finance

Democracy, like love, is a word oft used and little understood. We have a vague sense of what love “means.” We tend to apply the word indiscriminately, based on a deep need to be loved by the people who are important to us. We like to see the word in print. We feel warm and safe when we hear it said aloud.
When we are “in love” our vision is hazy. Our judgment is weak. We tend to believe what we want to believe and shunt aside any indication that what we believe may not be true.

RT | November 11, 2014 Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central Bank of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West. “Given the challenges, Bank of Russia is creating its own […]

Instinct for survival is genetically coded in our DNA, and it’s likely few, if any of us, would be here without it. Until the advent of agriculture some 12,000 years ago, humans were foraging and scavenging hunters while population growth, was and still is, automatically limited by the amount of resources in any geographic area. This inevitably brought competition between ancient clans and tribes as populations grew. The competitive spirit is no doubt tied to our survival instincts which seek advantages for continuing our bloodline into the future.

You’re not going to believe this, but there was a time – actually about 65 years ago – when the financial world, at least the securities-trading world, the world we call Wall Street, was actually dependent on a foundational principle of honesty and integrity. Now I’ll just pause for a moment and allow the laughter, whistling and foot-stomping to subside before continuing. There. Everybody finished now?

Back in 2008 we all became aware of corporate recklessness and poor governance that led to the financial crash. Against our better judgment, most people failed to object to the bailouts – the use of public funds to save bankrupt private enterprises.
That many countries around the world, Europe and America especially, let this happen with barely a murmur of complaint is both sad and laughable.

RT | September 30, 2014 A record level of $158.8 trillion in global debt, together with low economic growth is creating a serious threat of a new financial crisis, says the sixteenth annual Geneva Report. Total world debt, excluding the financial sector, has risen from 180 percent of global output in 2008 to 212 percent […]

Welcome to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:

Welcome to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:

In an inscrutable move that has alarmed state treasurers, the Federal Reserve, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, just changed the liquidity requirements for the nation’s largest banks. Municipal bonds, long considered safe liquid investments, have been eliminated from the list of high-quality liquid collateral. assets (HQLA). That means banks that are the largest holders of munis are liable to start dumping them in favor of the Treasuries and corporate bonds that do satisfy the requirement.

RT | August 15, 2014 Forget Visa and MasterCard. After the two American credit system payment companies froze accounts without notice in March, Russia has been looking for an alternative in China UnionPay. China UnionPay plans to have 2 million cards in Russia in the next three years. Instead of seeing the small Visa and […]