Robert Peston (RP): George Soros, you were one of those who warned that a financial crisis was looming. Now that the acute phase is past, do you think we’ve seen yet the kind of reforms we need to make the banking system safe?
George Soros (GS) Not at all. We are at the very early stage of that discussion. Now we can take time because what happened in 2008 is not going to be repeated for the next 50 years or so, so we have time to redesign the system. And actually the way we’re correcting the collapse is a two-way, two-step manoeuvre. When a car for instance is skidding, first you have to turn the wheel in the same direction and then you turn it back. So we are still … we have not yet completed the first stage. Now during that stage, you have to rebuild the capital of the banks. We are actually doing it the wrong way, we can talk about it, but that’s the phase we are in. Continue reading ‘Davos 2010: George Soros full interview’
Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%. Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. Many of Argentina’s assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition. Official name: Memoria del Saqueo by Fernando Solanas 2003. Continue reading ‘Argentina’s Economic Collapse’
“The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society,” Marc Faber writes in the September issue of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.A statement like that pretty much speaks for itself, but it’s a bit more complicated than appears on first blush.
Faber has been bullish — especially on commodities and emerging market stocks — for some time now and believes the current global recovery trade will last another two-to-three years, as discussed in more detail in a forthcoming clip. But he has major long-term concerns about the dollar’s long-term viability given rising U.S. deficits, massive unfunded mandates and the fact “we have a money-printer at the Fed.”
This combination will eventually lead to runaway inflation, wholesale debasement of the dollar, and a major lowering of living standards for most Americans and many Europeans as well, says Faber, who is “highly confident” in this grim prediction.
In a SPIEGEL interview, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 55, discusses his astronomical bonuses, the mistakes and failures of his bank prior to the start of the global financial crisis and his proposals for better regulating financial markets.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Blankfein, two years ago, your $67.9 million bonus was the largest ever paid to a Wall Street banker. You recently said that you could understand the anger that people are expressing over inflated bonuses. How are we to understand this?
Blankfein: I think people legitimately question whether compensation is tied to performance and, looking back, they see that some people were enriched but did not seem to have any alignment with their shareholders. A large part of the compensation paid to our senior people, including mine, is paid in shares, which may be worth less or more depending on our performance well after they were granted. This is what our shareholders want and we are convinced of this alignment of interests.
The Chinese are the future power of this earth. Quoting Benjamin Franklin? We are looking forward in obamanomics changing anything that worked for us in the past (got to show them stupid white people they weren’t smart after all) while China is using everything we did in the past to blow by us. Communism with free interprise in its private sector may be better than democracy with nonstop government intervention into the private sector if you know what I mean….and I think you do. Oh only one small difference, communist take 50percent of what you make and democrats want 70 or 80 percent, depending on whether they are buying themselves a bunch of new personal jets or not.
For most people this is still the phoney recession.
Just as in 1939 war was declared and then for months after the initial shock nothing happened, likewise for most people who have not actually lost their jobs this does not yet feel like a recession.
We have had the near collapse of the banking system but, since then, the lowering of interest rates on mortgages and the drop in fuel costs have boosted disposable income, in spite of the biggest fall in national output since the Thirties.
Unless they have lost their jobs or gone on short-time working, most people feel better off.
Following lecture transcript is from Peter Schiff’s lecture at Ludwig von Mises Institute, March 13, 2009. It is alway pleasure to read his stuff. If you haven’t had your first economy lession yet then this is the most easily readable article to understand the current ‘bubble’;) I only posted a bit here. Please click this link for full article:
[Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, Austrian Scholars Conference, March 13, 2009. An MP3 audio version of this lecture is available for download. You can also watch the video. Transcript provided by Jennifer Lewis.] Peter Schiff
I just looked at the topic for my speech about thirty seconds ago before I walked in the door. But apparently I’m talking about why is it that people didn’t see this coming, or should people have known that this meltdown was coming.
I don’t know. Is there anyone in this room that was surprised by the economic meltdown? Does anybody think it’s over? Anybody? Raise your hand if you think it’s over.
And does anybody think that the government solutions are going to work or that they’re going to help? Is there anybody? One. All right. So, I guess there’s really no reason for me to speak here. I don’t know that I’m going to tell anybody anything they don’t know. But, if you want to indulge me, I guess I could talk about it a little bit anyway.
But I don’t know why so few people seem to understand what was going to happen. I guess when you’re living inside a bubble, it’s very difficult to actually see what’s going on, from your point. But I lived through two of them, because I’m a stockbroker. I lived through the NASDAQ bubble. Continue reading ‘Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One’
William Hailiang Chen, London UK. Photographer/Architectural Researcher
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