-
Why China Crushed Its Own Tech Giants
In late 2020, Beijing did the unthinkable: it attacked its own champions. Trillions in market value vanished, the world’s largest IPO was halted, and entire industries were banned overnight. Western investors called it “economic suicide,” but they were looking at stock prices while China was looking at its society. This episode explains why the “Golden […]
-
Regime Change at the Fed: From Big Bank Bailouts to Local Productivity
On January 30, when former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh was nominated by President Trump as the central bank’s next chair, markets sold off and gold and silver plunged. Investors were positioned for a “dove,” someone inclined to cut rates aggressively and keep money loose; and Warsh has a long-standing reputation as a “hawk.” So wrote Michael […]
-
India and China Push Gold to Record Highs, then Pull from Western Vaults after Russia Sanctions
Gold prices are at historic highs, buoyed by India and China central bank buying in OTC markets. Further, all-time high levels of gold repatriation are underway, to vaults in Asia. Industry insiders and market experts are puzzled at the intensity and the timing of the gold buys, which seem divorced from economic fundamentals. But these […]
-
How Unelected Regulators Unleashed the Derivatives Monster and How It Might Be Tamed
It was not the highly visible acts of Congress but the seemingly mundane and often nontransparent actions of regulatory agencies that empowered the great transformation of the U.S. commercial banks from traditionally conservative deposit-taking and lending businesses into providers of wholesale financial risk management and intermediation services. — Professor Saule Omarova, “The Quiet Metamorphosis, How […]
-
Is the Reign of the Dollar Coming to an End?
Jiang Tiefeng (China), Stone Forest, 1979. In early June, a rumour began to circulate – which was widely reported in the Indian press as true – that the government of Saudi Arabia had allowed its petrodollar agreement with the United States to lapse. This agreement, made in 1974, is quite straight-forward and fulfills various needs […]
-
Defusing the Derivatives Time Bomb: Some Proposed Solutions
The “protected class” is granted “safe harbor” only because their bets are so risky that to let them fail could crash the economy. But why let them bet at all? This is a sequel to a January 15 article titled “Casino Capitalism and the Derivatives Market: Time for Another ‘Lehman Moment’?”, discussing the threat of […]
-
Casino Capitalism and the Derivatives Market: Time for Another “Lehman Moment”?
Reading the tea leaves for the 2024 economy is challenging. On January 5th, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said we have achieved a “soft landing,” with wages rising faster than prices in 2023. But critics are questioning the official figures, and prices are still high. Surveys show that consumers remain apprehensive. There are other concerns. On December 24, 2023, Catherine […]
-
“The Great Taking”: How They Can Own It All
“’You’ll own nothing and be happy’? David Webb has gone through the 50-year history of all the legal constructs that have been put in place to technically enable that to happen.” [Oct 2 interview titled “The Great Taking: Who Really Owns Your Assets?”] The derivatives bubble has been estimated to exceed one quadrillion dollars (a […]
-
War By Other Means: Short Selling JPMorgan
When the FDIC put Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank into receivership in March, a study reported on the Social Science Research Network found that nearly 200 mid-sized U.S. banks were similarly vulnerable to bank runs. First Republic Bank went into receivership in May, but the feared contagion of runs did not otherwise occur. […]
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish