I remember well, the fiscal rectitude of the old Japan: In 1981, as the Reagan White House prepared its radical fiscal plan – famously called “riverboat gamble” – we were visited by high-ranking Japanese officials, in a state of shock.
They’d piled into the new “risk sharing RMBS bonds” issued by Fannie and Freddie. Wall Street provided 80% leverage. Buying frenzy ensued. But it didn’t last long.
Barron’s, 2007: “Against this troubling backdrop, it’s no wonder investors are worried the bull market might end in 2008. But Wall Street’s top equity strategists are quick to dismiss such fears.”
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on The Wall Street ‘Escape Velocity’ Scam: GDP Forecasts Fizzles Again
Nothing is more predictable than Wall Street economists proclaiming early each year that money printing will finally work, that GDP growth will hit “escape velocity.” But this year, the markdowns are fast and furious.
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on The Crony Capitalist Corruption At GM
GM blamed a low-level engineer for its ignition switch fiasco. That doesn’t even merit an “oh puleese!” I speak from personal experience: I owned a supplier that was smashed to smithereens by GM’s engineering and purchasing bureaucracy.
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on Canary In A Handbag: Why Coach Hit The Skids
Coach just had an earnings fiasco. Sales plunged 21%. Prospects are worse for the period ahead. Store closings are coming. That’s the payoff for playing the destructive game of the Wall Street casino.
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on Here Comes QE In Financial Drag: Draghi’s New Monetization Ploy
The ECB launches QE in financial drag by purchasing the kind of “toxic-waste” that took down the US financial system; but it proclaims it’s not “monetizing” any stinking sovereign debt! What it’s really up to is snookering the German sound-money camp.
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on The Hazardous Hunt For Carry – Why The EM Rebound Isn’t Real
The monetary plumbers keep banging money market rates to zero, thereby ignoring what the money market rate really is in a financialized, debt-ridden system: the price of hot money, the single most important price in all of capitalism.
