2009 Retrospective

Published in December 31st, 2009

Party like it’s New Year’s Eve 1930
I recommend that you finish the year with a look at the News from 1930 blog, which is providing some “year in review” commentary on 1930 now–including these details on the market highs and lows. Obviously some things were much worse in 1930 than today–notably industrial production and the [...]

It’s Debt, Debt, Debt for Australia!

Published in December 29th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

122 Comments

Last weekend’s Sunday Telegraph pointed out a new record for Australia: our ratio of household debt to GDP is now higher than the USA’s. I’ve written the following commentary on this dubious “gold medal” (or is it really lead?) for the ABC’s The Drum.

In all the self-congratulations over how Australia has managed to sidestep the [...]

Interview on Engineer.net

Published in December 27th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

99 Comments

I was recently interviewed by Eric Tavenier for the website Engineer.net, which is an engineer recruitment and job search service in the USA.
Eric was taken with my advocacy of what I called “Engineer Capitalists” (in contrast to the financial spivs who dominate business today in the USA) in my interview on The Keiser Report, and [...]

Mish on the Fictional Reserve System

Published in December 23rd, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

76 Comments

Mike Shedlock (“Mish” as he is known to all) has written an excellent piece on the deflation-inflation debate, focusing on the Achilles Heel of the latter–the fact that it is based on the belief that we live in a “fractional reserve banking” monetary system. He offered to let me cross-post here, and I’ve reproduced it [...]

Max Keiser Interviews

Published in December 20th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

179 Comments

Max Keiser interviewed me for his 4th Keiser Report when I was in Paris earlier in December. I come in at about the 13 minute mark after Max’s banter with Stacy:

It was a great interview–Max had about ten questions prepared, but only asked about 3 of them because the conversation flowed so well.
We also recorded [...]

Circuit Theory and the state of Post Keynesian Economics

Published in December 16th, 2009

Posted by Steve Keen in Debtwatch

120 Comments

I gave the following presentation at the 4th Dijon Money conference (December 10-12 2009):

Briefly, my paper explained how various conundrums that have stymied the development of Circuit Theory for 20 years were in fact the result of confusing a stock (an initial loan) with a flow (the economic transactions that loan could initiate over a year). With [...]

Mish on Tech Ticker

Published in December 9th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

305 Comments

Mike (“Mish”) Shedlock’s site MISH’S Global Economic Trend Analysis provides regular, incisive and down to earth commentary on the US and global economies, and his site is one of my first ports of call when I want do take a more critical look at any US data that appears to be more dissembling than informing.
Mish [...]

Senator Bunning Berates Bernanke

Published in December 8th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

32 Comments

This is too good not to spread: Senator Bunning berates Bernanke at his confirmation hearing. What Bunning lacks in oratory he more than compensates in forthrightness and integrity. One phrase alone is worth hearing: “We [should] punish failure not reward it”.

Debtwatch No 41, December 2009: 4 Years of Calling the GFC

Published in December 1st, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

408 Comments

I first realised that the world faced a serious financial crisis in the very near future in December 2005, as I prepared an Expert Witness Report for the NSW Legal Aid Commission on the subject of predatory lending.
My brief was to talk about the impact of such contracts on third parties, since [...]