Citigroup plans to cut 3,000 or more jobs, about 1 percent of employees, and BNP Paribas plans to cut about 1,400 jobs, or 7 percent of its employees, according to the New York Times (“Citi to Shed 1% of Its Workers; BNP Paribas Plans to Cut 7%”). The NY Times was told unofficially that one […]
Nassim Taleb, author of “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” says the solution to the problem of bankers who take risks that threaten the general public is simple: Eliminate bonuses. (“End Bonuses for Bankers,” New York Times). He cites as the latest example of the excessive risk taking problem MF Global and […]
Italy, Europe’s third largest economy, is not merely facing a liquidity crisis; it is insolvent, according to Matthew Lynn, CEO of London-based consulting firm Strategy Economics. (“Italy is bust; it’s just a question of when,” MartketWatch). It is only ironic that Italy’s government debt has been stable for a decade (but at a high level) […]
Global liquidity is about to dry up, and “the effect on the real economy will soon be felt,” according to Mark Carney, Chairman of the G-20 Summit’s Financial Stability Board and Governor of the Bank of Canada. European banks are afraid to lend to one another because they do not know the extent of their […]
The Middle Class is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, squeezed out by the 21st century oil and railroad barons now known as hedge fund managers and financial magnates. Early in the 20th century, the Rockefellers, Carnegies and J.P. Morgans controlled the economy and politics with their monopoly on oil and the railroads. They […]
MF Global Holdings, Ltd. (“MF Global”) filed the eighth largest bankruptcy petition in U.S. history on Monday November 1, seeking to reorganize its debt structure and continue to operate. MF Global, the broker-dealer unit, faces liquidation. The filings occurred after a potential buyer of MF Global’s assets, Interactive Brokers Group, “bolted over a discrepancy of […]
Anyone who hears Occupy Wall Street protestors dismissed as sore losers who want something for nothing should read Matt Taibbi’s latest blog entitled “Wall Street Isn’t Winning ? It’s Cheating.” It is Wall Street banks who are the losers who want something for nothing ? and they are getting it. Taibbi exposes the double standard […]
Occupy Wall Street has spawned synchronized protests in over 900 cities around the world. Those protests involve more than demonstrations against financial institutions. While expressing solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, many demonstrations have additional roots in local issues. See “Globalizing Occupy Wall Street: From Chile to Israel, Protests Erupt” (ProPublica).
Rutgers history professor James Livingston asserts that economic growth is a function of consumer and government spending in his recent article “It’s Consumer Spending, Stupid.” When politicians insist that more incentives for private investors in the form of lower taxes on corporate profits is the way to growth, and polls show most of the public […]
A USAToday poll shows that American blame both Wall Street and Washington politicians for the nation’s economic woes. 87% of those polled said Washington bears a great deal to a fair amount of the blame, and 78% said the same of Wall Street.
