ECB becomes insolvent to save the bondholders

While Europe is preoccupied with a possible restructuring of Greece’s debt, huge risks lurk elsewhere – in the balance sheet of the European Central Bank. The guardian of the single currency has taken on billions of euros worth of risky securities as collateral for loans to shore up the banks of struggling nations.

The [...]

Welcome to Dystopia

Where criminals are still free and desperately arguing for a continued coverup of their crimes:

I’m not amused that the Wall Street Journal solicited an op-ed attacking the decision to try KSM in civilian court from one of the  people–John Yoo–with the biggest conflict on such a decision. It’s yet more proof that Rupert Murdoch [...]

The Gospel according to Goldman

As a graduate in theology, I was interested to read that Goldman Sachs believes the Gospels promote self interest.

However, I have learned there is an apocryphal basis for that position.  It turns out that biblical archaeologists have unearthed a little-known text that offers a somewhat different understanding of the teachings of Jesus.  In [...]

Phantom condos and phony accounting

Jim The Realtor shows a brand new expensive looking condo development in San Diego County that has no gas meters hooked up. That means they never sold any. Just more empty condos, and they are not counted on new home inventory reports.

Financial author Michael Lewis thinks another day of reckoning is coming. I [...]

The MSU School of Accounting

Bloomberg. Bank profits soaring due to bogus accounting rules

(MSU is the Polizeros acronym for “Making Sh*t Up”)

Mothballed condo project in Irvine CA

Calculated Risk, in their first video, shows an empty, never-used condo project in Irvine. The lights are on, but no one is home. Ever.

New condos like this are shadow inventory – they are not included in the Census Bureau new homes report, and they are not listed in the MLS. But they do [...]

33% of homeowners w/mortgages are underwater

That’s a lot of pain…

Who do you trust on the economy?

The video above comes from a Mother Jones fundraiser held recently out on the west coast. You can view the rest here, but this one in particular got me thinking about which sources I actually trust for economic news.  Turns out, not that many. Before I list them though, I should tell you [...]

Are CNBC and Jim Cramer gaming the market?

So asks John Amato at C&L, citing a wealth of articles and sources. Read them all. It goes way beyond gaming the market by naked shorting and a compliant media. There’s hedge funds with organized crime money, a money culture that ignored laws (while regulators snoozed), illegal manipulation of stocks, and much more.

There [...]

Disaster Chic: De-Globalization and the Middle Ages

Will countries react to the financial crisis with crippling “reverse globalization,” throwing the entire world economy off balance? Or are we instead locked into globalization and headed for a new “Dark Age?” [...]