It seems Zhou Xiaochuan got Bernanke’s message loud and clear. And decided to bring it right back: Back to the 1940s, Keynes had already proposed to introduce an international currency unit named “Bancor”, based on the value of 30 representative commodities. Unfortunately, the proposal was not accepted. The collapse of the Bretton Woods system, which [...]
Archive for March, 2009
No, Suck on This
Posted in China, Foreigners, Meltdown on March 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Lousy Taste
Posted in Middle East on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Curious decision in T-shirt design: Israel’s military condemned soldiers for wearing T-shirts of a pregnant woman in a rifle’s cross-hairs with the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills,” and another of a gun-toting child with the words, “The smaller they are, the harder it is.” For its own sake, Israel will sooner or later need to [...]
Gaming the System
Posted in Corruption, Meltdown, Miscellaneous on March 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
So far we have been told that the private sector so misprices securities today that with public funds the private sector would accurately price securities. The folks who brought us this logic now want us to believe that the public-private partnership will work. And the system they have devised is sufficiently complicated that some folks [...]
Heads-Up
Posted in Meltdown on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Baseline guys have a modest proposal which is quite reasonable – why not let individual investors buy the equity for these toxic assets? If Geithner’s taxpayer subsidized toxic public/private plan goes forward, I think it would be fair if the federal government allow non-institutional investors to participate via a no-fee investment vehicle. Problem is, [...]
In His Own Words
Posted in Corruption, Meltdown, Obama on March 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Tim Geithner has an article in the Journal explaining his toxic subsidy plan: The financial system as a whole is still working against recovery. Many banks, still burdened by bad lending decisions, are holding back on providing credit. Market prices for many assets held by financial institutions — so-called legacy assets — are either uncertain [...]
A-Rod and Spitzer?
Posted in Miscellaneous on March 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So now it turns out A-Rod and the former Governor of NY had more than just a state of residence in common – they were also both customers of of the same escort service: In an e-mail exchange provided to The News by a former booker for Davis’ Wicked Models, Rodriguez purportedly told Davis on [...]
On The Run
Posted in Foreigners, Miscellaneous on March 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The state of California has paroled Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah (aka Sara Jane Olson) after seven years in prison for the 1975 murder of Myrna Opshal during a bank robbery and a 1975 attempt to kill two LAPD officers with pipe bombs. Thirty-four years might seem like a reasonable sentence, but that isn’t [...]
Mob Rule
Posted in Meltdown on March 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So all of these protestors arrived at an AIG guy’s house. Surprise, it’s nice. Really. Nicer than the average house. There is income inequality in America, it seems: She marveled at AIG executive James Haas’ colonial house, which has stunning views of a golf course and the Long Island Sound. The Fairfield house is “another [...]
Scam
Posted in Corruption, Meltdown on March 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A far bigger scandal than any bonus payments – but also far more difficult to understand – is the latest scam to come out of Treasury: The Treasury Department is expected to unveil early next week its long-delayed plan to buy as much as $1 trillion in troubled mortgages and related assets from financial institutions, [...]
Strange Battle to Fight
Posted in China on March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Chinese government decided to tweak the US: Yesterday the Ministry of Commerce rejected Coca-Cola’s $2.4 billion, all-cash bid to acquire Huiyuan, China’s largest juice maker. We are obviously not the paragons of free trade and global movement of capital we claim to be – just ask anyone who has tried to invest in our [...]
