Category Archives: Corruption & Finance

Corruption concentrates wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the 99% below, and this trend has accelerated the past decades. Corrupt leaders and industries are less likely to ration food and oil as it declines, accelerating collapse. I predict that the higher the level of corruption (see corruption perceptions index at transparency.org) will make collapse faster and harsher than in less corrupt nations.  I hope future historians look at this as a factor in how nations fell during the energy crisis. Though I expect that smaller towns everywhere will do better than large cities, and where local governments are uncorrupted

Energy price increases and the 2008 financial crash: a practice run for what’s to come?

Hall, C.A.S., Groat, A. 2010. Losing Faith in Economics. Energy price increases and the 2008 financial crash: a practice run for what’s to come? The Corporate Examiner. 37: No. 4-5: 19-26. The summer of 2008 saw the third year in … Continue reading

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Global Bond Frenzy Raises Concerns

Global Bond Frenzy Raises Concerns By LANDON THOMAS Jr. FEB. 19, 2014 New York Times. Prospecting for oil in Brazil, manufacturing steel in Russia, erecting skyscrapers in China: Global bond investors have financed some of the grandest investment projects taken … Continue reading

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Student loan crisis widens gap between rich and the rest

Student loan crisis widens gap between rich and the rest. Bill Zimmerman.   February 21, 2014.  San Francisco Chronicle. Growing concern about wealth and income inequality overlooks a principal cause: the student loan crisis, which is much deeper than the $1.1 … Continue reading

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Financial system brought down by next oil shock

Erik Townsend. 6 January 2013. Why Peak Oil Threatens the International Monetary System. ASPO-USA The U.S. Treasury bond market will most likely crash, and borrowing costs will skyrocket. Those increased borrowing costs will further exacerbate the fiscal deficit. Can you … Continue reading

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Why Banks and Wall St will go broke if interest rates ever go up

Dumb Money Day 1 by Charles Marohn, Strong Towns   Jun 10, 2013 This week I want to write about one very technical finance subject and the implications for the housing market and, by extension, for cities and the great reset … Continue reading

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Chinese Economy Hits the Wall

June 10, 2012 The Macroeconomics of Chinese kleptocracy by John at Bronte Capital China is a kleptocracy of a scale never seen before in human history. This post aims to explain how  this wave of theft is financed, what makes … Continue reading

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How Companies Plunder and Profit From the Nest Eggs of American Work

Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit From the Nest Eggs of American Workers By Ellen E. Schultz    Portfolio/Penguin 2011 216 pages, in hardcover and paperback August 20, 2012. UE News – Summer 2012 issue We already knew that employers … Continue reading

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Bill Black on why there aren’t any prosecutions for financial fraud

2011 Will Bring More De facto Decriminalization of Elite Financial Fraud Dec 28, 2010   Bill Black The role of the criminal justice system with regard to financial fraud by elite bankers in 2011 is likely to reprise its role last … Continue reading

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Inflation: defining and identifying it

Ilargy 2011 automatic earth The fact that there’s all that zombie money around (or zombie credit, to be precise) leads many to believe the US witnesses inflation. Not true. Inflation is not the same as rising prices. Prices can rise … Continue reading

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How you’re tricked into thinking there is an economic recovery

Ilargi 2011 theautomaticearth A real recovery would require a surge in real productivity, i.e. outside of the service industry. Where and how have we increased production since the crisis started? Obviously, nowhere. The vast majority of “jobs created” is in … Continue reading

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