10 Questions Worth Asking the Bank Bosses - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

10 Questions Worth Asking the Bank Bosses - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

the scandals worth following up

Rudd’s essay: an economist’s take - Crikey

Rudd’s essay: an economist’s take - Crikey

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has followed up his critique of neoliberalism with a new essay in the Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age on the causes of the crisis, and the policies needed after recovery. With one exception, his key explanations for the crisis are the same as those identified by myself and the handful of other economists who predicted this crisis before it happened.

Where I differ again with the Prime Minister is over whether this government stimulus alone is sufficient to avoid a depression.

Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America - STWR - Share The World's Resources

Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America - STWR - Share The World's Resources: "The financial sector invested more than $5 billion in political influence purchasing in Washington over the past decade, with as many as 3,000 lobbyists winning deregulation and other policy decisions that led directly to the current financial collapse, according to a 231-page report issued today by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation.

The report, 'Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America,' shows that, from 1998-2008, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance conglomerates made $1.725 billion in political contributions and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists, a financial juggernaut aimed at undercutting federal regulation. Nearly 3,000 officially registered federal lobbyists worked for the industry in 2007 alone."

World Warned of ‘Food Crunch’ Threat - STWR - Share The World's Resources

World Warned of ‘Food Crunch’ Threat - STWR - Share The World's Resources: "World Warned of ‘Food

Hundreds of millions more people could slip into hunger as a result of volatile food prices and increasing energy and water scarcity, according to two new reports that together detail the threats to global food security and expose the lack of adequate coordinated international action to tackle hunger."

Iceland Puts $2 Billion Into Collapsed Banking Sector - NYTimes.com

Iceland Puts $2 Billion Into Collapsed Banking Sector - NYTimes.com

Goldman Sachs to make record bonus payout | Business | The Observer

Goldman Sachs to make record bonus payout | Business | The Observer: "President Barack Obama's government could issue $3.25tn of debt before September, almost four times last year's sum. Goldman, a prime broker of US government bonds, is expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from selling and dealing in the bonds."

"Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms."

GOLDMAN SACHS FIRES BACK AT ARTICLE IN ROLLING STONE SAYING THEY RIGGED WALL STREET - New York Post

GOLDMAN SACHS FIRES BACK AT ARTICLE IN ROLLING STONE SAYING THEY RIGGED WALL STREET - New York Post

Activate 09: Arianna Huffington: obsessiveness is the greatest strength of online news | Media | guardian.co.uk

Activate 09: Arianna Huffington: obsessiveness is the greatest strength of online news | Media | guardian.co.uk: "President Obama took office with an ambitious agenda to reform energy, Wall Street and healthcare, but he has failed to reform the energy and financial industries and is now fighting a fierce battle to reform healthcare, she said.

'The vested interests fighting reform and the past which they represented are very well organised, and the future that they resist is very poorly organised,' she said."

Harper's Magazine - The Next Bubble

Harper's Magazine - The Next Bubble

The coming $12 trillion dollar alternative energy bubble.
The only thing worse than having it is not having it.

Goldman Sachs- the Bubble Machine

The Great American Bubble Machine
The Ruse and Rise of Goldman Sacks
Rolling Stone July 3, 2009

Banking system like South Sea bubble, says senior Bank of England official | Business | guardian.co.uk

Banking system like South Sea bubble, says senior Bank of England official | Business | guardian.co.uk

A senior Bank of England official today compared the banking system over the last 20 years to the South Sea bubble of the early 18th century and said bankers had merely "resorted to the roulette wheel" to keep up with each other.

The Bank's executive director for financial stability, Andy Haldane, said in a speech in Chicago that having been stable over much of the 20th century, returns in the banking system relative to the wider stockmarket shot up after 1986 until 2006.