A good sign that your investigation has hit the mark is when law enforcement agencies start demanding to see your data. That's the position the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists finds itself in as officials from Germany, Greece, South Korea, Canada, and the US have requested access to its massive exposé of the off-shore tax haven business. The project has to be a lan...Read More
A new government took office the day after Christmas, led by prime minister Shinzo Abe, pledging to, in effect, go whole-hog on the Keynesian remedies for Japan's long recession, particularly by pushing for a combination of fiscal stimulus on a mass scale, and, through appointment of Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the Bank of Japan; he has pledged to do "whatever it takes" to get ann...Read More
The Great Debate … Margaret Thatcher, an enlarger of British freedom … Maggie could be seductive in private conversation one on one, more so as she matured, the strident voice of the public halls giving way to a softer, more seductive style, hand on an arm, intent eye to eye in persuasion. She was afraid of nobody, respecter of no convention she considered archaic. – Reuters / Si...Read More
Kenya's new president Will the new centre hold? … Uhuru Kenyatta comes to power on a wave of cautious optimism. But he must tackle a host of national shortcomings if he is to make a success of his new job … Uhuru Kenyatta, one of the richest men in the country, will be inaugurated on April 9th into the same office that his father Jomo held from 1964 until his death 14 years later....Read More
A good sign that your investigation has hit the mark is when law enforcement agencies start demanding to see your data. That's the position the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists finds itself in as officials from Germany, Greece, South Korea, Canada, and the US have requested access to its massive exposé of the off-shore tax haven business. The project has to be a lan...Read More
A new government took office the day after Christmas, led by prime minister Shinzo Abe, pledging to, in effect, go whole-hog on the Keynesian remedies for Japan's long recession, particularly by pushing for a combination of fiscal stimulus on a mass scale, and, through appointment of Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the Bank of Japan; he has pledged to do "whatever it takes" to get ann...Read More
Sorry, Libertarians, History Shows Bitcoin Isn't the Future … As we consider the digital-currency phenomenon that is Bitcoin, bear in mind that there are, broadly speaking, two accounts of the origin and history of money. One is elegant, intuitive and taught in many introductory economics textbooks. The other is true. The financial economist Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank...Read More
Is the global economy slowly falling apart? … A new book, David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's budget director, chronicles the relentless downward spiral of America's political and financial systems. He concludes: "The future is bleak… When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse." … The last of the Baby Boomers won't reach re...Read More
Piercing the secrecy of offshore tax havens … A New York hedge fund manager allegedly swindles $12 million from a prominent Baltimore family. An Indiana couple is accused of bilking hundreds of customers by charging for free trials of cosmetic products. A financial manager in Texas promises 23-percent returns but absconds with $33.5 million of his investors’ money in a classic Ponzi sc...Read More
A banking union for the Eurozone … The crisis has highlighted the need for, and difficulties with, a Eurozone banking union. This column argues that, to make a union, you need three crucial ingredients: common supervision, a single resolution mechanism, and common safety nets. The power to control and the resources to rescue must work in parallel. Eurozone leaders have taken the first critic...Read More
Introduction to The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III … The following is Part I to David DeGraw's new book, "The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III." This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks … Economic Imperial Operations W hen we analyze our current crisis, focusing on the pas...Read More
Sorry, Libertarians, History Shows Bitcoin Isn't the Future … As we consider the digital-currency phenomenon that is Bitcoin, bear in mind that there are, broadly speaking, two accounts of the origin and history of money. One is elegant, intuitive and taught in many introductory economics textbooks. The other is true. The financial economist Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank...Read More
Is the global economy slowly falling apart? … A new book, David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's budget director, chronicles the relentless downward spiral of America's political and financial systems. He concludes: "The future is bleak… When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse." … The last of the Baby Boomers won't reach re...Read More
Piercing the secrecy of offshore tax havens … A New York hedge fund manager allegedly swindles $12 million from a prominent Baltimore family. An Indiana couple is accused of bilking hundreds of customers by charging for free trials of cosmetic products. A financial manager in Texas promises 23-percent returns but absconds with $33.5 million of his investors’ money in a classic Ponzi sc...Read More
A banking union for the Eurozone … The crisis has highlighted the need for, and difficulties with, a Eurozone banking union. This column argues that, to make a union, you need three crucial ingredients: common supervision, a single resolution mechanism, and common safety nets. The power to control and the resources to rescue must work in parallel. Eurozone leaders have taken the first critic...Read More
Introduction to The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III … The following is Part I to David DeGraw's new book, "The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III." This is the second installment to a new seven-part series that we will be posting throughout the next few weeks … Economic Imperial Operations W hen we analyze our current crisis, focusing on the pas...Read More
This December will mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Federal Reserve. As we have seen in recent years, there is no institution of economic policy with more power and less transparency than the Fed. The Fed has almost never been held accountable for how it has performed. We have simply assumed that we need a central bank and trusted those in charge to make the right decisions. But th...Read More
Helicopter QE will never be reversed … Readers of the Daily Telegraph were right all along. Quantitative easing will never be reversed. It is not liquidity management as claimed so vehemently at the outset. It really is the same as printing money. It would be better for central banks to put the money into railways, bridges, clean energy, smart grids, or whatever does most to regenerate the e...Read More
Stagnant Wages and Speculation Triggered the Crisis … There's been a lot of debate about just what is at the root of the current economic crisis. Some people have called it a banking crisis. Some people have called it a regulatory crisis. Some people are trying to say it's a debt crisis. Well, there's another line of thought, which is: the underlying issue is that in fact it'...Read More
Why a BA is Now a Ticket to A Job in a Coffee Shop …There's a growing perception out there that a college degree no longer delivers the value that it used to. Too many college kids are living in Mom's basement, or working at Starbucks. Like most personal finance columnists, I get the letters from them: what do I do? How do I fix this? For many, the answer is grad school. But I get th...Read More