Why have economies polarized so sharply since the 1980s, and especially since the 2008 crisis? How did we get so indebted without real wage and living standards rising, while cities, states, and entire nations are falling into default? Only when we answer these questions can we formulate policies to extract ourselves from the current debt crises. There is widespread sentiment …
CLIF DROKE – Why the US Benefits From Global Financial Crisis
Let’s turn our attention to the global economy. Last week the Bank of England said it would buy 60 billion pounds of government debt in order to cushion the economy against the impact of the recent Brexit vote. England and the European Union are emulating the quantitative easing (QE) policies of the US Federal Reserve but so far without any …
Andrea Germanos – Unlike US, Ireland Just Sent Three Bankers to Jail for Role in 2008 Crisis
A Dublin court has sent three former senior banking executives to jail for committing “sham transactions” in an effort to deceive customers and shareholders during the 2008 financial crisis. “The trio will be among the first senior bankers globally to be jailed for their role in the collapse of a bank during the crisis,” as Reuters reports. Former Anglo Irish Bank executive …
The world thinks Americans are violent, greedy, arrogant — and Americans agree
A worldwide survey found that majorities of people in the U.K., Canada, Spain and Australia think of Americans as violent, greedy and arrogant. The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that a median of 54 percent of people in countries surveyed associated the negative trait of arrogance with Americans. Fifty-two percent associate greed, and 48 percent say Americans are …
Lee Fang – Hillary Clinton Won’t Say How Much Goldman Sachs CEO Invested With Her Son-in-Law
.When Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law sought funding for his new hedge fund in 2011, he found financial backing from one of the biggest names on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein The fund, called Eaglevale Partners, was founded by Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and two of his partners. Blankfein not only personally invested in the fund, but allowed his association …
China Blowing Even Bigger Credit Bubble Puts World at Greater Risk, Says Global Strategist
China is blowing an even bigger industrial-growth bubble, central banks are attempting to prevent a global shock, and, meanwhile, all eyes are on the US dollar for clues as to which way things will go. So says Worth Wray, Global Macro Strategist at STA Wealth Management, in a recent interview with Financial Sense, who also notes that we may just …
Nathan Halverson – The world already would be out of water if everyone ate like Americans
If the rest of the world ate like Americans, the planet would have run out of freshwater 15 years ago, according to the world’s largest food company. In private, Nestle executives told U.S. officials that the world is on a collision course with doom because Americans eat too much meat, and now, other countries are following suit, according to a secret …
Pete Dolack – Could an Economic Collapse be in Our Near Future?
Climate scientists and others have in the past few years issued a steady stream of analyses showing that without immediate remedial actions, a disastrous future is headed our way. But is it a four-decade-old study that will prove prescient? That study, issued in the 1972 book The Limits to Growth, forecast that industrial output would decline early in the 21st century, …
Joseph Stiglitz – What’s Holding Back the World Economy?
Seven years after the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, the world economy continued to stumble in 2015. According to the United Nations’ report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, the average growth rate in developed economies has declined by more than 54% since the crisis. An estimated 44 million people are unemployed in developed countries, about 12 million more than …
Robert Reich – Why We Must Try
Instead of “Yes we can,” many Democrats have adopted a new slogan this election year: “We shouldn’t even try.” We shouldn’t try for single-payer system, they say. We’ll be lucky if we prevent Republicans from repealing Obamacare. We shouldn’t try for a $15 an hour minimum wage. The best we can do is $12 an hour. We shouldn’t try to …