tuckfinitee

Why Reinstating Glass-Steagall Is a Fool's Errand

It's clear we need to become more like the European crime syndicate. Stealing, looting, defrauding, fencing, laundering on any scale can be accommodated in Europe as long as it doesn't undercut too many local bosses. They've had a lot time to develop a cultural consensus on the insider/outsider dichotomy. Simple non-enforcement or selective enforcement works quite well.

On the other hand we still go through tedious risky processes of changing laws in the dead of night and inventive semantic gamesmanship like SIVs and securitisation. Incidentally I think the Europeans are rather chagrined they went along with some of our "creativity".

Looking at $5 Trillion in Losses and Zombie Debt in Residential Mortgages

Mr. White I think you are overlooking the enormous, furious cost shifting this has been and is occurring to make accounting fictions more "real".

Now I'm far from an expert on the details of the Japan Inc. "system". But one would intuit that it is easier to effectuate this kind of cost shifting in their culture. It may well be that we can't duplicate Japan's "success".

The same logic applies to the inflationary arguments. The money flows are going to the gov and banks. Dribs and drabs to wages and retail consumer products. Will commodities breakout on a sustained basis? That is a complex question. I can't answer it but the trend is up.

Smart Money, R.I.P.

Smart money? The western world is being run by carny grifters, toe dancers, and spoiled rich kids.

Fannie and Freddie Waterfalls are Too Big to Bail

Your numbers may be right BS but you're missing the big picture. Only political thugs win at the spend and print game. Everyone else loses. Either net or lost potential. FRE and FMN are just more info that the game is rigged. Everyone who believes more regulations will fix things raise their hands. What do safe regulated investments have in common? Losers. Without speculation(and phony stats)how would you hide how poor a deal the dollar really is? Or other fiat currencies for that matter. What a coincidence everything is looking suspect(stocks,bonds,r... estate)except liquid commodities that are freely exchangeable at markets. Too much speculation in commodities? Commodity markets are becoming a kind of de facto world reserve currency. And where would we be if not? You notice the world economy is still functioning fairly reasonably. Without the growth of commodity markets we'd be in a severe recession right now.