The Bushobama Depression

Well it’s official. It’s a Depression. Two days ago at a regional conference in Kuala Lumpur, IMF Managing Director Dominique Stauss–Kahn said that the big world economies are already in a depression. Of course this is coming from a guy with a hyphenated name like a Singing Nun who is also known in France asContinue reading “The Bushobama Depression”

Thoughts on Default

This is a hundred billion mark note from Germany circa 1923. With this bill you could buy 2 beers during the episode of German hyperinflation which ended in November 1923 when the government finally capitulated and issued the new and improved Rentenmark. You could exchange 10 of these bills to obtain one Rentenmark or 1Continue reading “Thoughts on Default”

Economists and the Corporate State

The ongoing debate about the stimulus package illustrates to this writer the utter futility of politicians invoking economists to support their arguments . Economists pack the upper echelons of government, academia and wall street and their assumptions drive policy like no other discipline. Economics has evolved over the years with one school of thought suchContinue reading “Economists and the Corporate State”

To nationalize or not to nationalize

Well I am no longer alone in the wilderness crying out for the establishment of a new national bank. As my reader(s) know, I have vacillated back and forth between nationalizing the banks(some of them) and starting from scratch with a new bank. And by a new bank, I mean a new GOOD BANK. NotContinue reading “To nationalize or not to nationalize”

Nationalize the Banks or Charge into the Valley of Death!

I had a pleasant month out of the country working on my old sailboat and while things were bad when I left, the last week or so has the US economy in free fall led by the same old suspects, the banks. While I was away I read David McCullough’s “John Adams”, a fascinating historyContinue reading “Nationalize the Banks or Charge into the Valley of Death!”