Political Economy

I was just having an argument/debate about quantitative easing. Marshall Auerback, Randy Wray and I all have posts here at Credit Writedowns which explain that quantitative easing does not create new net financial assets and is merely an…

by Michael Hudson Here’s the quandary that the U.S. economy is in: The Fed’s quantitative easing policy– creating more liquidity so that banks can lend more – aims at helping the economy “borrow its way out of debt.” But banks are not…

Omid Malekan produced a great video called "Quantitative Easing Explained" which we posted here a little over a week ago. The video has really hit a nerve because it resonates with people's sense of outrage. Kevin Depew, the Editor-in-Chief…

I am still in catch-up mode this morning but I wanted to highlight a few points on the Irish bailout. The first has to do with the European stress tests. If you recall, the two Irish banks tested were Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish…

From Irish Government The Government today agreed to request financial support from the European Union and the Euro Area Members States. The IMF will also be requested to assist in the provision of support. The Government welcomes…

This one is on the new TSA security pat-downs which are designed to intimidate travellers into the full-body scans. This Act may be cited as the `American Traveller Dignity Act of 2010'. No law of the United States shall be construed…

Originally published at www.CounterPunch.org. by Pam Martens On the President’s first day in office on January 21, 2009, he issued an Open Government memo promising the American people a new era of transparency. On March 19, 2009, under…

Sorry, the post title is over the top. Actually, let's hope there are no riots. There is certainly anger on display in the Guardian video clip below.  So far these are pretty tame protests.     Here are the things I…

I think this trio of videos from Latvia really puts the whole Irish crisis in perspective. After a spectacular property bubble, Latvia imploded in 2008. I was calling the Baltics the next Argentina. Indeed, by early 2009 we eventually saw…

A recent CNBC article highlighted for me why the Irish are being pressured to accept a bailout when they have repeatedly said they don't want one yet. The problem is Portugal (and Spain). To the degree that the Irish situation continues to…