with the disastrous logic of competition and money is int he interest of the life, peace and happiness of people today.
Overdue farewell to dogma (tags)
Mainstream economics did not see the crisis coming – and so far it has not done much to overcome it. However, at least in the USA, a rethink has started.
New Geo;olitical/Financial Bombshells (tags)
geopolitics
Oil Prices: What Goes Around Comes Around (tags)
oil
US Coup in Ukraine: Oliver Stone's Documentary (tags)
Ukraine
How Economists Change the World (tags)
Theory development is also a war over dominance. The goals of Hayek's war were expulsion of the Keynesians, liberalization of the financial markets, abandonment of full employment policy, dismantling the social state and weakening unions.
Economics is Onesided and Reactionary (tags)
The homo oeconomicus cannot be our hope and is not desirable or future-friendly. The economic benefits to the capitalist entrepreneur are in contradiction to nature and to the person..We face completely oversized financial markets that have uncoupled from the real economy creating value.
For a Different Economics (tags)
Economists are criticized everywhere for their onesidedness, their focus on markets and their inability to deal with the burning problems... From neoclassical assumptions "more is better" or markets lead to efficient distribution, a perspective on the world results that sets efficiency over justice
Wind power is cheaper than coal, 70pp (tags)
A leaked report shows wind is the cheapest energy source in Europe, beating the presumably dirt-cheap coal and gas by a mile. Conventional wisdom holds that clean energy is more expensive than its fossil-fueled counterparts. competition.
New Economy and New Prosperity (tags)
Economic structures that form the basis for social prosperity have become dysfunctional. The financial markets have expanded their original function and are now self-financed markets in which protection from risks has become a highly speculative business.
Karl Polanyi - Still Actual 50 Years After His Death (tags)
Karl Polanyi was the author of "The Great Transformation." As in Polanyi's times, the absurdity of the market utopia must be made clear and confronted with social reality. Freedom and democracy are goals to defend, not markets.
Russia Denounces New Western Sanctions (tags)
sanctions
Both Germany and the US follow an economic policy without enlightenment. Slight economic stimulation will not solve problems of mass unemployment and corporate welfare. Tax evasion of corporations and tax cuts for the super-rich lead to suffering and a revenue crisis.
Financial Market Inflammation (tags)
Bubble formation covered up a period of long-lasting stagnation... Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers even spoke of stagnation as a "new normality"... The crisis consequences are shifted to other subjects. Unemployment and indebtedness are exported.
The new indebtedness is a consequence of the crisis caused by the financial industry-and in no way owed to an excessive social state, demographic change and so forth.. There are many critics of this policy of mastering crisis by flooding the financial markets with fresh money.
"Markets are a Terrible Master" (tags)
The Neoliberal Model: Profits without Investments (tags)
According to the neoliberal myth, higher profits would lead to more investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to corporations buying back their stock and currency speculation. In truth, higher investments lead to higher profits.
Liberating the Economy from Prejudices (tags)
Economics is not an immutable unchangeable fate but a human system where changing rules changes outcomes. James Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz are two well-known economists who question the myths of conventional economics, the self-healing, efficient and deregulated market
In the Whirlpool of Deregulation (tags)
The economy changed from real- to finance capitalism since the 1970s. This was not an accidental development. The economic researcher Stephan Schulmeister sees a pattern where deregulation created problems that were fought with more deregulation.
Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning (tags)
markets
Rigging Foreign Exchange Markets (tags)
markets
Market Euphoria During Troubled Times (tags)
markets
Market-conforming Democracy (tags)
Market-conforming democracy," Angela Merkel's guiding idea, is a pleasant-sounding description of plutocracy where the forms still exist but their substance is "financialized," where myths of privatization. corporate beneficence and self-healing markets are zombie gods.
Studying Economics Today is Like Brainwashing (tags)
The blind trust in efficient markets must be replaced and bankers given a new understanding. Profit making is different than profit maximization. Banks should be a public function, not a casino and the real economy and the environment not abandoned.
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
Capitalism is not the Opposite of the State (tags)
Without the permanent intervention of the state, there would be no functioning capitalism. No economic branch depends on the state like the financial branch The deregulation was based on the trick of slandering state regulation as strait-jackets.that could strangle the economy.
Politics Serving Free Financial Markets Creates False Incentives (tags)
Stable exchange rates, a strict regulation of (financial-) capital transactions, a transactions tax and low interest rates should make financial speculation so unattractive (“euthanasia of the profiteer”) that real investments would quickly expand to maintain full employment.
Alternatives to Stagnation and Depression (tags)
Politics has fought the symptoms of the great crisis with banking- and economic packages while its systemic causes remain untouched… The hardest phase of the great crisis is ahead of us, not behind us. All sectors try to safeguard their position through spending cuts...
Addicted to Liquidity Injections (tags)
Bernanke's announcing of lower monthly printing of money was enough to make stock exchanges collapse in many threshold countries. The monetary policy of printing money and zero interest is caught in a vicious circle. Liquidity glut generates credit growth.
Fed
The Ideological Mantra "Competitiveness" (tags)
The policy that Merkel and Co. forced on the crisis countries has led to social catastrophes...The competition ideology has managed to establish the notion that generalized competition is the real human condition.
"Politics prepared the ground for financial war" (tags)
The current economic crisis is a product of political mistakes, economic incompetence and criminal energy. Capitalism altogether has been a declaration of war. Politics bungled deregulation. The wisdom of the market never existed.
10 Theses about the Crisis: Ingo Schulze (tags)
German novelist Ingo Schulze's 2012 "Our Beautiful New Clothes" explains how we have accepted the form without the substance of democracy. People accepted the emperor's new clothes until a child cried "but he has nothing on." Maybe Hans Christian Anderson can help us.
The exodus from the casino capitalism producing ever faster and ever deeper crises cannot succeed without a broad and powerful democratic base. Parliamentary democracy is urged to finally take up the struggle around the primacy of politics
The Elite Look Down on Democracy (tags)
The thought-models of the economy have conquered all other social sciences. The person in these models is a homo oeconomicus, a rational agent whose only drive is maximizing his benefits. Only an action with the driving force of egoism is rational.
The State Should Rescue the Market Economy (tags)
A balance recession is more than a temporary slump of the economy. During a balance recession, private economic actors try to reduce their debts. The cheap money seeps out on the financial markets where it leads to new bubbles. The labor market does not function like other markets. Falling wages did not lead to more employment - as claimed for decades.
Financial War - How Banks and Bandits Endanger our Democracy (tags)
Political failure follows market failure. Participation in system criminality is without risk of prosecution. The financial crisis is not only a system failure. It was caused by human actions in the banking sector that are objectively punishable.
The Competition Ideology - the Greatest Evil of our Age (tags)
The competition ideology has been hammered into our heads for thirty years. Claiming better outcomes are generally realized when everything is poisoned by the competitive is pure ideology. Competition that exceeds the limits of its useful fields orders murderous measures.
Budget Cuts and Happy Times (tags)
For around three decades, a Troika from Wall Street, the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve pushed global (capital) investments with a mixture of tax cuts, cheap credits and overrated securities.
Gold Drops Most in 30 Years (tags)
gold
The BRIC - States: World Economy on a Silk Thread (tags)
In 2013 for the first time since the beginning of European industrialization, the production volumes of the threshold- and developing countries will surpass the volumes of the triad. Sinking real investments is true for all `developed' countries.
Spectacle of Irrationality (tags)
The bailout umbrella may establish a modern kind of feudal rule. The abdication of politics is one of the worst consequences of the financial crisis. Many politicians believe the market-radical nonsense that tax cuts finance themselves.
class war
Three Approaches to the Economic Crisis (tags)
Before 1980, wages, productivity, investments and production pushed one another and ensured general prosperity. After 1980 wages were dropped as a driving force of economic demand. Demand gaps were filled by consumer credits.
Speculators trade in two weeks what the world makes in a year (tags)
The gargantuan size of the financial industry gives its largest players the power to dictate to the world’s governments.
Economists Argue over Distribution Question (tags)
More and more economists take distribution questions seriously. When inequality becomes too great in a national economy, the economy becomes unstable. Private indebtedness and income inequality massively increased in the US Financial markets uncoupled from real economy
Is Capitalism Collapsing? (tags)
One of the causes for the obvious helplessness of the governments is that they function as simple receivers of orders of the financial industry. The financial industry has no interest in a policy that would make it liable for its inflicted disaster..
On the Solutions of Liberal Economists (tags)
The crisis has shaken economics to its foundations. The neoliberal mainstream has lost its support; economists alternate between self-doubt and arrogance. Once they believed in the rationality of economic actors and markets and the notion that financial management exists to serve the real economy.
The state became indebted to bailout the banks. Now the state pays them ever higher interests. The state should guarantee the deposits of small savers, not the debts of banks to other banks or hedge funds. The financial sector must be shriveled, the sector that uncoupled.
Year-end inflation forecast down to 6.2 pct as risk perceptions recover (tags)
Ongoing optimism in Turkish markets, triggered by the latest positive indices, has influenced the risk perceptions regarding foreign investments in the country positively, Turkish Central Bank Governor Erdem Başçı told reporters in Ankara on Thursday.
New Economic Thinking - Turning Away from the Market Fetish (tags)
"New economic thinking" rejects the view of the person as "homo oeconomicus" reduced to maximization of individual benefits and offers a more comprehensive and realistic concept in which justice, norms, routines and emotions appear. "Homo recipocans" is an alternative.
On one hand, industrial capitalism made possible those reforms that are part of democracy. On the other hand, owners of capital fear too much democracy. In the 1980s, the head of Volvo said: Sweden needs Volvo but Volvo doesn't need Sweden.
You can vote as bankers dictate, but is that democracy? (tags)
Officials of the European Central Bank and the European Union apparatus quickly served notice that the pressure is not off by demanding the formation of a government to their liking.
In the Towrope of the Financial Markets (tags)
"High growth has a well-known hook. Surpluses are only possible when natural resources from clear water to rare earth are available, when the energy supply is guaranteed and when the pollutant sinks are sufficient.. The debtors are now those states that had to become indebted.."
Debt's History, Implication and Critical Perspectives (tags)
Graeber currently teaches social anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Economist criticizes "pathological allegience" to economic models (tags)
The crisis was born when Maggie Thatcher and then Bill Clinton deregulated the financial markets. The explosive force that was detonated was incalculable. Economics gave support because it provides models.
The CDM in Africa Cannot Deliver the Money (tags)
At a time the carbon markets face a profound crisis, this report provides critical policy analysis and case documentation about the role of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Africa. Instead of providing an appropriate flow of climate finance for projects related to greenhouse gas mitigation, the CDM has benefited large corporations (both South and North) and the governments they influence and often control. South Africa is a case in point, as both a victim and villain in relation to catastrophic climate change.
The Systemic Causes of the Crisis (tags)
The crisis is 30 years old, not 4 years old. The causes of the crisis can be found in the real goods-producing economy, not in the financial markets. The wildly proliferating financial markets did not drag the industry into crisis but kept alive the industry through credit-financed demand.
The market is a god that has failed (tags)
If the “market” keeps deciding more people should be unemployed, more education should be wasted, more people should not have a decent retirement, more public services should be eliminated, more wages cut while prices rise, and more money should be concentrated in fewer hands at the expense of everybody else, then why should the “market” be a holy sacrament that cannot be questioned?
In the crisis, there was a paradigm based on the belief in unlimited economic growth on a planet with infinite resources. This paradigm identifies happiness with wealth, well-being with accumulation of material goods and progress with consumerism.
What is the Origin of Wealth? (tags)
"Europe faces the choice of falling apart in the crisis or taking steps to another economic model," 50 scholars from the advisory board of Attac Germany declared. They make the connection between the chaos of the financial markets and the scandalous distribution of wealth
Medrciless Samaritans and 10 Causes of the Crisis (tags)
"There is no society. There are only individual men and women," said Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, had a great share in the crisis in which Europe, capitalism and democracy find themselves.
Dominant Economy Pretends Its Breakdown Was Unforeseeable (tags)
The consensus of the past two decades on how the macro-economy functions is shattered. The breakdown of the dominant economy is a consequence of the financial crisis, the "great shock."
Capitalism Doesn't Need Democracy (tags)
The minority of a minority have seriously damaged the public interest for personal enrichment. The community itself is culpable for not resisting its plundering.and choosing representatives that defend its interests.
So much crisis was never analyzed with a crisis-conditioned satisfaction guarantee! Instead of seeking culprits, we must seek the systemic causes of the indebtedness dynamic. These gigantic debt mountains were necessary to keep capitalism functioning. Fewer and fewer workers can producer more and more goods in an ever-shorter time.
"Nature and people are `fictional commodities. When they submit completely to market mechanisms and when markets are not regulated, this leads to people dying who don't find buyers for their labor power..."
Shock Strategy for Europe (tags)
The cocktail of social cuts, deregulation and privatization struck societies like a blow. The economy hit the wall; social securities were taken away. The debt problems were used as "timely opportunities" to gain new ground for the free market.
Alternative for the Euro Zone (tags)
In a new study, leftist economists from a dozen EU countries criticize the policy of the German government in the Euro crisis. Its analysis and the proposed solutions are wrong. The state deficits are not the cause of the crisis. The financial crisis caused the state deficits.
Beyond the Homo Economicus (tags)
The Homo economicus is a kind of calculating machine on two legs that incessantly calculates personal benefits and profit. His conduct follows the model of rational expectations. Incursions of the state will make possible more social equality.
Central Bank Intervention: Much Ado About Nothing (tags)
class war
Criticism of Economists (tags)
Economists with their models could predict the values of economic variables but did not foresee the greatest worldwide economic crisis in 80 years. Mechanical-deterministic neoclassicism is a self-contained theoretical model offering simple answers.
Neoliberalism as Greatest Error in the History of Economic Thought (tags)
Efficiency and prosperity can only be realized on capitalist markets when the economic system is bound in a social order under the primacy of politics. Democratic legitimated politics and the provision of public goods is derived from the "anatomy of market failure."
Deepening Debt Contagion (tags)
economy
Book Review: "The Great Crash or the Century Crisis" by Elmar Altvater (tags)
Capitalism is at an end and the whole world is drawn into the mess. Preventing this is an ethical imperative and a political duty. The multiple crisis has dragged on for years. The political class allows this to happen. Political answers to the debacle can only be found with clarity on causes.
Critical thinking and cultural shock have the power to turn the world upside down (like Jesus' parables and zen koans). Trivializing structural/systemic economic problems as motivational, psychological, bumps in the road or industrial accidents is a perversion.
When Financial Management Paralyzes Democracy (tags)
The 2010 Attac Bank Tribunal in Berlin was a civil society legal proceeding that decried the speculative business model: take excessive risks and burden taxpayers with the costs. Rating agencies should be public. Banks that are too big to fail are too big to exist and should be broken up
Occupy World - The Protest Against the Financial System Intensifies (tags)
Since the beginning of the financial crisis, governments from Berlin to Washington solemnly vowed to regulate the financial system more strongly, close the casino on the financial markets and call to account financially the speculators.for their inflicted damage. Deeds did not follow.
The crisis is 30 years old, not three years old. The causes of the crisis should be tracked down in the real goods-producing economy, not in the financial markets. The financial markets were keep alive up to the collapse of the speculative bubble by credit-financed demand.
Learning Nothing in 80 Years (tags)
The crisis began in the US where the government became heavily indebted after September 11, 2001 in the war against terror and where property owners, banks and hedge funds long lived openly on credit. The German government was laughed at when it prohibited short-selling in 2010
Politics in the Crisis Trap (tags)
A discontinuance of debt-financed economic programs leads to an economic slack period resulting in stagnation and recession. Crisis policy finds itself in a philosophical paradox. The political class can only choose between more indebtedness up to state bankruptcy (with hyper-inflation) or harsh austerity programs.
The World is Out of Joint (tags)
The financial crisis has become a state debt crisis. "The rise of democracy was not possible without the social and legal civilizing of capitalism. The deregulation euphoria of democratic governments made possible the incredible ascent of the financial oligarchy."
Manifesto of Appalled Economists: The Shocked and the Outraged (tags)
Tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations promised economic growth and more jobs but produced exploding inequality and generalized insecurity. The US faces a revenue crisis and a war spending crisis. Tax cuts, wars and bailouts of banks and firms caused massive US deficit.
economy
We live on credit, shift costs and risks into the future and make possible a prosperity with the help of a policy of cheap money that is paid for by others. An interest-free money system would be a counter model to the growth pressure inherent in the present system.
The U.S. is More Greek than Greece (tags)
Deficit economies were organized mainly by finance capital. The expansion of this credit-financed mass demand went along with the expansion of the financial sector. Trillions of dollars and Euros were pumped in the stabilization of financial markets.
Manifesto of Appalled Economists (tags)
State debts may be caused more by reduced corporate tax revenues than excess spending. Through "location competition," corporations play off state and countries and harvest tax write-offs and sweetheart-assessments. Through "state capture," the state becomes a trough.
The End of the "Golden Age" of Capitalism and the Rise of Neoliberalism (tags)
"The central point is that the financial sphere has the potential of developing into an autonomous subsystem of the whole economy with an enormous capacity of self-expansion..Like cancer, it has no internal control mechanism. It can only be brought under control by external interventions"
Revolution in British: Billy Bragg (tags)
Happy MLK Day! There is good in every person. Our ideas about strength and security must change to reflect reality and not jingoistic imperialist delusions. Normalizing war and militarizing foreign policy are perversions that only bring mistrust and cynicism.
The Crisis, Money and Us (tags)
"One we had a coordinated social market economy. This `Rhine' capitalism embodied the insight gained in bitter experience that totally freed markets are self-destructive. This insight was lost somewhere between Friedman and Hayek, Thatcher and Reagan.."
Seven Reasons Why the Economy Can't Recover (tags)
As the recession grinds on, politicians in most industrial countries have an incentive to make exaggerated claims about the supposed coming economic recovery. Some say the recession is over. Obama is in the group that claims we're on "the road to recovery,” while other nations can only spot recovery "on the horizon.” Below are seven important social phenomena that point to a more realistic economic and political outlook. 1) Central Banks are Dumbfounded. The usual tricks that U.S. and European central banks use to avoid recessions are long-exhausted. Interest rates cannot get any lower. And because cheap money wasn't working, the printing press was turned up a notch, into what the U.S. federal reserve calls quantitative easing -- injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the world economy, escalating an emerging trade war.
The Financial Crisis and the Failure of the Modern Economy (tags)
The US government debt shot up from 2.9% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2008 and 11.9% in 2009. At the summits of Washington, London and Pittsburg, the goat was made the gardener. Ineffective rules were resolved that hardly helped regulate the financial markets.
Manifesto of French Economists: Why We Are Shocked (tags)
On October 11 three million French workers were on strike against President Sarkozy's authoritarian attacks on social security and pensions. "Despite its obvious debacle, the neoliberal dogma is still regarded as the only correct economic system."
The Banking and Financial Crisis (tags)
"The transition from a long-term to a short-term orientation went along with the exaggerated profit goals. The approach of shareholder value sets maximum profits and dividends in the center of business policy and no longer long-term investments and the interests of employees.."
"Severe Austerity Programs will have Catastrophic Consequences" (tags)
"Instead of real growth, the financial sector has only promoted phantom growth. The state functions differently than a family. Less should be spent for unproductive purposes like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and unconditional bank bailout packages.."
Saving is not a Solution (tags)
The capital markets repeatedly force the real economy to its knees. The savings orgy should help heavily indebted states regain the trust of the financial markets. In a play from the madhouse, states must run into debt to bailout their money-houses.
Stimulus or Austerity: the People vs. the Banks (tags)
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:
The Rebirth of Economic Thought from the Ashes of the Crisis (tags)
Reagan announced the state was "the problem" for the functioning of the economy. State action could not solve economic problems. The latest reality of economic crisis thoroughly destroyed the neoclassical theses. The crisis showed its ideological limitation and conditionality.
How Recessions Cause Wars and Revolutions (tags)
A quick glance around the globe reveals a ruined international economy, wars and more wars in the works, and revolutionary movements aplenty — all connected phenomena. No, the apocalypse is not coming; but the international economic system currently used to arrange the social order is crumbling, taking everyone down with it. The global capitalist system is in far worse shape than most people realize: it may only take the tiny economy of Greece to go bankrupt to break this camel’s back — and finally the word “recession” will be antiquated and “depression” will be in vogue.
Attac's Bank Tribunal: The Jury's Verdict (tags)
This crisis did not break out over society like a force of nature. Financial managers spread the legend that financial crises belong to capitalism as water belongs to the ocean and that euphoric phases of bubble formation and the bursting of bubbles come and go like the seasons.
Human Rights Before Trade Rules (tags)
Bread for the World shows that a fundamentally different trade and economic policy oriented in human rights is possible and very necessary. Many rich countries subsidize their farmers so their foodstuffs can be produced below the real costs and sold cheaply on the world market.
There is only one economy (tags)
The stock exchange produces nothing. Speculations and bets do not create any assets, even if the daily stock market reports on television try to get us to believe the opposite. That the financial markets make themselves independent is the result of political decisions.
Bank Tribunal: In the Claws of Speculators (tags)
The enormous rise in prices of oil and food in the summer of 2008 was largely caused by speculation. Thousands upon thousands of people died of starvation at that time. Politics was a compliant accessory of the financial branch. The Bank Tribunal will be from April 9-11 in Berlin.
Finance Capitalism Devalues Labor (tags)
Businesses are capital investments in the hands of shareholders. Consequently managers only serve the interests of shareholders.
VIDEO: Joseph Stiglitz' "Freefall" on BookTV (tags)
"Incentives matter. Short-sighted behavior on an annual basis involved excessive risk taking. `Too big to fail' is ersatz capitalism socializing losses.
Greed, the Corrupt System and Shadow Banking (tags)
A sudden change of thought patterns has occurred. For thirty years, the dogmas were in effect: trust in the self-healing powers of the market, the sleek state is the best of all possible states and economic policy will be unnecessary if the central banks fights inflation.
Lessons from the Crisis (tags)
Governments are extorted by multinational corporations. Those who made massive profits with bank business must now answer for the losses. The taxpayer may not pay for their crises. If control is not exercised by politics, banks will become absolute rulers with a state guarantee.
As 10 years ago, there is again resistance against the chaotic, polarizing destructive power of the markets and against the false alternatives of the governments. A globally democratized climate justice requires turning away from the status quo and the "imperial lifestyle."
The Rules of the Game, Not the Players (tags)
In the last three decades, the financial markets have grown much faster than production.. The respective players (whether public or private) are not the problem but the rules of the game.. The goals and means of production must be redefined
The High Risk Business of Banks (tags)
The model of financial market capitalism collapsed with the greatest crisis of the financial markets since the worldwide economic crisis at the end of the 20s. The enormous accumulation of financial assets was based on redistribution of incomes continuing for 30 years.
The climate- and financial crises have one thing in common. Both are consequences of a gigantic market failure. Nature and the future of humanity are not at the table when market actors negotiate conditions and aim at their advantages.
How Neoliberal Ideology Destabilized the World Balance: Krugman and Galbraith (tags)
"If the depression has not openly erupted, all the features of the 1930s are having a spectacular comeback." (Paul Krugman) To free the US from the claws of private interests, James Galbraith urges the public authority to set social and ecological norms.
The Crisis of Capitalism: Credit-Doping (tags)
"The social market economy blows the wealth of this society in speculation rather than in higher wages, higher pensions or unemployment benefits.. All capital transactions with tax havens should be prohibited.. Instead of democratization, we growing centralization in a few hands.."
Capitalism is the Problem: System Error (tags)
The chaos that we now witness is only the latest crisis of the global economic system. The system has not succeeded in keeping profits at the level of the postwar years. What is good for one capitalist is not necessarily good for the system. Triple-digit billions have been pumped into system
The Crisis of Speculative Capitalism (tags)
The bubble bursts when debtors cannot pay and a bankruptcy crisis develops at the end.. The illusion of the stock exchange as a roulette with guaranteed permanent profits burst with the New Economy bubble..Only the worldwide regulation of the financial markets can avert their collapse.
Economic Policy after the Financial Crisis: Keynes (tags)
Keynes saw political control of markets and a distribution and social policy in favor of lower income groups as essential prerequisites of a stable long-term macro-economic development.. Three-hour workdays or a 15-hour week would be enough.
Attac France on the Stiglitz Report (tags)
If the world really lives through a systemic crisis, solutions must also be sou9ght on this plane. Regrettably the mandate limits the commission to reform the international monetary system. The UN is the only institution with a democratic legitimacy.
Zhibin Gu: China stock market, outsourcing, banking, finance, politics map (tags)
how to walk out the mud of global financial cisis? How to get better world politics and business map? Is Chinese century arriving sooner? What is really behind all the changes inside Chinese and Indian politics, business, finance and society? Get most provocative economic and political lessons and knowledge from a timely book covering long history and revolution of both Mao's era and current capitalist revolution in relation to world finance, competition, and entrepreneurship.
The Return of the State (tags)
The state is welcome again in this plight. The brazenness with which those who caused the crisis now demand state subsidies to bailout the financial system is just as breathtaking as the state readiness to fulfill this demand.
fbi/cia illegal funding of their global crime spree (tags)
The financial markets must find new global leadership because the NYSE, SEC and other government bodies (like Congress) allow the USA intel services to defraud the world in order to finance their ongoing crime spree worldwide.
Argentinization of the US and Currency War (tags)
"After the great killing of the bison, the basic food of Indians, the great killing of the US dollar, the basic food of today's credit-junkie, could now be imminent.. A deficit amounting to 13% of the GDP is more than four times what was established as the convergence criterion of the European Union."
Economic Crisis and the Crisis of Neoliberal Ideology (tags)
The crisis has his origins in the "real" economy. Inequality is the ideological motor of neoliberfalism. German president Kohler described the financial markets as a monster. The metaphor has changed from market as rational subject to monster.
Post-neoliberalism or post-capitalism? (tags)
"Market-liberalisation was accompanied by a far-reaching de-regulation of politics. Milton Friedman called it a “neo-liberal counterrevolution” against Keynesianism..."
Austria: Crash Instead of Cash (tags)
In 1978 the Bretton Woods system broke down since the US abandoned the key function of the US dollar to print money to finance the Vietnam War.. The liberalization of the financial markets started a mechanism in which the worldwide population loses.
Manipulation - How Markets Really Work (tags)
Insiders move markets up or down for profit.
The Market Must Serve Society (tags)
In the past, the village green and market swuare were surrounded by the church, town hall, school and hospital. Without these social institutions, there would be no market. This is also true for today's global financial markets.
Welch's Marvelous Transformation (tags)
Nearly all the excesses summarized unter the terms turbo- or casino capitalism are based on the ideology of shareholder value: the rule of financial markets over the real economy, the short-term and short-sightedness of shareholders and waves of rationalizations."
Attac Catalogue for Democratizing the Financial Markets (tags)
The financial industry contributed over $5 billion in the last year in campaign gifts and lobbying to ensure that Wall Street oligarchs have their way in the media and congress. Attac is a global justice network committed to shriveling the financial markets.
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part IV (tags)
Federal Reserve plunder Part IV
The End of Finance Market Capitalism: Renaissance of Socialism? (tags)
The crisis offers an historical chance to civilize an unbridled capitalism with reform policy. The future relation of market and state is the focus of attention.. Financial markets are characterized by herd behavior. Risk consciousness disappears.
The Vacuum of World Trade Breaks Down (tags)
The unbridled free market was an illusion that gave free rein to greed and speculation and the dominance of the financial markets. Shareholder value made the profits of shareholders absolute and set short-term gain over long-term necessity.
The crisis calls for system alternatives and redistribution from top to bottom. Will the financial crisis encourage the transition to a new social order? A certain mix of good functioning markets and a strong welfare state leads to the best results.
The Foxes Guard the Henhouse (tags)
The banks must be forced to give credits to small and medium-size businesses. The general strike in France on January 29 was a sign of hope. Shriveling the financial markets must be the goal. Free trade is the wrong medicine.
Leading Economist Decries Power of Wall Street "Oligarchs" (tags)
n a fascinating piece in the latest issue of The Atlantic, Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, outlines what he sees as the alarming influence of Wall Street firms over the American economy. He expounds on his thesis in our interview, making several points:
The Misery of the WTO: For a Reinvention of World Trade (tags)
The crisis of the WTO has two causes: a lack of trust and an ideological prejudice. A lack of trust exists because the countries of the North judge trade with two standards: free trade for the South and protectionism for their own economies.
The truth is, none of the 20 leaders gathered in London has the slightest idea how to 'solve' the economic problems facing the globe....this is a crisis endemic to capitalism, where markets swallow markets and wealth is made by con games that would make the Mafia blush, by the biggest banks on earth. The latest economic summit was PR, amidst the flames of chaos.
The Culture of Mistrust (tags)
"Total mistrust prevails on the financial market. How can the state restore trust when trust in the state was decried for years? When all public affairs are changed into private affairs, citizens only see themselves as private citizens and the state becomes a business.."
China politics, economy speaker: history, business, competition, entrepreneurship, jobs (tags)
Watch out on the surging Chinese economic power! What is really inside Chinese business, politics and economic world? How to take advantages of China's expanding market, cheap labor, and rising retail consumption? Get great information and analysis from elite speaker George Zhibin Gu from London Speaker Bureau
fbi/cia criminal operations globally (tags)
See the following two reports on fbi/cia corruption and criminal activities globally. QUESTIONS! geral sosbee (956)371-5210
U.S. Socialists: Obamanomics offers little hope for working people (tags)
Considering the track record of the government bailouts to save the “free market,” socialists believe an additional $2 trillion will not ease up credit markets and will do little to ease the on-going national economic crisis. Congress has presently invested more than $2 trillion since February 2008 to free up the credit markets; however, the credit markets remain as frozen as Antarctica.
"Down the Memory Hole," Alan Greenspan Style (tags)
Greenspan-caused housing bubble
China speaker: stock market, finance, politics, economy vs global financial crisis (tags)
Is Chinese or Indian century emerging sooner in light of global fnancial crisis? What is the next in global job, manufacturing and research transfers? What is really inside Chinese business, politics and economic world? How to take advantages of China's expanding market, cheap labor, and rising retail consumption? Get first hand information and analysis from elite speaker George Zhibin Gu from London Speaker
China's global reach: Chinese business, finance, politics, economy vs world finance mess (tags)
Is Chinese century emerging sooner? What is really inside Chinese business, politics and economic world? How to take advantages of China's expanding market, cheap labor, and rising retail consumption? Get great information and analysis from elite speakper George Zhibin Gu from London Speaker Bureau
GERMANY: Oscar Lafontaine on the Financial Markets (tags)
"The present crisis cannot be overcome without a regulation of the financial markets.. When banks are given billions through the so-called bank bailout and these billions disappear somewhere, that is a misappropriation or embezzlement of tax funds.."
Funding For USA's Intel Operations (tags)
Lift the veil to discover the sources for fbi/cia global covert criminal intel operations.
Time for a Bad Ideas Bank (tags)
The global economic disaster plunges economics into a legitimation crisis-not yet noticed by the vast majority of the affected. The current financial crisis involves dogmas that markets function best and correct their own mistakes.
The Blood of the Black Sheep (tags)
Crisis and Catharsis. Capitalism begins its great self-purging to remain what it is. The Wall Street boys and girls have not forgotten how to make money amid crisis. The speculation bubbles burst. The fictional wealth dissolves in thin air thanks to falling home prices and stock prices.
Back from the Wilderness: Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
Economy theory has long explained why unhindered markets do not correct themselves, why regulation was necessary and why the government had an important role to play int he economy. Many who worked for the financial markets forced a kind of market fundamentalism.
The Future Role of the State: Guaranteeing Rights (tags)
"The modern state as a constitutional state and participative democracy has a universal social security function and overall responsibility for the development of the economy according to basic rights."
From Real Estate Speculation to Collapse of Global Deficit Economy (tags)
Joy to the world, the world of fallen idols and bubble transfer. The truth will set us free but the truth is a process, not a cudgel or stimulus. After the dot-com bubble, trillions were "invested" in real estate speculation. The crisis of the work society is the background for low interests.
Bank of America Forces Workers to Suffer (tags)
Bank of America, founded in California, has pressured Republic Windows to withhold paychecks from workers, AFTER gettinga 45 bil bailout from our taxes.
Global Crisis-Made in the USA (tags)
The ecdonomy should serve humankind; humankind should not serve the bankers.
Welcome to Finance Market Capitalism (tags)
The financial market escapades must be the problem because capitalism itself cannot be the problem. The state bailout measure prepares the ground for inflationary developments.
Tribunal for Speculators (tags)
The collapse of the delusional neoliberal idea frees our view for the necessity of a completely different society and a planetary social contract. Bankers are jungle highwaymen. Investments only pay where human rights are realized. The price of rice soared 83% within only six months.
The wages of sin have come due.
Public Enemy Number One (tags)
Fed- engineered crisis.
Past sins are coming home to roost.
Capitalism changed into "finance-driven" capitalism. The profit rates for industrial capital fell in the past decades. Washington could be paralyzed under the debt yoke like Japan in the early 1990s. After decades of market idolization, the US has rediscovered political power.
The October Surprise - Global Panic (tags)
It's not over.
"We are in an epoch shift" (tags)
Free markets became wild markets. The post-socialist blessing became the turbo-capitalist curse. The state allowed the monitoring of banks to be de facto privatized. Politics allowed the markets to run wild. In turbo-capitalism, contracting debts was trendy and saving was Philistine.
AJLPP Condemns Capitalist Bailout (tags)
he US House of Representatives approved a $700 billion bailout package for US banks, under pressure from all sides as the effort to head off a spreading financial crisis hung in the balance. President Bush happily signed the bill into a law at the White House today. October 3, 2008.
Bush and the neocons caused it all (tags)
Al jazeera tells it all
The Future as Possibility: Elmar Altvater (tags)
The state should not be a trough for the super-wealthy. Representatives representing money and not the people are marionettes of a corrupt campaign financing system. The system must be changed if it is to survive. Call Congress 1-800-270-0309.
Political Economy of the Financial Markets (tags)
Financial markets are not described here as anonymous zones of self-regulation but as instruments of private actors enforcing their own business interests on state institutions. Structural deficits cause the crises, e.g.massive liquidity.
No to the Bailout of the Capitalist Speculators! (tags)
The financial crisis that has been heating up since early 2007 reached the boiling point in late September. Credit markets virtually stopped functioning. A full-blown panic swept stock markets worldwide. The U.S. economy is in the throes of a recession that could turn into a Depression lasting for years. In these dire straits, the Wall Street speculators who set off this crisis are demanding that the government rescue them with a bailout priced at $700 billion. The actual costs will be far higher, a trillion dollars or more. Meanwhile, the Democrats are pushing hardest for the Bush bailout of the banks. Presidential candidate Barack Obama blames "greed" for the crisis on Wall Street (capitalism without greed?) and says there must be no "blank check to Washington" -- meaning he's for putting in a few conditions as window dressing. Following in the Democrats' footsteps, the AFL-CIO labor bureaucrats called a demo for "No Blank Check for Wall Street." Yet no amount of regulation will stop the boom-bust cycle of capitalism. Meanwhile unemployment lines are growing and a million families were thrown out of their homes by bank foreclosures in the last year. While the fat cats, Democrats and bureaucrats are all going for the Bush bailout to prop up U.S. capitalism, revolutionary Marxists oppose this trillion-dollar giveaway to the Wall Street speculators, calling instead for a program of transitional demands leading to the expropriation of the banks and the entire bourgeoisie through workers revolution.
Bail-Out, Economic Democracy and the Socialist Path (tags)
David Schweickart, political philosopher, discusses the financial crisis, what it exposes about capitalism, how it can set the stage for economic democracy, and open the socialist path.
Growth and Social Justice: Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
The trickle-down economy does not function. The left understands the market and rhe role the market can and should play in the economy. The right doesn't understand either. The Bush administration is nothing but the old corporatism in a new garment.
"The negotiations in the NTO changed into a battle of the developed countries for their mammoth corporations over the market opening of developing countries. Access to education, health care, water-and energy-supply and telecommunciations should be human rights."
"Frontrunning" Against Humanity in the Oil Markets (tags)
Frontrunning is an insiders' term for an often illegal, always immoral practice in commodity and other markets. Speculation leads directly to hardship, starvation, death and warfare.
The Time is Ripe: Democratic Controls of the Financial Markets! (tags)
Like the melting of the dollar, the energy, food and housing crises have systemic roots, the logic and dynamic of maximum profit.. The US is experiencing a "margin call." The world wants its money back. The economy and the financial markets should serve people, not vice versa.
Crisis Populism and Rose-Colored Glasses (tags)
When it concerns socializing the losses of the financial disaster, the head of Deutsche Bank no longer believes in the "self-healing power of the market." The bankruptcy of neoliberalism is blatant.
Deregulated Markets and Alternative Economics (tags)
In the last ten years there was more speculationthan ever, more than before the 1930 worldwide economic crisis. A policy of deregulated financial markets made this possible. That real investment profits turn out relatively small encourages the speculation tendency.
How Speculators Are Causing the Cost of Living to Skyrocket (tags)
Speculation results in preposterous exaggerations, with real consequences for the economy. The excesses of financial markets are sending the world economy into convulsions. The financial markets have developed into a "monster" that needs to be tamed (Horst Kohler).
World Bank president Robert Zoelick compared the food shortage to the Old Testament's "seven plagues" but forgot to mentionthe eighth is the World Bank itself. The World Bank insists on agricultural production for export, not for the local supply of the population.
This Dec 1997 essay by the editor of Le Monde diplomatique kindled the global justice movement Attac.
Global Economic Meltdown (tags)
Financial Instability is Leading to an Economic Catastrophe
Economic troubles are broad, deep and worrisome.
Grow Them Young, Pay Them Well - anti-Chavistas, That Is (tags)
Who said crime doesn't pay? Read on.
Farewell to Neoliberalism (tags)
State interventions in the economy are unpopular and generally regarded as "against the system"-when the state interferes in profiteering. In the case of a crisis, the losses should be socialized.
Why Are Banks Failing, Mr. Giegold? (tags)
The crisis will cost massive job losses and strain public budgets. The policy of market opening that refuses social and ecological regulations is a disaster. We must raise new taxes. Closing the tax havens would also be desirable.
The economy is not what they are saying!5 (tags)
"And another horror is that the stock market went up, which is Pretty Freaking Strange (PFS) since Barron’s reports that the earnings of the Dow Jones Industrials went down, dropping to $225.53 from $234.49. This has produced the unbelievable price-to-earnings ratio of 57! Earnings are going down, but the stocks are going up! To a P/E of 57! Un-freaking-believable!"
Workers Pay for Their own Impoverishment (tags)
A whole series of factors are combining to undermine the financial position of banks. None of this happened by chance. It is only to be expected that brokers should seize every opportunity to line their pockets. They use innovations to kid themselves they can abolish risk.
Psychology has a great influence on developments of the world econmy. In Tokyo, the G7 states agreed to avoid negative terms to not worsen the situation. Neither the extreme price drop of the dollar nor of the Yen were mentioned in the final declaration.
The Asian Crisis of 1997-1998: Deregulation (tags)
Enormous capital streamed in short-term monetary investments that could dissolve at any time, not in lasting direct investments. Higher stock prices and home prices fueled the credit boom. Deregulated finance markets are everything but efficient.
Attac Germany on the Subprime Crisis (tags)
The crisis can't be solved with a few surveillance cameras in the global casino. The party was quickily over when the real estate prices stopped soaring. Investors are often guided by a herd behavior. Sustainable economy should have a prioirity over short-term profits.
The Crisis of Speculative Capitalism (tags)
Since the end of July 2007, the world economy was shocked by a new severe crisis of the financial markets. The courage to regulate the financial markets to prevent a future uncoupling from the productive economy is still obviously absent. The hour of truth will inevitably come.
Is the "Mother of all Financial Crises" Imminent? (tags)
A trade-weighted devaluation of the dollar of around 25 percent is necessary allowing the US currency to ski "gradually and orderly" against free-floating currencies. The IMF could establish a "substitution account" with "special drawing rights" to avert a dollar panic.
US Crisis Sends Europe's Housing Market into Free Fall (tags)
Investor George Soros sees the worst economic crisis since the Second World War as the aftermath of heavy debts and the credit crunch. Speculative greed for profits and contempt for whistle-blowers led to the crisis. Will there be system correction or only cosmetics?
Dislocations and Crises (tags)
Liberalization of the finance markets started a mechanism where the broad mass of the world's population lost. Only a few conglomerates and wealthy persons are winners.
After the crisis of 1997, not one important fianncial reform was carried out in the world. Liberalizationof capital markets causes instability and not necessarily growth. In South Korea, the IMF recommended the sale of state banks to US investors.
The Cart in the Speculative Mud (tags)
Liberalizing markets leads to instability, not growth. Developing and thresholdc countries suffer grievously through US speculation. The New Year is a time to abandon myths of American exceptionalism and corporate beneficence, mending our own pockets and footprints.
Rating Agencies and Prophets (tags)
Some think rating agencies inevitably take the side of their patrons - to the burden of those who buy these "financial products" in good faith in the objective judgment of the auditors. Of course, the agencies refuse liability.
Social Economies and Political Conflicts (tags)
Most of our serious social, ecological and economic problems can only be solved bottom-up with the insight and will of concerned citizens. The challenge consists in a radical democratization of the economy. Otherwise we put the cart before the horse and bridle the horse by the tail.
Submissiveness Toward the Finance Markets (tags)
Finance market transactions must be made more expensive. Finance market critics warn of a casino capitalism. Are businesses only objects of speculation for global invewstment capital?
"The Dollar Will Fall Enormously" (tags)
The American balance of payments deficit must be reduced. Today's business model is dead. Moody's rating agency will be the Arthur Andersen of this decade.
On the "Wealth Creation" of the Financial Sector (tags)
My counter-thesis is that a huge waste of economic resources occurs in the area of financial services. Competitive games, the worldwide casino and the invention of securities bundling rotten mortgages are not productive achievements of the capital market.
Deregualtion and liberalization have contributed to the present chaos. Through deregualtion and internationalization, getting into and out of investments as fast as lightning becomes possible.
Billions Dissolve in Thin Air (tags)
While the political class practices faith healing, all the participants know the end is coming when more speculative bubbles burst. The popular dogma that financial markets and the world economy are more efficient when deregulated and liberalized is over.
Beware of Falling Bankers! (tags)
Like the car, our sacred cow that is not discussed, speculation and prosperity based on credit are taboo subjects. The system is corrupt and its answers wrong. Will we mend our own pockets as China closes its wallet? Critical thinking, culture shock, alternative economic and Jesus' parables can be new beginnings.
BILLIONS IN PUT OPTIONS PURCHASED BETTING THAT THE MARKET WILL CRASH BY 9-21 (tags)
You can see why banks are running scared...they know the bottom can fall out at any moment. I'd suggest keeping minimal deposits in banks and holding on to cash.
Market Efficiency Hokum (tags)
Debunking the myth that free markets work best.
Building Bridges Radio: Utah Mine Disaster; Midsummer Markets Meltdown (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28.5 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON INTERNET LINK BELOW
Book review of Benjamin Barber's "Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole"
as traders jump
The Big Meltdown: PAUL KRUGMAN - Financial Crisis; Democrats seek more war funds than Bush (tags)
KRUGMAN: If we’re going to have a financial crisis, here’s how it will play out. THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AND MORE
Governing against the People (tags)
The dream of 1989 that democracy and capitalism can be reconciled fades.. Elected governments orient their decisions in trans-national groups and global finance markets.
Warning: You Are About To Enter The 4th Dimension Of Your Life. (tags)
This is about the truly astonishing story of a commodity trader of Swiss-Iranian and Baha'i origin (see www.bahai.org) who has sought refuge in the United States since 2000 and who is the object of an incredible conspiracy by the Swiss banks and other very powerful actors against him, in order to destroy him personally and professionally with the objective to prevent his democratic plans for world unity and economic justice from ever materializing. You can now access his new modest homepage at Geocities for more information.
Economic Values and Impending Collapse (tags)
Foreboding has hit the ranks of private equity firms; try as they might to unload vast amounts of funds (monetary value is inextricably linked to the movement of those funds) they have been unable to spend/invest at a rate that would sustain value let alone increase real profits! The ‘healthy figures’ reflecting increased acquisitions/investments are on paper only – it ‘looks good’ at the moment!
Creditor instead of Citizen (tags)
Do the capital markets undermine democracy?
World Trade Center 7 and Financial Markets (tags)
911 Inside job. Why World trade center 7 came down.
In the Stagnation Trap: Capitalist Development (tags)
Demands for a different distribution and re-distribution, for economic democracy and social regulation opposing market radicalism must be in the foreground. Crisis and opportunity are represented by the same Chinese letter.
Re-Regulation of the Economy (tags)
"Finance markets become judges over the economy punishing mistakes with (threaten-ed) capital flight." Resisting re-regulation represses blind spots and confuses the goat and the gardener, the market and the fire dept and the problem and the solution.
provocative book on China and globalization (tags)
New book reveals what is China and current global affairs.
WHAT THE PRICE OF GOLD MAY BE TELLING US (tags)
A political commentary on why gold prices are rising.
U.S. TRADE DEFICIT DEVASTATING ECONOMY (tags)
The U.S. economy is being sold to the highest bidders in the world trade markets and our trade deficit is destroying our economy. Americans risk losing everything due to poor leadership in Washington D.C.
The fianncial markets, the fifth branch, are probably the most important markets today. Many remain excluded from this time- and space compression. Most people are barred from the advantages of globalization like greater mobility and improved communication
Smoke Signals: Rebellion of the Periphery (tags)
The young French of North African descent are outraged over a policy of transforming labor markets into slave markets that began in the EU.. Being a slave has already become a privilege.
Constitutional State without Human Rights (tags)
"A kind of worldwide dictatorship of the national security of the US is to be established..This policy of the worldwide totalization of markets abolishes a large part of human rights.."
The New Inequality Machine (tags)
From the middle of the seventies, the interest rates exceeded the real growth rates. This made it even more attractive for owners of capital to invest their money in the financial markets rather than the real economy.
Any realistic analysis of the Bush Administration and it's impact on the US and Global economy indicates that the US Dollar is being demolished. - Greensplat
Representatives of orthodox market theory are not weary emphasizing that the causes of crises only refer to economic errors in the afflicted countries. This 1988 Austrian warning calls us to resist the ideology of market fundamentalists.
The immanent planned collapse ... US Silent As Euro Screams Higher
The Demon and its Conjuring Trick: Money (tags)
"The light in which the glboal financial markets operate is very dim.. Unveiling the money fetish is a task of economic literacy. The monetary sphere seems uncoupled from the real economy, the world of work.."
Inflationary Deflation or the Dominance of the Global Financial Markets (tags)
"When real interests are above real growth rates of the GDP, debtors are structurally overstrained. The debt crisis of the 1980s and the financial crises of the past decade suggest that a kind of post-modern `plundering capitalism' is arising.."
Who Owns the Sky? Reviving the Commons (tags)
"Not since the Golden Age of the 1890s has so much public wealth been shoveled into private hands with such brazen efficiency. Timber companies, corporate ranchers and foreign mining companies.. are plundering our national patrimony.."
MILLER CALLS FOR ASSASINATIONS (tags)
Dennis Miller, political operative and former comedian, called on Bush for more killings. Bad guys is the term Miller used for the victims of the Bush cartel who rarely get trials before they are murdered. Miller made no joke at Bush's expense on CNBC.
Where Can Liberals Go to Get Respect? (tags)
Libertarian logic is circular -- If something isn't working, the solution is always the same: We need even freer markets and even less regulation -- without a mystical faith in free markets, their arguments fall apart.
US to the 3rd World: ''Do as I say, not as I do'' (tags)
Emerging markets like Brazil, India, and Mexico should not strive for a mythical free-market economy (which never existed, nor follow the encomiums of US special interests -- for they preach free markets but rely on the government to advance their aims.
"Stop GATS!" Against Privatization of Services (tags)
"The `Washington Consensus' from the 80s promised that a neoliberal policy - liberalization and deregulation - would be good for eveyrone. In fact, local structures are destroyed, human lives are annihilated through hunger and poverty.."Trans fr German
Pentagon's Betting Parlor of Assassinations and Coups (tags)
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Pentagon's Terrorism Futures Market Plan Condemned (tags)
The Pentagon [was about to set] up a stock-market style system in which investors would bet on terror attacks, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Defense officials hope[d] to gain intelligence and useful predictions while investors who guessed right would win profits.
Markets headed for another shitkicking tomorrow (tags)
All indications are that the markets are going to nosedive again tomorrow. Investors are advised to do thir 'profit-taking' good and early.
How many know the truth about the scam called wall street???
Profound Effect on U.S. Economy Seen in a War on Iraq (tags)
from the New York Times-online, monday July 29
Denominational disaster as Bush mixes up his D-words (tags)
Oops. The Idiot tripped on his own tongue again. On www.indymedia.org, the person posting this story (ID#137159) proposes that Bush's apparent slip was, in fact, intentional -- so that his cronies could profit from the resultant currency fluctuation. Perhaps. More likely, the Moron just flubbed things up once again; and his Wall Street Dons, who knew he had merely mispoken, were probably able to take advantage in the interim before things were clarified.
World leaders defend globalisation in face of protests (tags)
An anti-globalization protester strolls past a burning car as widespread clashes with police erupted though out Genoa July 20, 2001. Police have been expecting violence as some 150,000 anti-globalization protesters took to the streets as Group of Eight leaders gathered for a 3 day meeting in the northern Italian city. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)