Archive for June, 2009
UN Summit on the Financial Crisis
The G8 will meet in early July in the Italian town of L’Aquila, in a less luxurious setting than had originally been planned, according to a recent Guardian article: The organiser of next month’s G8 conference near the earthquake-hit Italian town of L’Aquila today shrugged off the strong aftershocks felt in the area on Monday, ...Read more.
Rebound … in Bankers' Pay
From the New York Times (6/23): The Times doesn’t say whether or not these figures are inflation-adjusted. But even if they’re not: are you making 40% more than you were in 1998, even in nominal terms—as the analysis projects bankers will in 2009? We’re not. The chart accompanies a piece on Citigroup raising employees’ salaries ...Read more.
Two More Items on Reform of Financial Regulation
Two more items on the Obama administration’s proposed reforms of financial regulation. First, one by William Greider in the Nation: Obama’s False Financial ReformBy William Greider | June 19, 2009 The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama’s call for financial reform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. He tried to make ...Read more.
Two Views of the Crisis
A brief, clear comparison from Simon Johnson on the Baseline Scenario blog: There are two views of the global financial crisis and—more importantly—of what comes next. The first is shared by almost all officials and underpins government thinking in the United States, the remainder of the G7, Western Europe, and beyond. The second is quite ...Read more.
Two Good Pieces on Global Finance from FPIF
Two nice relatively new pieces from the good folks at Foreign Policy in Focus. Hat-tip to LF for alerting me to these. (I like that FPIF lists the editor in charge of an article as well as the author—great idea.) Overhauling Global Finance Alex Wilks | May 28, 2009 | Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco The ...Read more.
World Hunger Reaches 1 Billion Mark
Not because there isn’t enough food—see the last paragraph below. From the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, as reported by the AP on Saturday: The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the world’s hungry to a record 1 billion, a grim milestone that poses a threat to peace and security, U.N. food officials ...Read more.
TDCotE (xi): Littlle Zakaria Dresses Like Grownup
The Dull Compulsion of the Economic (xi) A series of blog postings by D&S collective member Larry Peterson Little Zakaria Dresses Like Grownup I usually don’t pay much mind to Fareed Zakaria. The Newsweek columnist and frequent television commentator has seemed to me for some time to epitomize most of the familiar failings of the ...Read more.
CIA Hiring Failed Wall Street Analysts
According to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA is recruiting out of work financial analysts from Wall Street. Why would they seek out the financial expertise of the people most directly responsible for the global economic meltdown? The CIA now produces a daily Economic Intelligence Brief for President Barack Obama, chronicling economic, political, and leadership ...Read more.
Plunging State Income Tax Revenues
An interesting piece from Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (a blog). States in Deep Trouble Over Plunging Income Tax Revenues The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has issued a State Revenue Flash Report discussing an across the board enormous drop in personal income tax revenues. Total personal income tax collections in January-April 2009 were ...Read more.
Some Takes on the Regulatory Overhaul
Here are some assessments of the Obama administration’s overhaul of financial regulation: In his front-page New York Times article on Wednesday (upgraded from the left-hand column of the business section), Joe Nocera finds “only a hint of Roosevelt” in what Obama described as “a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system, a transformation on a ...Read more.
