Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Financial Crisis Goes Beyond Finance

I just dashed off the first draft of a discussion of the financial crisis to be published in a South Asian publication. It is very preliminary. I could appreciate any pointers. Thanks.


Financial-Crisis

4 comments:

Daro said...

Reads fine... 4-5 word errors (sheesh!) But a good, punchy, informative article and I'd agree with everything said. Although I did read somewhere that McCain stood up in 2006 and tried to propose legislation to counter rules that allowed the current fiscal malady. Sorry to be vague... it was a detailed comment on some damn blog I read yesterday. That would've been back when McCain had a shred of integrity. Back to your article... the ending seemed a tad abrupt(?) Now I'm just looking for flaws!

Anonymous said...

I assume you are writing a cautionary tale. Would suggest using statistics to emphasize the aggresious behavior. I believe the current US mortgage market is approximately USD 14 TRILLION while the credit default swaps (insurance contracts) is now estimated to be as much as USD 70 TRILLION. Good first draft though!

Nick said...

Contrary to what the main stream media says, wall street as a whole (capitalism) should not be blamed for the actions and policies set forth by OUR congress. There are, in fact, corrupt men in wall street who partnered with corrupt men in government to engineer a win-win situation at the expense of the taxpayer. Capitalism (and our nation or any nation) will only survive when the good and virtuous people are running it. Which means, come this November, you must vote for good men and women who stand by principle and uphold our constitution and not just give lip service to causes that seem noble and just.

Myrtle Blackwood said...

Historical development of concentrated economic, and political power. No free press.------->

Unethical monopoly capitalists running governments ------->

*Vicious IMF, WTO policies that impoverished large sections of the global population and prompted vulnerable nations to build up reserves ------>

global trade imbalances ------->

*Excessive liquidity from 'emerging' nations and debt-dependent consumption in industrial countries (lower wages/workers using rising asset values as income). This combines with US dollar hegemony and global finance capital monopoly ------>

Emerging nations invest in US treasuries as returns in their home countries limited due to global corporation infiltration and lack of real economic development ---->

A 'savings' glut ------>

Wall Street bankers decide where to invest for maximum profit in a deregulated environment ----->

*Extremely lax lending practices and the development of Financial innovation of derivatives that allowed the expansion of credit based on smaller and smaller levels of collateral in the US. ------>

Derivatives developed that linked one credit liability with another-------->

Market downturn and a systemic domino effect--------->

Monopoly finance try to rush a taxpayer funded bailout.