Investment Watch Blog

via Michael Hudson: Adapted from …and Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year. Islet. November 15, 2018.  There has been an explosion of discussion about whether to cancel student debts. Critics of the idea point out that wealthy people would be the main gainers, posing moral hazard. The debate … Read more

There was a time when European governments couldn’t utter a fiscal policy statement without mentioning the word “austerity.” Now, the concept seems to have all but disappeared from public discourse. Is the era of austerity finally over, and did austerity policies — essentially, those encompassing spending cuts and tax increases — achieve what they were … Read more

via CBSNEWS: Wells Fargo says a computer glitch is partly to blame for an error affecting an estimated 545 customers who lost their homes. The giant bank filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, revealing it incorrectly denied 870 loan modification requests. About 60 percent of those homeowners went into foreclosure. Legislators, … Read more

via knowledge.wharton: Deutsche Bank faces its most severe test yet in the wake of police raids on its Frankfurt offices last Thursday over suspicions of helping its clients in money laundering. The scene was dramatic: 170 officers descended on six Deutsche Bank buildings, including its headquarters, and seized documents and files, according to an NPR report. German … Read more

by YouOnlyLiftedOnce On 27 November 2018, the Australian Parliament has concluded a detailed report with detailed proposal including classify games including loot boxes as gambling. [1] After repeated delayed release and confirmed under-performance of EA’s latest releases Star Wars: Battlefront II and Battlefield V, compounded with increasing likelihood of complete lootbox bans, which accounts for … Read more

via Bloomberg: A key regulator of Wall Street banks has joined the Federal Reserve in warning about risky corporate borrowing that has reached record levels as lender protections are eroded. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency cautioned in its Semiannual Risk Perspective released Monday that it’s looking at “transactions with increasing leverage, weaker capital structures, … Read more

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymakers are debating ways to wean the euro zone off years of easy money, floating ideas such as a new kind of multi-year loans and staggered increases in interest rates, sources told Reuters. The ECB will have a difficult task over the next couple of years: dialing back its … Read more

via J-L-Picard: Sources: ​ https://historyinpieces.com/research/presidential-inauguration-dates ​ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_by_date_of_death ​ Made on MS Excel 365 ​ Inspired by: https://xkcd.com/893/  

via Meadow Clark: China’s social credit system is in full swing and has already blacklisted more than 15 million Chinese residents from travel. Is it coming soon to the U.S.? Recently, The Organic Prepper reported some shocking news of China’s newest rollout: a social credit system. It’s a system of surveillance and governance using a social scoring system … Read more

by Zia Haq via the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Russia nudges Indian policymakers to move away from the dollar To counter US President Donald Trump’s economic sanctions, snap trade wars and the dollar’s dominance in world trade, Russia is nudging Indian policymakers to explore ways to stop depending on the greenback and conduct trade in alternative … Read more

by Shaun Richards Let us take the opportunity to be able to look at some better news from Greece which came from its statistics office yesterday. The available seasonally adjusted data indicate that in the 3 rd quarter of 2018 the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in volume terms increased by 1.0% in comparison with the … Read more

by Vitaliy N. Katsenelson The Roman philosopher Seneca wasn’t talking about the stock market when he wrote that “Time discovers truth,”but he could have been. In the long run a stock price will reflect a company’s (true) intrinsic value. In the short run the pricing is basically random. Here are two real-life examples. Let’s say you had … Read more

by John Ward The only thing missing from the utter disgrace of the last ten days has been the taxpaying voters who keep all these arrogant poseurs in a job. It is time we had our say. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ Yesterday’s antics in Parliament have convinced the ever-gullible old media in Britain that somehow, an historic victory for … Read more