News Links: Why Bernanke has Failed, and Will Continue to Fail
- oftwominds: Why Bernanke has Failed, and Will Continue to Fail
Ben Bernanke’s zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) and command-economy efforts to maintain mispricing of risk, debt and assets are destroying capital and capitalism. No wonder his policies have failed so miserably.
- Why we need a CFPB with balls – Finance Addict
Can we all at least agree that there is a basic need for somebody to do the (much better) job of overseeing the products that we need for our health and well-being? Then why is the CFPB, a body intended to oversee the financial products that are now as essential to our lives as food and medicine, so contentious?
- Britain needs more hours of work not less | Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The "age of fiscal constraint" is temporary and ultimately governments will have to return to fiscal stimulus as their economies weaken. Otherwise, it will be a very grim future.
- Why Are US Job Numbers Better Than Europe’s? Thank the Deficit! | Economy | AlterNet
Americans should quit listening to austerity hawks and embrace time-tested economic logic.
- How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network’s WPA Password with Deaver – Lifehacker
Your Wi-Fi network is your conveniently wireless gateway to the internet, and since you’re not keen on sharing your connection with any old hooligan who happens to be walking past your home, you secure your network with a password, right? Knowing, as you might, how easy it is to crack a WEP password, you probably secure your network using the more bulletproof WPA security protocol.
- Bill Daley, a Weakened White House Chief of Staff, Steps Down | Swampland | TIME.com
He gave off the impression of an executive waiting out one more year in a job, working for a man he admired, in an ungovernable town he disliked. Daley appeared to have committed a cardinal sin in public life: He had been too honest about how he felt in public.
- Retail sales in December up 4% as bargain hunters piled into shops | Business | The Guardian
British Retail Consortium said December was the best trading month of the year with a dazzling pre-Christmas week of trading
- La vraie-fausse candidature d’Eric Cantona – LeMonde.fr
"Je cherche 500 signatures", lance l’ancienne star du football Eric Cantona, 45 ans, aujourd’hui acteur, en une du quotidien Libération, ce mardi 10 janvier. Lundi soir, la lettre qu’il a écrite aux maires de France afin d’obtenir les cinq cents signatures nécessaires à une candidature à l’élection présidentielle a été mise en ligne sur le site Internet du journal, entretenant savamment le suspens sur l’objectif de sa démarche : on ne trouvait ainsi nulle part de déclaration officielle de candidature.
- Consumer Credit Erupts, As Deleveraging Is So 2011 – MarketBeat – WSJ
Consumer credit surged nearly 10% at an annualized rate in November, the Fed announced, with revolving credit – credit cards – up 8.5% in the month and non-revolving debt (auto and student loans and such) up 10.7%.
- German Yields Turn Negative – WSJ.com
In an auction Monday, Germany sold €3.9 billion ($4.96 billion) of six-month bills that had an average yield of negative 0.0122%, the first time on record that yields at a German debt auction moved into negative territory.
- Ireland ‘may need new bailout’ – The Irish Times – Mon, Jan 09, 2012
Ireland clearly needs to negotiate a stand-by second bailout, Citigroup chief economist Willem Buiter said during a visit to Dublin today.
- The Willpower Trick | Wired Science | Wired.com
January is the month of broken resolutions. The gyms are packed for a week, Jenny Craig is full of new recruits and houses are cleaned for the first time in ages. We pledge to finally become the person we want to be: svelte, neat and punctual. Alas, it doesn’t take long before the stairmasters are once again sitting empty and those same dirty T-shirts are piling up at the back of the closet
- Grootste gasveld ontdekt in Nederland sinds 1995 – De Standaard
De Nederlandse Aardoliemaatschappij (NAM) heeft een nieuw gasveld ontdekt. Het gaat om het grootste gasveld op het land sinds 1995. De gasvoorraad werd gevonden in het noordoosten van Friesland en zou ongeveer 4 miljard kubieke meter beslaan. Dat zei de NAM maandag.
- UniCredit: Größter Kursverfall seit 25 Jahren – Wirtschaft – Finanzierung – KURIER.at
Die Kapitalerhöhung bei UniCredit hat an der Börse keine Fans. Ein Verkauf der Bank Austria gilt Experten als letzte Möglichkeit.
- Hildebrands Kundenberater nimmt erstmals Stellung (Wirtschaft, Aktuell, NZZ Online)
In der Affäre um Nationalbank-Präsident Philipp Hildebrand nimmt erstmals sein Kundenberater bei der Bank Sarasin Stellung: Hildebrands Frau Kashya habe am 15. August den umstrittenen Dollar-Kaufauftrag in ihrer Galerie aus eigener Initiative mündlich erteilt.
- ECB refuses to hand over November 2010 threat letter sent to Brian Lenihan « NAMA Wine Lake
The story of Ireland’s bailout in November 2010 has been partly told in dribs and drabs. Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, Patrick Honohan said that the Minister for Finance in November 2010, the late Brian Lenihan was "crestfallen" when he learned from the ECB that Ireland couldn’t default even on the unguaranteed debts of the banks. The Governor went on to say that Minister Lenihan was "offered no room" for negotiation on the matter.
- The Irish Economy » Blog Archive » A code of ethics for professional economists
One of the most interesting things to come out of this year’s American Economic Association (AEA) meetings is the formal adoption of a code of conduct in relation to potential conflicts of interest in the AEA’s publications. The idea of the code is to provide more information to readers of published work about the funding sources and other commitments authors of reports may have about their subject matter.
“Greece: The history behind the collapse” https://www.eurozine.com/articles/2011-12-23-prevelakis-en.html
Nice “big picture” view of Greece.
“The Smartphone Wars: Dinosaurs mating?” https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4042
More smartphone rumours – MS to buy Nokia’s smartphone division?
“UltraViolet: Hollywood’s giant digital gamble is here” https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/08/ultraviolet_uk_launch_for_boxing_day_we_kick_the_tyres/
Something I missed.
And finally in the “No less bonkers than much else I’ve read from very smart Economists” category we have a “No really, monetary policy wasn’t loose enough” production from Scott Sumner.
“Sumner on Money and the Fed”https://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/01/sumner_on_money.html
It was possible to catch the move in the Swiss franc even without having an insider in the SNB. On the other hand I woudn’t mind having a friend or better yet a relative inside a Central bank… Poor guy, I hope it was not some sort of dirty set up to get rid of him-:)
On your first link I highly recommend his book “An Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times”, no magic formula but a good recognition of reality.