Debtwatch 36 July 2009: It’s the Deleveraging, Stupid

Published in July 4th, 2009

Steve Keen’s Debtwatch No. 36 July 2009
It’s the Deleveraging, Stupid
Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over. – Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930
“The past may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme” Mark Twain
In the last six [...]

Bernanke an Expert on the Great Depression??

Published in January 11th, 2009

Posted by Steve Keen in Great Depression, Money dynamics, USA

44 Comments

Note: This post has been modified ni the light of comments that the initial version quoted Bernanke out of context.
A link to this blog from a US legal advisory website the Practising Law Institute’s In Brief ( “DEFLATION IN THE REAL WORLD“) reminded me of Bernanke’s book Essays on the Great Depression, which I’ve been aware of [...]

The World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme?

Published in December 13th, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in USA

51 Comments

Two days ago the FBI indicted Bernie Madoff, principal of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, on securities fraud. Though the case has yet to run, in the indictment the FBI reported that Madoff confessed that his was “basically a giant Ponzi Scheme” that may have lost some extremely high net worth individuals over US$50 billion.
Madoff’s [...]

DebtWatch No 29 December 2008

Published in November 30th, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Debtwatch, USA

51 Comments

What’s Really Going On? or…
Why Did I See it Coming and “They” Didn’t?
Part 2: The Models

“But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the [...]

DebtWatch No 28 November 2008: What is Really Going On?

Published in November 2nd, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Debtwatch, USA

85 Comments

2nd Anniversary Issue…
Why Did I See it Coming and “They” Didn’t?
The financial crisis is widely accepted as having started in August 9 2007, with the BNP’s announcement that it was suspending redemptions from three of its funds that were heavily exposed to the US securitisation market (click here for the BNP August 9 2007 press [...]

Debtwatch 27 October 08: The Failure of Central Banks

Published in October 6th, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Debtwatch, RBA, USA

69 Comments

Just two years ago, Central Banks appeared triumphant. Inflation, the scourge of the 1970s and 80s, appeared dead, the financial crisis of the Tech Wreck had been contained, economies worldwide were booming, and stock markets and house prices were spiralling ever upwards.
Then along came the Subprime Crisis, and we received a rude reminder of why [...]

SBS Dateline tonight with George Negus

Published in September 10th, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Media Coverage, USA

18 Comments

George negus is interviewing me and Peter Schiff on Dateline tonight. The topic is the attempted rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and what that may mean for the global economy and Australia in particular.
Dateline goes to air tonight (Wednesday) at 8.30pm. It is also accessible on the web, the day after the program [...]

Debtwatch No. 25: How much worse can “It” get?

Published in August 4th, 2008

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Debtwatch, USA

72 Comments

Last month closed with some far from comforting news about the state of the US housing market (sales and prices still falling), US financial institutions (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in need of rescue), Australian banks (NAB’s 90% write-down of its US CDO portfolio). Then ABS figures showed that retail sales had fallen “unexpectedly” by [...]

DebtWatch No 11 September 2007: Why didn’t they see it coming?

Published in September 2nd, 2007

Posted by Steve Keen in Australia, Debtwatch, USA

No Comments

I expect–and hope–that the tenor of discussion at this month’s RBA Board meeting will be very different to last month’s. In August, I imagine, the community members of the Board listened sagely as the RBA’s economists explained why the risk of future inflation had risen, why this justified a “pre-emptive strike” of raising interest rates, [...]