24th November 2008 Its extraordinary. The Credit Crunch ‘debtonated’ on 9th August, 2007. Today, fully fifteen months later politicians and policy-makers in both the US, the UK and Euroland are still facing crises at banks – and don’t appear to grasp the real nature of the crisis, addressing symptoms instead of causes. So far, their […]
The crisis deepens and politicians still don’t get it Read More »
24th November 2008 This morning 5 of us were asked to comment ahead of Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report. In it I call for the Bank of England to lower interest rates across the board. Read all of the recommendations here.
Pre-budget report: Five expert views in the Guardian Read More »
The New Statesman: 20th November 2008 “The joint statement issued by the 20 world leaders borders on the delusional. The phrase “We must… ensure… that a global crisis, such as this one, does not happen again” implies that they are avoiding the next war when they are still losing this one”. The New Statesman asked
Al Jazeera: 19th November 2008 On Wed. Riz Khan hosted a discussion on the financial crisis. I was surprised to disagree with economist and panelist James Galbraith over why it is that IOUs (or debt) issued by the Federal Reserve replaced gold as the world’s reserve asset. Watch the discussion on Al Jazeera’s site here.
Al Jazeera: Panel discussion on the global financial crisis Read More »
National Public Radio: 14th November 2008 I spoke to Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace about the debt crisis in the first installment of a new series of extended interviews “Taking Stock”. You can listen to the broadcast interview here, including an extended version. It was broadcast Thursday evening in the US.
7th November 2008 Paul Mason economics editor of the BBC’s Newsnight hosted an interesting event at the Frontline Club on Thursday 7th November. In attendance: Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, Michael Blastland, a freelance writer, Paul Lashmar, and yours truly. The theme was, and I paraphrase: “Why did the media fail to predict the
Predicting the crash: Did the media fail in its scrutiny? Read More »
7th November 2008 Yesterday’s dramatic Bank of England 1.5% rate cut was an extraordinary admission of analytical failure. The Monetary Policy Committee of orthodox economists (with Danny Blanchflower the honourable exception) is well behind the curve. While it is tiresome to beat one’s own drum, I am obliged to point out that on the 12th
Speigel Online: 5th November 2008 My hope is that the next US president will help build a new, more just, stable and sustainable global financial architecture, vital for balance and stability in the world economy, but also for the eco-system… Read More (scroll halfway down)
The graph below – courtesy of the International Herald Tribune – does not look like a dagger – but a dagger is what it is when pointed at a vast bubble of credit. Unfortunately there are central banks like the Bank of England and the Bank of Hungary that have not blunted their daggers, or
Open Democracy: 27th October 2008 It is a small measure of the dramatic financial meltdown of 2007-08 that leading representatives of western liberal capitalism ransacked the past for reference-points to convey its scale… Read more here
