financial crisis Archive

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  Green shoots or growing rot?

  
  
  
  Everyone agrees that we’re in a crisis. Officials and politicians point everywhere and say – Hey look! Green shoots! The worst is over. Others urge us to ignore the green shoots, the worst is yet to come. read more
  August 31, 2009 9:55 am - 22 Comments
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  Morningstar’s disquiet about our financial industry

  
  
  
  Morningstar’s recent report on the fund management industry makes for some interesting reading. They rank us dead last in a streamed class of 16 OECD nations. Of particular note they remark that: New Zealand does not have adequate mandatory disclosure requirements; Our Securities Commission is not sufficiently resourced and; Our taxation regime does not encourage long-term investing. The report [...] read more
  May 21, 2009 8:38 am - 4 Comments
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  Too connected to fail?

  
  
  
  Here’s a mind-boggling picture from the IMF of a financial disaster in the making-unregulated trading in credit default swaps. The chart maps how some of the major financial institutions in the USA are linked through this innovative form of debt insurance. Unlike real insurance, however, investors can trade in credit default swap instruments without actually [...] read more
  April 23, 2009 11:11 am - 16 Comments
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  Flashback to 1999 when freedom was the answer

  
  
  
  Frogs have an inherently ironic disposition; It’s one way to survive a world intent on its own destruction. Michael Kreidler recently sent me this article from the New York Times from 1999, “Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws.” One hundred trillion dollars worth of wealth was erased by the financial collapse last year and [...] read more
  April 7, 2009 12:16 pm - 21 Comments
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  OPEC struggles to control peak oil fluctuations

  
  
  
  As the global economy tumbles the price of oil has plunged down to about US$67 a barrel. As I’ve noted previously the dramatic falls and rises in price are indication that we are hitting peak oil. But, as importantly, peak oil is also playing its part in causing the crisis, as Energy Bulletin notes: The US [...] read more
  October 23, 2008 1:45 pm - 12 Comments