This recent story of a $ 50 billion pyramid scheme that duped supposedly competent investors and banks is just another symptom of the moral hazard that has dominated economics for the past decade. All of these banks and investors that lost millions fooled themselves. They are supposed to be competent fiduciaries, and were paid for …
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Category:3 The World of Money
Next, the FED will pay you to borrow their money.
The US FED has dropped interest rates to the floor: zero to a quarter of a percent. That probably won’t have a big impact, except short term (a day or so) on stock market sentiment. But if banks aren’t actually lending to businesses, then its not going to stimulate economic activity. So, maybe negative rates …
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Microfinance: Banking on the poor – Ethical Corp
Microfinance – Banking on the poor As the global financial system buckles, microfinance institutions continue to grow on the back of their record for low risk and solid returns by Rajesh Chhabara, Ethical Corp Microfinance gives small-scale financial services such as loans, savings, insurance and money transfer to poor customers who would otherwise not have …
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Optimistic? Pestimistic? No. Realistic
You’re right to try to be optimistic. Or at least positive. A positive outlook helps keep spirits up, helps avoid despondency. despondency can be the worst because then you just stop doing anything and sink in to a mire of desperation. But optimism about the outlook could be even more dangerous. It could result in …
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Chinese Yuan XR volatility – Q and A
Reuters published an interesting analysis of the recent depreciation of the Yuan here, including implications, dangers and analyst expectations. It’s copied here below. If depreciation is market driven, a big if, then the depreciation may be appropriate and help revitalise Chinese exports and in turn western consumption. Whether or not the value has been engineered, …
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Just how big is the hole in the financial system? This big …
An interesting graphic from http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2DePAZe2gA/STAqqdE8CfI/AAAAAAAAGks/WrursaMDRIM/s1600-h/expend.png The amount committed in this crisis by the US alone is close to $ 8 trillion. The breakdown by Bloomberg is here and a recent update is here. The amount actually spent so far is closer to $ 3.5 trillion, but that’s still a big number.
Finally! The US has owned up to a recession.
It has been a long time coming but it looks as though the US is finally owning up to an economic recession. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the US entered a recession in December 2007. It does not forecast the length of the recession, however, data suggest that the slowdown is …
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World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009
The United Nations released part of their World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 today. The chapter Global Outlook is available here (pdf) and the slide show summarising the Outlook is available here (pdf). I strongly recommend reading the slide show which should take about 5 minutes, and then continue to the chapter if you like. …
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Save the banks, but let the biosphere die.
The planet is now so vandalised that only total energy renewal can save us is a passionate article highlighting the urgency of changing our consumption patterns by George Monbiot in The Guardian. The article outlines the accelerating climate change that has now reached beyond the modest changes discussed a decade ago. Today the volatility in …
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Yoga and the Economic Crisis
Read Pam’s essay Yoga in the Economic Crisis – Maintaining Emotional Health in Hard Times. In it she talks about how yoga help, why it works and mentions some alternatives too. Maybe it’s worth getting a bit of yoga in your life.