2012

In his publications in the 1950s through the mid 1960s, Minsky gradually developed his analysis of the cycles. First, he argued that institutions, and in particular financial institutions, matter. This was a reaction against the growing…

There have been a lot of people talking about Argentina as if it were the model for other governments in sovereign difficulty to follow. Yes, Argentina's decision to default was realistically the right call given the crushing debt load. And…

The following is a March 1932 speech by then US President Herbert Hoover about the growing US deficit. As I indicated in previous posts on Hoover's travails, the President earnestly wanted to balance the budget (see Herbert Hoover: White…

Yesterday, we highlighted the talk that Steve Keen gave at the INET conference as our only post. Today, we present the full and in-depth version including his written analysis via Steve Keen's DebtWatch website. Steve ends with two…

It is a ploy that would no doubt bring a smile to the faces of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. First, China is giving up something that it is not really using. Specifically, the current band itself has rarely, if ever been utilized, which is why…

Rising tensions in Europe continues to be a dominant force in the foreign exchange market, with the euro briefly dipping below the $1.30 level for the first time since mid-February.

Steve Keen's talk at INET is now up on the web (hat tip BT). His talk is billed as a primer on Hyman Minsky. In it, Steve argues that one cannot model Minsky using a New Keynesian or traditional neoclassical approach because of the reliance…

The debate over another round of asset purchases seems to be getting less play than the debate over guidance, and the real Troika of BYD (Bernanke, Yellen and Dudley) are reading from the same song book. They are maintaining the view of…

Gary Shilling recently wrote a five-part series for Bloomberg News on the economy. His view is that GDP growth comes primarily from consumers spending from either higher income or from reduced savings and debt accumulation. In his view, the…

I thought I should present the somewhat bullish view of the margin issue we have been discussing here. PIMCO's Neel Kashkaari is out with a note that underscores what the bulls are thinking about the issue.