Bubbles, Bubbles, Toils and Troubles

Joe Costello on the mammoth consequences of the Doom Cycle and boom-and-bust economics.

John Authers has a nice little piece at the FT marking the 10th Anniversary of NASDAQ peak, yahoo, or should I say pets.com, those were the days. Authers shows the charts on how when a bubble pops, it’s many years before things recover. For example, ten years on, the NASDAQ has barely and briefly seen half its high, while the Japanese Nikkei is just above a quarter of the value it reached at its peak 20 years ago. Don’t count on seeing any new housing highs for a very…

Feminomics »

Pro-Life Atlanta’s Big Lie to Poor and Minority Women

June Carbone calls out Georgia Right to Life and other pro-life organizations for championing abstinence-only education and restricted access to contraceptives–measures that rob poor and minority women of control of their futures.

The big lie continues. Taking a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook, Georgia Right to Life has taken something that should be celebrated - the long term decline in African-American teen pregnancies and improvident births — and turned into a canard, raising the specter of genocide in the voluntary reduction of childbearing. In doing so, Pro-life Atlanta joins the long list of charlatans that have preyed on the fears…

Daily Digest »

March 10

“All you need to know to navigate today’s economic debate.”

Bank of America to End Overdraft Fees on Debit Purchases (NYT)
Bank of America said on Tuesday that it was doing away with overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards, a decision that could cost the bank tens of millions a year in revenue and put pressure on other banks to do the same.

Dollar Optimism Soars to 18-Month High as U.S. Outpaces Europe (Bloomberg)
Investors are the most bullish on the dollar since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on speculation the U.S. economy will expand at a faster pace than…

Principal Writedowns and the Fake Stress Test

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal explains why stress tests for the major banks have been all show and no substance.

Three things happened in a row yesterday: (1) Two positive profiles of Timothy Geithner (New Yorker, and The Atlantic) came out, both working under the assumption that the stress tests of last year worked. (2) Shahien Nasiripour had a comment about principal write-downs walked back on him by Treasury: “Treasury is NOT poised to roll out a major principal write-down program. As the [official] said, we are looking at a number of tweaks to existing programs to help reach more borrowers.”

(Are you…

Spitzer, Johnson, and others in key dialogue on goverment & markets

The Boston Review offers a space for healthy, thorough dialogue on the relationship of government and markets.

The Boston Review is running a fascinating forum entitled The Rules: A Dialogue on Government’s Proper Role in the Market. Eliot Spitzer’s  thorough piece is featured and serves as the crux of discussion. In keeping with the spirit of true dialogue, the forum offers responses to Spitzer from Dean Baker, Robert Johnson (Director of the Roosevelt Institute’s Global Finance Project), Sarah Binder, Andrew Gelman, and John Sides.

Take some time and have a look at this engaging discussion and the bold ideas it has uncovered, like these…

Greeks turn to the U.S. for regulation advice?

In today’s Washington Post:

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will seek President Obama’s support at the White House on Tuesday for a European campaign to crack down on global financial speculation that critics say has exacerbated Europe’s worst debt crisis in decades.

No, we’re not making this up. So what does it mean? Is it a smokescreen? Signs of European class warfare and union-breaking ambitions?

Or is it political pandering? Perhaps the Greek government is just publicly claiming Washington as an ally to deflect the attention of their outraged citizens from themselves (those citizens were outraged enough a few weeks ago, you’ll…

Daily Digest »

March 9

“All you need to know to navigate today’s economic debate.”

Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns (NYT)
States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers’ retirement.

Fannie Mae Mortgage-Bond Spreads Fall to Record: Credit Markets (Bloomberg)
Yields on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage securities that guide U.S. home-loan rates fell to the lowest relative to Treasuries on record.

Obama Criticizes Insurers in Bid to Sway Public on Health Plan (Bloomberg)
President Barack Obama and his top health official are stepping up attacks on the nation’s insurers as they work to sway…

Video From the Make Markets Be Markets Conference Online

Video of the Make Markets Be Markets conference is finally online. Here’s the pdf of the final report. Here it is broken up by presenter at vimeo, and at youtube, with the vimeo video being higher quality.

Felix Salmon tweeted that “An 8-minute boiled-down Simon Johnson presentation is pretty concentrated & devastating.” I agree, and here it is:

Simon Johnson on the Doom Cycle (MMBM) from Roosevelt Institute on Vimeo.

And here is Elizabeth Warren’s defense of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Like Simon’s presentation, I had been following the argument for a long time, but seeing it all in one short presentation was pretty intense.

Elizabeth Warren…

Coming to a Country Near You: Let a dozen Latvias bloom?

Marshall Auerback and Rob Parenteau explain why self-imposed political constraints on economic policy is ‘neo-liberal madness’ that threatens countries around the globe. Are we next?

Want to see the real consequence of smash mouth economics? Forget about Greece and take a look at Latvia. Its 25.5 per cent plunge in GDP over just the past two years (almost 20 per cent in this past year alone) is already the worst two-year drop on record. The country recently reported a 12% decline in annual wages in Q4 2009 versus Q4 2008. The IMF projects another 4 percent drop this year, and predicts…

Daily Digest »

March 8

“All you need to know to navigate today’s economic debate.”

Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss (NYT)
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

Sure-Fire Crowd Pleaser: Reining in Wall Street (NYT)
Public opinion for President Obama has looked bleak across the board except for on one very important issue: reforming Wall St.

AIG Agrees to Sell Alico to MetLife for $15.5 Billion (Bloomberg)
AIG has agreed to sell a division to MetLife Inc. for $15.5…