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Tag Archives: Wall Street
Good debt, bad debt and unreal debt
Governments, corporations and people borrow to pay for something they need now, but don’t have enough cash/savings to pay for now. If that something is a hard economic asset (say, a power station, or a house), part of the future … Continue reading
Posted in debt, financial markets, risk
Tagged bank behaviour, delusion, derivatives, investment banking, Wall Street
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Phantom recovery
Highlights from yesterday’s US Government press release on jobs: unemployment down in one month from 7% to 6.7%; 74,000 new jobs created in December. Sounds OK doesn’t it? The economy must be recovering … (Wall Street rose a bit on … Continue reading
Posted in employment, tough times
Tagged BLS, delusion, economic growth, employment, Federal Reserve, jobs, unemployment, US economy, Wall Street
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The market v the economy in two graphs
The exuberance in the western world’s stock markets is palpable. The lead is coming from Wall Street where the end of year celebration was lubricated by a 30% gain. Thanks to the Federal Reserve printing $1 trillion out of thin … Continue reading
Posted in financial markets
Tagged delusion, economic growth, Federal Reserve, market value, Wall Street
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Bubbles anywhere?
Just about every relevant source I read is now writing about bubbles. Are we, or aren’t we, inflating bubbles? The Economist is typical: “TALK of bubbles is in the air again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit an all-time … Continue reading
Posted in financial markets
Tagged bubbles, delusion, Federal Reserve, market value, US economy, Wall Street
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Pope Francis on inequality … an update
The Pope’s “missive” has caused quite some reaction. I enjoyed this informative post in the Wonkblog at the Washington Post. Pope Francis has a few thoughts about the global economy. We added these 13 charts. It’s an excellent recital of the … Continue reading
Posted in inequality, politics and leadership
Tagged elites, priorities, Russell Brand, The Pope, Wall Street
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Swiss fat cats
I have commented before about the interesting democratic process in Switzerland. If 100,000 people get activated about a single issue they can petition for a country wide referendum. This is a way better concept that having politicians argue over ridiculous … Continue reading
Posted in inequality
Tagged bank behaviour, elites, fat cat salaries, group think, inequality, investment banking, Wall Street
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Banks. Don’t you just love ’em?
Before 2008 there were five enormous investment banks on Wall Street. These were not banks with tellers and branches looking after ordinary people and businesses. These were the deal makers. As the financial crisis unfolded, first Bears Sterns got into … Continue reading
Twitter IPO
I use Twitter every day. But not to tweet. Configured to follow the right news sources (BBC, NYT, Reuters, The Economist, RT and others) it makes a truly excellent news feed to keep up with what was going on. Today … Continue reading
Posted in financial markets, technology
Tagged Bloomberg, delusion, derivatives, Federal Reserve, Ford, market value, Twitter, Wall Street
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something 2 ponder 