When Bear Stearns blew up in 2008, the New York Fed handed it to JP Morgan Chase – the beginning of a vast bailout corruption fest. Turns out, five years later, the execs who caused it to blow up have jobs on Wall Street that are more lucrative than ever. To honor these sordid details, Nick Stuart wrote a hilarious, cynical parody about the last days of Bear.
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Attitudes Harden in Spain as Catalonian Independence Referendum Looms
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Attitudes Harden in Spain as Catalonian Independence Referendum Looms
By Don Quijones, Spain: Since last year’s unprecedented protests to mark Catalonia’s national day of independence on September 11th, relations between Rajoy’s administration and Catalonia’s coalition government have soured to the point of curdling. Catalonia’s leader called it a “war of cultures” between the two “countries.”
Even the CEO Of China’s Largest Appliance Manufacturer Gets Cold Feet
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Even the CEO Of China’s Largest Appliance Manufacturer Gets Cold Feet
China’s property and infrastructure bubbles, nurtured by limitless borrowed money, are still swelling up beautifully. Service industries are also growing. But hot air has been hissing out of manufacturing. Now Zhang Ruimin, CEO of China’s largest appliance maker Haier Group, put his finger on the problem. And it doesn’t look good for manufacturing in China.
Snowden Warns Americans: Fear The Military-Intelligence Complex
by Contributor • • Comments Off on Snowden Warns Americans: Fear The Military-Intelligence Complex
By Chriss Street: Unburdened by the constitutional requirement to get a search warrant, the NSA has teamed with Apple, Google, and Microsoft to capture your party pictures, intimate letters, and financial activities in order to build a “permanent file” to be used against you later. That’s Edward Snowden’s revelation as he accepted political asylum in Russia.
The Dark Side Of The Guys Who Run Japan Oozes To The Surface
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Dark Side Of The Guys Who Run Japan Oozes To The Surface
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe skillfully used his miraculous economic salvation plan, a religion lovingly dubbed Abenomics, as a platform to catapult his party, the LDP, into power. With the LDP controlling both houses of parliament, real changes, after years of dickering, might now finally be possible.
Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing
Wall Street engineering is back in the housing market. Its newest product is one heck of a contraption, a synthetic structured security of the type that helped blow up the financial system back in 2008. It’s like those triple-A rated mortgage-backed securities that became toxic waste in your “money-market-equivalent” bond fund – only worse.
The Jobs Curse At Amazon (And Obama Stepped Into It)
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Jobs Curse At Amazon (And Obama Stepped Into It)
Amazon’s promotion machine shifted into high gear to tout President Obama’s visit to one of its warehouses where he unveiled his “better bargain” for “middle class jobs.” The visit was artfully synced with Amazon’s announcement that it would create 7,000 jobs. Out of nothing. One of the ongoing lies in America’s jobs crisis – and Obama stepped right into it.
NSA Spying in Germany: Turning “A Parliamentary Democracy Into A Banana Republic”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on NSA Spying in Germany: Turning “A Parliamentary Democracy Into A Banana Republic”
“The largest espionage scandal in the 21st century is shaking Germany,” wrote Peer Steinbrück, the man who’s desperately trying to unseat one of the most popular German politicians, Chancellor Merkel. Massive anti-NSA protests spread across the country. Well, 1,000 demonstrators straggled through Frankfurt. It’s going to be tough for him.
David Stockman: Hedge Funds And The Rule Of Rips And Wrecks
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on David Stockman: Hedge Funds And The Rule Of Rips And Wrecks
“At junctures of extreme financial stress, the high level of carry trade funding” that hedge funds use during bubbles “results in violent market reversals,” David Stockman writes. “Wholesale funding evaporates and involuntary asset sales cascade into a bidless abyss.” Hence the collapse of 2000–2003 (45%) and 2008–2009 (55%). Now they’re doing it again.
The Exquisite Art Of Marketing To Pauperized Consumers
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Exquisite Art Of Marketing To Pauperized Consumers
People in the upper income categories, those who don’t have to worry about the price of toilet paper, have seen their incomes rise over the years. The rest are in a downward spiral: median household income, adjusted for inflation, has dropped 7.8% since 2000. The lower end got hit the hardest. For these folks, tissue makers have a special strategy: desheeting.