How Globalization Went Pop and What It Means for Workers … How do you measure how fast the world economy has "globalized"? Borrow a concept from physics. Call it global economic entropy. Global trade is old — really, really old. But something new is happening to the world economy as software and container trade shrink the globe — the rate of "globalization" is...Read More
Daylight robbery in Cyprus will come to haunt EMU … One's first reflex is to gasp at the stupidity of the EU policy elites, but truth is that most EU officials handling the Cyprus crisis know perfectly well that their masters have just set the slow fuse on a powder keg – and they can only pray that it is slow. The decision to expropriate Cypriot savers – even the poorest &nda...Read More
Europe, Unemployment and Instability … The global financial crisis of 2008 has slowly yielded to a global unemployment crisis. This unemployment crisis will, fairly quickly, give way to a political crisis. The crisis involves all three of the major pillars of the global system — Europe, China and the United States. The level of intensity differs, the political response differs and the...Read More
How Globalization Went Pop and What It Means for Workers … How do you measure how fast the world economy has "globalized"? Borrow a concept from physics. Call it global economic entropy. Global trade is old — really, really old. But something new is happening to the world economy as software and container trade shrink the globe — the rate of "globalization" is...Read More
Daylight robbery in Cyprus will come to haunt EMU … One's first reflex is to gasp at the stupidity of the EU policy elites, but truth is that most EU officials handling the Cyprus crisis know perfectly well that their masters have just set the slow fuse on a powder keg – and they can only pray that it is slow. The decision to expropriate Cypriot savers – even the poorest &nda...Read More
The Power Behind Monetary Policy … As I watched Cyprus' financial minister discuss the seizure of bank deposits in his country, I realized that this situation is a great lesson on the value of independent Monetary policy and the raw power that central banks can wield … – Flourish Financial AnalysisDominant Social Theme: Central banks … caring, friendly, concerned.Free-M...Read More
The Cyprus precedent … Given that this policy was not merely rubber-stamped but engineered by Eurozone finance ministers and the IMF (indeed, the IMF wanted an even deeper cut of deposits), it sends a disquieting message to anyone with deposits in a euro area bank. Although the ministers were quick to insist that this is a one-off and is "exceptional", anyone even vaguely acquainte...Read More
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle … The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company More was warning riders to anticipate "heavy traffic." A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marque...Read More
Italian president seeks way out of political stalemate … Italy's political stalemate and the prospect of months of uncertainty has created alarm across Europe just as the standoff over bank deposits in Cyprus reawakened fears that the euro zone debt crisis could flare up again … However, there has been no sign that an accord is possible with either former Prime Minister Silvio Berl...Read More
Internet sites targeted by MPs for first time 'in chilling threat to free speech'… but could bloggers also face huge damages in Press crackdown? … The internet will be targeted for the first time as the 'chilling' Royal Charter attempts to curb free speech on the majority of websites and blogs, experts warned today. The draft version of the document suggests that foreig...Read More
The long, slow decline of alt-weeklies … Alternative weekly colossus Boston Phoenix cracked and fell yesterday, ceasing publication after 47 years. According to a Phoenix executive quoted in the obituary in today's Boston Globe, the alternative weekly was losing more than $1 million a year, and a format switch last fall from newsprint to glossy had failed to attract the sort of national...Read More
The Power Behind Monetary Policy … As I watched Cyprus' financial minister discuss the seizure of bank deposits in his country, I realized that this situation is a great lesson on the value of independent Monetary policy and the raw power that central banks can wield … – Flourish Financial AnalysisDominant Social Theme: Central banks … caring, friendly, concerned.Free-M...Read More
The Cyprus precedent … Given that this policy was not merely rubber-stamped but engineered by Eurozone finance ministers and the IMF (indeed, the IMF wanted an even deeper cut of deposits), it sends a disquieting message to anyone with deposits in a euro area bank. Although the ministers were quick to insist that this is a one-off and is "exceptional", anyone even vaguely acquainte...Read More
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle … The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company More was warning riders to anticipate "heavy traffic." A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marque...Read More
Italian president seeks way out of political stalemate … Italy's political stalemate and the prospect of months of uncertainty has created alarm across Europe just as the standoff over bank deposits in Cyprus reawakened fears that the euro zone debt crisis could flare up again … However, there has been no sign that an accord is possible with either former Prime Minister Silvio Berl...Read More
Internet sites targeted by MPs for first time 'in chilling threat to free speech'… but could bloggers also face huge damages in Press crackdown? … The internet will be targeted for the first time as the 'chilling' Royal Charter attempts to curb free speech on the majority of websites and blogs, experts warned today. The draft version of the document suggests that foreig...Read More
The long, slow decline of alt-weeklies … Alternative weekly colossus Boston Phoenix cracked and fell yesterday, ceasing publication after 47 years. According to a Phoenix executive quoted in the obituary in today's Boston Globe, the alternative weekly was losing more than $1 million a year, and a format switch last fall from newsprint to glossy had failed to attract the sort of national...Read More
Why the EU is right on Cyprus … Cyprus's population is about three times that of Iceland. But once the panic about their bank deposits subsides, Cypriots might take a closer look at what actually caused the crisis, just as the Icelanders have been doing. For the big question that Cypriots still need to ask themselves is why, despite attracting tens of billions of euros from Russians and...Read More
National planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand …The National Government are pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today. Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English's favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails...Read More
S&P warns of socially explosive situation in euro zone … Standard and Poor's sees a high risk that Spain, Italy, Portugal and France will not be able to carry through necessary reforms as the unemployed become less willing to put up with austerity, S&P's Germany head Torsten Hinrichs told a newspaper. "The high unemployment in Spain, Italy and France is socially explos...Read More