Debt Issuance: Boom to Bust
A short post today.First of all, may I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.Secondly, a rather interesting chart (click to enlarge) from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest Quarterly Review.Global Issuance of Debt Secu...
Debt of The Financial Sector
Here's a scary chart, one that I believe explains why the current Debt Crisis merits capitalization, and why it won't go away easily - certainly not by merely "printing" money and giving it to the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, real estate). USA...
Is There Life After Debt?
Fact: The debt crisis is global - and, yes, this includes the so-called creditor nations, such as China. After all, in our fiat currency world it takes a debit in order to create a credit. The way we got into this mess is well known: t...
Ninety-Nine Percent
In the last 30 years the top 1% of Americans saw their real, after-tax income increase nearly fourfold. And how about the "other" 99%? Look below (click to enlarge)...One picture is worth a thousand wordsThe chart appears in an article in The Eco...
The Battle For Europe
From all the news flow out there it appears to me that we are nearing a so-called "inflection" point in the European debt crisis. After a summer and early fall of spinning wheels to no end, European leaders are faced with a stark choice: finally ...
SNAPpy? Surely Not.
I occasionally look at the US Dept. of Agriculture data on food stamps (now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP) because, in my opinion, it provides a much better "on the ground" feel of the real economy. It certainly doesn't look s...
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, died yesterday, age 56. He was one of those very few people who changed the world for the better and who will always - and uncommonly - be remembered with admiration and fondness.Have a Beautiful Trip Steve
Debt 4 More Debt Is 4 Fools
A full four years after the debt crisis raised its ugly head as a sub-prime loan snafu, it has morphed into a "sovereign debt crisis". And how could it not, since what intervened since then was basically a debt swap. The private sector coul...
Debt and The Second Law
A very short post today.Debt is a call on future earnings, i.e. it presumes there will always be economic "growth" (however you may define it) in order to produce those future streams of income which will service the debt. This is a condition I h...
Germany’s Choice
Germany is the world's #2 exporter, very close behind China. In 2010 it exported a total of 960 billion euro, amounting to 42% of its GDP. Its trade surplus came to 153 billion euro, almost 7% of GDP. Impressive stuff, no doubt, and a...
The Joe Engineer Indicator
Sometime ago I attended an alumni gathering arranged by my old college's Provost. Since he was making the effort to come such a long way I figured I had to go - plus it was good to see old friends again. The reason for this post, however, is not to s...
Message To ECB: Why Not Sell CDS, Instead?
With the European debt crisis threatening to tear apart the very fabric of the EU itself, here's an idea (a weird one, I admit). Instead of buying Italian, Spanish, Greek, etc. government bonds, the ECB could sell the equivalent sovereign credit ...
