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Introduction


Bushonomics is the continuous consolidation of money
and power into higher, tighter and righter hands

George Bush Sr, November 1992

"No warning can save a people determined to grow suddenly rich."

- Lord Overstone

The term Casino Capitalism  as a specific phase of neoliberal transformation of capitalism. A slow motion corporate coup d'état, which is now accomplished in the USA and other Western countries.

In other words this is a variant of neoliberal model of corporatism used in wealthy Western countries. The term itself was coined by Susan Strange who used it as a title of her book Casino Capitalism published in 1986. She was one of the first who realized that

  1.  "The roots of the world's economic disorder are monetary and financial";
  2.  "The disorder has not come about by accident, but has in fact been nurtured and encouraged by a series of government decisions." (p. 60). In other words its was a counter-revolution  of  the part of ruling elite that lost its influence in 30th (dismantling New Deal from above in the USA (Reaganomics) or Thatcherism in the GB).

According to Susan Strange transformation of industrial capitalism into neoliberal capitalism ("casino capitalism")  involved  five trends. All of them increased the systemic instability of the system and the level of political corruption:

  1. Innovations in the way in which financial markets work due to introduction of computers;
  2. The sheer size of markets;
  3. Commercial banks turned into investment banks;
  4. The emergence of Asian nations as large players;
  5. The shift to self-regulation by banks (pp.9-10).

Now it is pretty much established fact that the conversion from "industrial capitalism" to neoliberal "casino capitalism" is the natural logic of development of capitalism. In early and incomplete matter this trend was noticed earlier by many thinkers. So, in a way,  replacement of industrial capitalism with financial capitalism was immanent and corruption was contributing, but not decisive factor. Also this conversion did not happen due to lack of oversight or as a folly. Also unlike "industrial capitalism" which was more-or-less stable system, able to outcompete the neo-theocratic system of the USSR, the financial capitalism is unstable in the same sense as radioactive elements are unstable.  The crisis of neoliberal capitalism started 2008 undermined ideological legitimacy oif its central claim that "free markets" lead to faster and more uniform economic development of all countries. While the peak of its power might be over, it will exist in zombie state due to economic and military power of the USA and G7.  And as we know from Hollywood films, zombies can be especially bloodthirsty. It probably will remain the dominant force for at least the next two decades with the policy of "forceful" opening of energy rich countries for western multinationals intact.  But as Napoleon quipped "You can do anything with bayonets, you just can't sit on them".

Conversion to neoliberal capitalism was a reaction on stagnation of industrial production and as such it was nurtured and encouraged by a series of government decisions for the last 50 years.  Stagnation of industrial production made expansion of financial sector of paramount importance for the ruling elite and by extension for Congress which represents this elite. House vote 377:4 for Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 is pretty telling in this respect.

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NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

[Mar 10, 2020] That is the way POTUS go down in History

Mar 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org

DFC , Mar 9 2020 22:17 utc | 64

"I have the hunch that this is a normal flu" (D.J.Trump, March 2020)

"I have the hunch the recovery is around the corner" (Herbert Hoover, November 1929)

That is the way POTUS go down in History

[Mar 10, 2020] We probably do not need election of Sanders to crash stock market. Coronavirus will do the job just fine

What will happen if Biden dies from Coronavirus after the convention?
Mar 10, 2020 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Aumua , March 9, 2020 at 4:36 am

I guess another mixed positive is that it shows you don't need Bernie Sanders to crash the stock markets. The thing is quite unstable on its own thank you very much.

Divadab , March 9, 2020 at 7:16 am

Yes- quite illuminating to see the contempt Dem party worthies hold for us and the office of President

[Mar 10, 2020] "Saving" Wall Street really amounts to "saving" the tapeworm while discarding the host.

Mar 10, 2020 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Parker Dooley , March 9, 2020 at 1:53 pm

"Saving" Wall Street really amounts to "saving" the tapeworm while discarding the host.

But we love love love our tapeworm -- especially our "healthcare plans" and "capitalism".

[Mar 09, 2020] What's the difference between a cannibal and a neoliberal

Mar 09, 2020 | nymag.com

"A cannibal doesn't eat his friends."

[Jul 11, 2014] Jane Austen Explains Monetary Policy

"I wonder how Harry Potter would put it..."
Zero Hedge

Who knew? Jane Austen was a dyed-in-the-wool, easy-money-loving, stimulus-demanding 'expert' on monetary policy. As Citi's Steven Englander finds in his eloquent new year's note, it seems the antiquated authoress has much sense-and-sensibility to reproach those of us who believe in real money and a return to a real economy. From justifying QE, "Money is the best recipe for happiness," to the importance of the wealth effect, "If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow;" Austen offers some 'balance' to offer on Fed transparency, tapering, and congressional spending.

Via Citi's Steve Englander,

'Elinor now found the difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event, however certain the mind may be told to consider it, and certainty itself." – particularly apt in light of the market reaction to tapering.

[Jul 10, 2014] One unanticipated effect of neoclassical economic education

...the avg Americans gives away 42% of found money. But first year economics students only give away 20%. The economics curriculum in the USA needs to change. -- Mixed Thinking about Markets

[Jan 29, 2014] Random findings

[Feb 20, 2013] "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

[Feb 16, 2013] Random quotes

[Jan 30, 2013] Random quotes

[Dec 30, 2012] ] Random quotes

[Nov 30, 2011] ] Random quotes

[Nov 30, 2011] ] Random quotes for November, 2011

[Oct 31, 2011] ] Random quote for October

[Sep 30, 2011] Random quote for September

[Aug 31, 2011] Random quote for August

[Jul 31, 2011] Random quotes

"I don't want to be a prophet of doom -- and I really don't believe that we are approaching doom -- but I think we're going to slide into intensified social conflicts, social hostility, some forms of radicalism, there is just going to be a sense that this is not a just society." -- Ex-National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski

[Jun 30, 2011] Random quotes

[May 30, 2011] Random quotes

[Apr 30, 2011] Random quotes

[Mar 31, 2011] Random quotes for March 2011

[Jan 15, 2011] Random quotes

[Jan 1, 2011] In 2009 I Learned That…

The Reformed Broker

[Dec 22, 2010] Random quotes December 2010

[Dec 22, 2009] Oh, CRE- Holiday parody of the song O Christmas Tree

Here is a musical parody of the traditional song "O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)," about commercial real estate.

That video has been going around a bit but today is the first I have seen it.

[Dec 22, 2009] Fictional Reserve Lending And The Myth Of Excess Reserves

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Fractional Reserve Lending is really Fictional Reserve Lending.

[Dec 21, 2009] Economics is mathematics bent to the service of political propaganda.

[Oct 30, 2009] Glossary of Trading Terms and Phrases By Barry Ritholtz

October 30th, 2009

Time for some Friday Fun:

via the Dopey Cowboy, we get a Glossary of Trading Terms and Phrases. A few of my favorites:

The full run is here.

Hat tip Mike Panzner

[Jul 14, 2009] Securitization: "There's a name for this - it's called 'passing the trash,' Wall Street Fraud

[May 14, 2009] After this bizarre time period is over (gonna be a while), the terms "green shoots" and "better than expected" will be running jokes to repeated ad nauseum.

[May 1, 2009]

[Apr 28, 2009] Flight to quality:

Looting emerging economies by repatriation of speculative capital

[Dec 22, 2008] Larry Kudlow financial advice

"... anyone who has ever read Larry Kudlow wonders how he's able to manage a folding chair without assistance"

Ezra Klein

[Dec 15, 2008] Humor - updated stock market & business terms: Value Investing -…

December 6, 2008 | by WcP Blog - World Culture Pictorial

CEO -- Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO -- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
... ... ...

[Oct 3, 2008] wolf pack

Hat tip to Kenichi Ohmae (FT.com)

This is a syndrome known as "wolf pack" in a group theory. While the wolves are good at attacking the victim as a team, they have a tendency to attack the weakest of the cohort should extreme hunger prevail. The banking crisis is like this metaphor. If Lehman goes, people look at the "next" and all of a sudden, the victim is the weakest of the bunch. When Lehman goes, it is Washington Mutual, and the next is Wachovia. When Wachovia merges with Citicorp, then people look for another victim, and could point to National City. This is an endless process and continues until the last wolf no longer finds anybody to point its finger. In Japan, we have now only three money center banks, down from over a dozen in the 80's. The remaining banks are all mega-banks, and according to the Japanese Financial Services Agency, they are too big to fail.

Socialism:

Who would have guessed that when socialism comes to America, it would be wearing a business suit and carrying a corporate logo?

[Sep 28, 2008] O.P.M

other people money. Opium for Wall Street.

[Sep 27, 2008] Passing the trash

Approving risky or fraudulent mortgage loans: borrowers with payments they couldn't afford, houses with inflated appraisals, people lying about their income. See Wall Street Fraud

[Sep 26, 2008] Ponzi Finance Dynamics.

Politically correct term for Bear and Lehman bankruptcy

[Sep 26, 2008] Paulson's Economic Patriot Act is about marking to market

"Economic Patriot Act" -- Paulson Plan

[Sep 25, 2008] The Big Picture We should toss him a couple of bucks...

False Prophet Index -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average

[Aug 20, 2008] Bear market

Russell famously comment on Bear Markets is fully applicable to 401K investors:

"In a bear market, everyone loses, and the winner is the one who loses the least."

[Aug 20, 2008] BenSteinery

Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz

Ignorant, foolish or disingenuous comments in mass media.

[Aug 11, 2008] Age of Froth

Hat tip to John Wasik (Greenspan's `Age of Froth' Is Over for Decade)

How do you describe a time of obscenely easy credit; stock and housing bubbles; stratospheric Wall Street profits, outlandish banker salaries and general prosperity?

In his Bloomberg commentary John Wasik wrote:

I derive the concept of froth from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who told Congress on July 20, 2005, that "the apparent froth in the housing markets appears to have interacted with evolving practices in mortgage markets."

Greenspan's remarks coincided with the peak of the bubble, when U.S. median home prices hit $230,200 that July. We may not see house values reach that level for another decade or so.

More disturbing about Greenspan's observation is his acknowledgement that interest-only adjustable mortgages that were used "to purchase homes that would otherwise be unaffordable'' may leave "some mortgagors vulnerable to adverse events.''

As it stands now, that was the financial understatement of this young century. Greenspan and the Fed -- with the exception of former Governor Edward Gramlich, who wrote a prescient book about mortgage abuses -- did nothing to curb these "exotic" mortgages, hence the current crisis.

[Aug 11, 2008] Ace of Spades

Hat tip to Tim Iacono (The Age of Ignorance and Froth)

Not long ago, Peter Schiff famously called "The Maestro" the "Ace of Spades" in an Iraq War-style deck of playing cards that had, as its purpose, identifying the most important and dastardly members of the Iraqi government.

[Aug 8, 2008] Fuel:

Hat tip to Jim Fitch of Some Assembly Required. Also at Americans want cheap fuel....

Americans want cheap fuel, no matter what it costs.

[Jul 31, 2008] Free Trade:

Hat tip to Dean Baker (NYT Hides Its Preferred Protections as "Free Trade")
The U.S. policy of selective protectionism, which protects workers in highly paid professions from foreign competition. Free trade is simply not on the national political agenda, although political figures who support subjected non-college educated workers to competition with low-paid workers in the developing world like to refer to their policies as "free trade."

[Jul 29, 2008] Ideological idiots:

Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz ( SEC, Fed Fiddled As Rome Burned - Seeking Alpha)

The collection of ne'er do wells, clueless dolts, political hacks, and oh, let's just be blunt and call them what they are -- total Idiots -- expands into an ever larger circle.

While the Republic burns due to the unsavory combination of incompetence, ideological rigidity, and crony capitalism, the fools and assclowns seem ever more determined to avoid any personal responsibility for the damages they have wrought. Instead, they flail about blindly, blaming everything and everyone -- except their own horrific negligence.

This is financial incompetence writ on a scale far grander than anything seen for centuries.

As a nation, our institutions have failed us: Under Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve slept through the most reckless and irresponsible expansion of bank lending in history for reasons of ideological purity. His opposition to the Fed's regulatory role reached the point of malfeasance long ago. History is unlikely to be kind to the Maestro

There is a choice to be made: Either we regulate the Banks, or leave it to the vagaries of the free markets to punish those who trade with, or place their assets in the wrong institutions. But for God's sake, do not give us the worst of both worlds -- do not allow banks the freedom to make horrific but preventable mistakes (i.e., only lending money to those who can pay it back), but then expect the taxpayers to foot the trillion dollar bill.

That's not capitalism, it's not socialism, it's not regulation, and it's sure as hell isn't what free markets are. Our language is insufficient to describe this hodge-podge system, other than to call it a random patchwork of quasi-capitalism, quadrennial-socialism, and politics as usual. Ideological idiocy is the only phrase I can muster that has any resonance with the daily insanity.

[Jul 29, 2008] Orwellian madness

Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz ( SEC, Fed Fiddled As Rome Burned - Seeking Alpha)

The American Capitalists, long the globe's leading advocates for free markets, have become near Socialists. Halfway around the world, the Chinese Communists have picked up the baton, and are moving rapidly towards a form of Capitalism. Ironically, it is the once largest communist nations -- the Chinese and the Russians -- who hold much of Fannie and Freddie's paper.

Hey comrades, who's selling the rope to whom?

[Jul 29, 2008] Financials:

Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz ( The Big Picture / Rinse. Lather. Repeat )

Group of firms which obviously think investors are utter fools and fleecing them left and right. And for a while, they were correct. They suckered people into buying into this mess the whole way down. Bottom calls each and every level -- all of which failed.

Release earnings. Issue guidance. A few weeks later, lower earnings. A few weeks after that, take more write-downs. Raise more capital. Start it all over again next quarter.

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

The banks have adopted a Chinese water torture approach -- dribbling out the bad news in small doses over time. Its been working up until now, but I doubt it will keep working much longer. Can they keep fooling people much longer? >

[Jul 29, 2008] Kookyville:

Hat tip to Almost Daily 2¢ - Lost His Marbles?

"The place occupied by Al Kuldow and his friends "including those complete fools Jerry Bowyer and Don Luskin"

[Jul 28, 2008] Phony and Fraudy:

Hat tip to Seeking Alpha ( SEC, Fed Fiddled As Rome Burned)
Fannie and Freddie with their phony status and phony accounting: they operate at much higher leverage ratios than any bank or hedge fund. JP Morgan Chase or BAC, for example, have almost as much bank-level capital as this two GSEs combined supporting only one fifth of the commitments. In reality GSEs should maintain minimum capital of 10 to 12% of assets almost eight times more then OFHEO has let them get away with. If taxpayers pay to support the GSEs, shareholders should be wiped out and the GSEs should be nationalized. But instead, the powers that be are pretending we can have our cake and eat it too. We can have a "backstop" and the rest of the world will be satisfied that the US is supporting Fannie and Freddie. No cost (what's a mere "tens of billions") yet we've satisfied the demands of our friendly funding sources. Isn't finance grand? Some people are now planning to make money by betting that the U.S. government's AAA rating would crumble like Parmesan cheese. As in "a trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money." See The rescue of Fannie and Freddie by Hankie and Feddie

[Jul 27, 2008] Fed discount window:

It's not a window anymore. It's a widemouth cargo door

[Jul 27, 2008] Anchored:

Politically correct term for "intoxicated to the level of loss of sensitivity" Means relatively insensitive to incoming data like inflation ("inflation expectations are well anchored")..

Recommended

"Fairness means not to use fraud and trickery in the exchange of commodities and services and the exchange of feelings...Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer."

Erich Fromm

"The transnational corporations and the money markets have declared the era of human-designed regulations over. Now the market must reign. Because few people in the business community are paid to think about phrases such as 'western civilization,' they don't seem to realize that they are proposing the arbitrary denial of 2,500 years of human experience...

Ever since the democratic systems permitted their various courts to give corporations the status of persons, the individual as citizen has been on the defensive. How could it be otherwise? If you are a person before the law and Exxon or Ford is also a person, it is clear that the concept of democratic legitimacy lying with the individual has been mortally wounded...

If allowed to run free of the social system, capitalism will attempt to corrupt and undermine democracy, which is, after all, not a natural state...Capitalism was reasonably content under Hitler, happy under Mussolini, very happy under Franco and delirious under General Pinochet."

John Ralston Saul

"The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences."

Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope

"Money was invented so we could know exactly how much we owe." -Cullen Hightower

A joke on the streets of Moscow these days: "Everything the Communists told us about communism was a complete and utter lie. Unfortunately, everything the Communists told us about capitalism turned out to be true." -John Nellis, World Bank

"If you owe someone a thousand pounds, you've got a problem. If you owe someone a million pounds, he's got a problem."

"The best investors are like socialites. They always know where the next party is going to be held. They arrive early and make sure that they depart well before the end, leaving the mob to swill the last tasteless dregs." -The Economist (1986)

"We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity, but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money." -David Crockett, Member of Congress, 1827-31, 1832-1835

"..banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity and even wealth of the nation, than they.. ever will do good. Our whole banking system, I ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and shall die abhorring.. every bank of discount, every bank by which interest is to be paid or profit of any kind made by the deponent, is downright corruption."

- US President John Adams, 1799.

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

- Henry Ford.

"There is a huge statistical fog around the US economy."

FT.com

Markets will always move ahead of the news.

Joe Granville

'"When the capital development of a country
becomes a byproduct of the activities of a casino,
the job is likely to be ill-done.''

Lord Keynes

Honesty may not be the best policy, but it is worth trying once in a while.

--Richard Nixon

Three percent exceeds 2% by 50%, not by 1%.

-- Edward Denison

Almost every holder of a PhD in economics who works for a formal economic body like the Treasury, the RBA or the OECD has been deeply schooled in "neoclassical" economics, often without knowing that there is any other way of thinking about how the economy functions. They think they are simply "economists", and anyone who objects to their analysis or models must be uneducated about economic theory.

Financiers – like bank robbers – do not create wealth.

"Financiers – like bank robbers – do not create wealth. They merely distribute it. While the mob may idolize holdup men in good times, in the bad times it lynches them. What they will do to the new money men when their blood is up, we wait eagerly to find out." - Mobs, Messiahs and Markets

In eastern Washington, a "free market Republican" is someone who expects the government to give him free grazing rights, water, and electricity.

[Jan 1, 2011] In 2009 I Learned That… The Reformed Broker

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

-Richard Feynman

The singular feature of the great crash of 1929 was that the worst continued to worsen. What looked one day like the end proved on the next day to have been only the beginning. Nothing could have been more ingeniously designed to maximize the suffering, and also to ensure that as few as possible escaped the common misfortune.

The fortunate speculator who had funds to answer the first margin call presently got another and equally urgent one, and if he met that there would still be another. In the end all the money he had was extracted from him and lost.

-John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Great Crash"

"Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

"Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria." -Sir John Templeton

"Where ideas are concerned, America can be counted on to do one of two things: take a good idea and run it completely into the ground, or take a bad idea and run it completely into the ground." -George Carlin

"Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything." -Benjamin Graham

Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain. -- Napoleon Bonaparte,

There are three sorts of economist. Those who can count, and those who can'

"Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left." - Clint Eastwood

"Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade; today it is the reverse" -Joseph Roux in 1770.

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." -H. L. Mencken

"They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen."

from a Huey LongLong speech given in support of re-election of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR)

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought. Simon Cameron US financier & politician (1799 - 1889)

the famous quote from Anatole France:

La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

ch. 12 of the General Theory, in which Keynes says:

Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. The measure of success attained by Wall Street, regarded as an institution of which the proper social purpose is to direct new investment into the most profitable channels in terms of future yield, cannot be claimed as one of the outstanding triumphs of laissez-faire capitalism - which is not surprising, if I am right in thinking that the best brains of Wall Street have been in fact directed towards a different object.

"The best investors are like socialites. They always know where the next party is going to be held. They arrive early and make sure that they depart well before the end, leaving the mob to swill the last tasteless dregs." -The Economist (1986)

"The best things in life are free, but sooner or later the government will find a way to tax them." -Anonymous

One rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it . . . Never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it. -Ogden Nash

"Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God and over these ideals they dispute, but they all worship money." -Mark Twain

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies. -Woody Allen

Every set of published accounts is based on books which have been gently cooked or completely roasted. -Ian Griffiths (from his book, Creative Accounting)

Corruption and an apathetic, ignorant public seem to go hand in hand.

A printing press in every home............a chicken in every pot...... Warren Buffoon

We've had thirty years of deregulation garbage in our economy thanks to Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan and the dubious ideas they espoused. The terrible results speak for themselves. In the electricity/energy industry we had Enron. In the telecom industry we had MCI Worldcom. In the finance/banking industry we had Arthur Andersen, Lehman and AIG. Why one earth would anyone presume that industries in which executives only motives are to line their own pockets can regulate themselves. It's been the foxes guarding the hen houses for thirty years. When the Glass Steagall Act and Regulation Q were revoked the entire finance sector went downhill. Bring them back now!

The good news is that the US Gov is too big to fail. The bad news is that it is failing.

"When I was young I thought money was the most important thing in life. Now that I'm old--I know it is." - Oscar Wilde

"Money often cost too much." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We face two possible states of the world. One is a world in which our economic problems are largely solved, profits are on the mend, and things will soon be back to normal, except for a lot of unemployed people whose fate is, let's face it, of no concern to Wall Street. The other is a world that has enjoyed a brief intermission prior to a terrific second act in which an even larger share of credit losses will be taken, and in which the range of policy choices will be more restricted because we've already issued more government liabilities than a banana republic, and will steeply debase our currency if we do it again. It is not at all clear that the recent data have removed any uncertainty as to which world we are in."

John Hussman

Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions. -Wassily Leontief, Science, Volume 217, 9 July 1982, p. 106.

Obviousness is always the enemy of correctness. -Bertrand Russell, Mathematics and Metaphysicians.

We have two classes of forecasters: Those who don't know . . . and those who don't know they don't know. -John Kenneth Galbraith

"Save a little money each month and at the end of the year you'll be surprised at how little you have." -Ernest Haskins

Clemenceau once said, that the graveyards are full of indispensable men.

It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong.

"He who defends everything defends nothing." – Frederick the Great

The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters.

~Jean-Paul Kauffmann

"When I'm bearish and I sell a stock, each sale must be at a lower level than the previous sale. When I am buying, the reverse is true. I must buy on a rising scale. I don't buy long stocks on a scale down, I buy on a scale up."

-Jesse Livermore

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."

H. L. Mencken

Economics is simply "mathematics bent to the service of political propaganda."

"You know, someone once told me that New York has more lawyers than people. I think that's the same fellow who thinks profits will become larger than GDP. When you begin to expect the growth of a component factor to forever outpace that of the aggregate, you get into certain mathematical problems."

Mr. Buffett once noted on the Stock Market (Fortune magazine, November 1999)

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it".

- Congressman Louis T. McFadden

"We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity, but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money."

-David Crockett, Member of Congress, 1827-31, 1832-1835

"A corporation's primary goal is to make money. Government's primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others."

-Larry Ellison

"While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position."

-Anonymous

The Golden Rule - He Who Has the Gold, Makes the Rules

"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."

-Henry Ford

"In a world of businessmen and financial intermediaries who aggressively seek profit, innovators will always outpace regulators; the authorities cannot prevent changes in the structure of portfolios from occurring. What they can do is keep the asset-equity ratio of banks within bounds by setting equity-absorption ratios for various types of assets. If the authorities constrain banks and are aware of the activities of fringe banks and other financial institutions, they are in a better position to attenuate the disruptive expansionary tendencies of our economy."

Hyman Minsky, 1986

Keynes quotes:

See also John Maynard Keynes - Wikiquote

"When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing." Chuck Prince, Financial Times, July 10 2007

"Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give." -William A. Ward

Asked once what developing countries should do with the annual reports the IMF prepares on member nations, Stiglitz recommended "picking it up, saying `thank you very much' and dropping it straight in the garbage can."

"Any time you hear a money manager say there's $3.5 trillion dollars in cash on the sidelines, take your money away from them. Because he doesn't know what he's saying."

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. --Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"Those in possession of enough power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true." Eric Hoffer

"It is generally agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges." -John Maynard Keynes

henry-blodget-vs-ken-fisher

Back2Bat:

FR banking: Stealing purchasing power from all money holders including the poor and lending it out.

Deuteronomy 24:14
"You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy,
whether he is one of your countrymen
or one of your aliens who is in your land or in your towns."

Job 20:19
"For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;
He has seized a house which he has not built."

Proverbs 14:31
"He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker,
But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him."

Proverbs 22:16
"He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself
Or who gives to the rich, will only come to poverty."

Proverbs 28:3
"A poor man who oppresses the lowly is like a driving rain which leaves no food."

Proverbs 29:13
"The poor man and the oppressor have this in common:
The LORD gives light to the eyes of both."

Ecclesiastes 5:8
"If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them."

Ezekiel 18:12
"...oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore a pledge, but lifts up his eyes to the idols and commits abomination,... "

Ezekiel 22:29
"The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice."

Amos 4:1
"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
Who say to your husbands,
"Bring now, that we may drink!"

Zechariah 7:10
"...and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another."

James 2:6
"But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?"



Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotesSomerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose BierceBernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOSProgramming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC developmentScripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-MonthHow to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D


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Last modified: March 15, 2020