Since I failed to put out a weekly update last week, this week’s weekly will contain the most popular posts over the last two weeks.
- Jeremy Grantham has ‘already started to sell’ Great 30-minute CNBC interview with Jeremy Grantham in which we hear his views on monetary and fiscal policy in addition to asset allocation and the investment outlook for the next seven years. Must read.
- Video: Quantitative Easing Explained Entertaining animated video explaining quantitative easing in layman’s terms. Another must-see.
- Ben Bernanke: The Chauncey Gardiner of Central Banking Fred Sheehan makes a unique cultural reference in critiquing Fed policy under Ben Bernanke.
- Stephen Roach: QE represents ‘what got us into the mess’ Stephen Roach is not enamoured of QE. He sees it as yet more easy money which leads to a misallocation of capital. Follow this and an MMT-based didscussion of how to deal with Roach’s concerns.
- Gold and Guns Animated video poking fun and the often over the top views of gold bugs while still making some good points against fiat money.
- Apple is still screwing it up Despite the link bait title, I realize Apple is a great company. However, they find themselves in a mobile computing OS battle that is made more difficult by a lack of hardware manufacturing distribution. Can Apple best the bunch again as it did in the MP3 wars or will it falter as Android comes of age? And what does this mean for its margins and share price?
- Open Bank of America’s Books And Set the Record Straight If BofA is doing so well with regard to dealing with fraud, why don’t we get a closer peek at its books? This is what Bill Black, white-collar criminologist and professor asks with UMKC colleague Randall Wray.
- Thoughts on the G-20 given the so-called currency war My thoughts pre-G20 on how a multi-year recovery would shape up in the context of the escalating rhetoric on external imbalances
- Chart of the Day: The World’s Top 50 Banks (bubble chart version) Great chart to visualize who’s who in the world of systemically important institutions via Barry Ritholtz.
- Is the foreclosure crisis is overblown? Joe Nocera says no but Andrew Ross Sorkin says yes. I give my take here and it has less to do with foreclosure and more to do with fraud and systemic integrity.
- Euro Erosion Marc Chandler updates us on forex in view of Ireland’s woes and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
- German Press: EU forges Emergency Plan for Ireland bankruptcy This was the first hint from the blogosphere that a bailout for Ireland was in the offing. Is it going to happen?
- Why Bernanke Is Gambling Comstock Partners with a view on why the Fed is going QE when it is clear that the outcome of their plan is uncertain.
- Amateur Hour at the Federal Reserve Marshall Auerback does not like QE. Here’s why? Hint: it won’t work and it exposes the impotence and confusion at the Fed.
Older posts read widely
- Quantitative easing: printing money like mad to ward off deflation My first QE post from back in 2008. I might phrase a few things differently today, but it is still a good read.
- Credit Crisis Timeline The eponymous timeline of credit crisis events through 2009.
- QE3: A plan to stabilize the global monetary system Paul Brodsky and Lee Quantaince on what a real global QE program would look like and how it would affect debtors and the monetary system.
- The largest European banks by assets And a list of the largest global banks as well