In the US, bankers are admitting that they will likely sit on most of the cash that they’ve received from their government, mainly because ‘no one is going to lend a nickel until the economy turns’. So, as the media hyped up the ‘crisis’ and my dad nearly had a stroke because of the stress levels it induced, banks are going to sit on the […]
Now that most real estate lies in the hands of the American government, it won’t be long before Blackwater comes knocking on the door of those who are trying to make one last go at holding on to their homes. Eviction notices will be deliverd by one of the world’s largest and fierce mercenary armies, thanks to a lot of funding during the Iraq war, […]
This article poses a number of questions related to what’s being called the Financial 9/11. At the root of the questions lies a great mistrust of the speed at which things ‘had to be done’. Were financial markets unravelling because the people behind them were inept or because the regulations had been stripped so raw by free-market fundamentalists or because there was some other deep-seated […]
A record $70 billion in bonuses are planned for Wall Street ‘genuises’this year, despite the worst show of abuse of capitalism in the last 80 years. At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy […]
Ralph Nader has some timely suggestions for reducing or eliminating what he calls ‘casino-capitalism’: a tax on transactions. Full story here. So what do you think? Would the powers that be even remotely consider a tax on their own transactions? No. That would be like asking a Ford to impose a tax on its own engines. I’m sorry if I sound resistant to the idea. […]