kcurie:

what is a  pump-and-dump operation?

Take a position in an asset market, manipulate the market through rumour-mongering to move the price in the direction that suits you, then unwind the position and let the suckers take the loss when the price reverts to the fundamentals.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

But if they are evil and  they pursue the excuse-and-blame option.. they need to do it without leading Germany to a second recession.

Why?

in their magic Ricardian efficient ponny world.. is this possible?

In their magic Richardian pony world, they lack the conceptual apparatus to talk about recessions. There can be no recession, because you can't model recessions with linear equilibrium analysis. And what you can't model, you can't talk about, and what you can't talk about, you can't admit the possibility of.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

No, there is a much better way to do this...just close the mattress...or also-called fiscal paradises.

The way that markets can get out of the bond market (now that they do not trust the private market of bonds) is to keep the money idle in bank accounts off-shore. If you close down this mattress you force it out back to the bond market...and there is not enough public debt now to cover the demand...their power will be nil.

On the other hand if you are scared of the US power then it makes sense, because even if you close the fiscal paradises you can have a US elite which redirects money from European bonds to private american bonds even when american bonds are very risky
(if they are covered by the FED).

So, in the long run, it can be taken as an act of future self-defense against the US... but that's something you can do next year.. and monetize debt now.. that will also fuck them... the reason is  why Germany does not do it??? Because market wil not use the euro as a reserve currency in the future as they wish? Destroying your own economy is not a good way to generate confidence. The only explnation is insane fear of inflation in germany when it is really the solution to the problem.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

If deficit spending ultimately transfers power from politicians (who decide what to do with taxpayers money) to creditors/bankers/institutional investors and global head honchos (who decide who to lend investors money to) is a determination to rein in deficits also a determination to regain political control - regardless of the economic consequences, particularly in the short term?

That could be the case, except that deficit spending doesn't transfer control from politicians to banksters. Deficit spending would transfer control in that manner, if deficit spending had to be financed by pre-existing loanable funds.

But the deficit spending of sovereign states creates the funds that finance it out of thin air through legal tender laws. So what transfers control from politicians to banksters is not the deficit spending in and of itself. It's the idea that deficits have to be repaid in the future. Or, if you want to put it a little less charitably, the idea that the sovereign has a greater obligation to the banksters than it has to its citizens.

If, by definition, deficit spending increases the power of global financial elites who must be appeased

santiago has a nice quib about what happened to the Knights Templar when they tried to take one of the first European proto-states hostage to its sovereign debt...

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

But they are also more thoroughly indoctrinated in the (neo)classical, marginalist, equilibrium-based garbage that passes for economic thought in academia.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

I just can not I just can not believe that Jurgen Stark believes all this crap... I just can not figure it out.. that's why I think that he does not believe this crap.. and that there could be a rational reason for all this nonsense...

Saving the german banks and pointing the blame? Attacking US destroying your own economy if needed? Somehing..
either this.. or Jurgen Stark is utterly insane.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

The spanish real powers are fed up with Germany. The powers inside the Spanish central Bank.. and the spanish banks an elite have decided to fight back in full force.

This is a full kick in the  XXXX of a well-known german politican and the German elite.

Right now, Deutche Bank is already getting ready for another bailout... or should be..  this is the end of the german banking industry if Merkel does not bail them out...

And I will love to see how germany justifies further fiscal consolidation nonsense after that....

I do hope this is the end of Merkel and the end of insane fiscal policies...

and all it took is that some master of the universe got really angry with other masters of teh universe...

One thing is to ask the spanish middle class to sacrify for the german banks..another completely different thing is to save the german banks at the expense of the spanish banks.

Or in other words, one thing is not helping Europe with the generation of inflation in the core, and not helping us out to get of the shit..another completely different thing is to force us to be five year or a decade with shit...

This is not Japan.. it does not have to be.. if we only get rid of the stupid german banks. I do really hope that's the case.. and Merkel goes down with them.

What a huge turn around in a couple of hours.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

Well, see again what I posted yesterday from Eurointelligence re German elites and their attitude:

Germany elites have lost confidence in Merkel and her government

An poll, regularly carried by Capital Magazine, shows that Germany's elites have lost confidence in the Merkel government, and also in the chancellor personally. The poll is not representative of the country's at large, but those polled, which include CEOs and state premiers, tend to lead public opinion, which is why this poll is taken seriously. 92% of those questions expressed disappointment about the government. Three quarters believe the government is too weak to master the challenges ahead.  49% think that Merkel is weak chancellor, her worst rating since she became chancellor in 2005. Interesting are some of the reasons for the discontent. The elites want Merkel to step up the drive to austerity, and believe that the recently announced measures are insufficient. The only highlight was Merkel's handling of the Greek crisis, which was generally approved.

My emphasis.

Looks like a train wreck.

No, it's not insane, merely neurotic: an obsession with hard currency, which is a proximate (if not rational) response to Germany's history.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Almost certainly, yes.

One of the stories of Roskilde Bank that didn't get much play at the time was that the bailout didn't bail out the depositors, and it didn't bail out the Danish banks.

It bailed out DeutcheBank and a couple of Dutch banks, who had been funding Roskilde Bank.

And the Danish financial sector unanimously pressed for the bailout, partly, of course, out of class loyalty, but mostly because they were afraid that DeutcheBank would take it personally and retaliate if they didn't.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

Sounds a lot like folk Theology.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

European Tribune - Incompetent fuckwit ideologues! (a rant)

I am getting rather angry at this. Of course they will nationalise Northern Rock, eventually, but it should have been done immediately. The government and the press are so full of neoliberal propaganda that it is news that the government will finally capitulate to facts and do its job.

...

So, yes, I'm pissed off at these 4 months of hand-wringing over whether to nationalise or not. Incompetent fuckwit ideologues!

Basically, the story of the last 3 years is the attempt by the politicians to do their utmost to reward the Masters of The Universe for fucking up.

An important part of that was the wholesale conversion of private liabilities into public debt, without compensation ("right issues", for instance). And how do the Masters of the Universe repay the favour now? By pointing out that the public debt has become unsustainable!

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

Sorry, but the facts don't support any assumption of freedom of action. Quite the contrary.
Good recent example: DADT. Pres makes the announcement of a minor policy change- one that has essentially no effect on any matter of major import, other than one which should have been an easy moral victory for him, and within 48 hours, our fearless leader gets publicly- almost contemptuously- slapped down.
There are a dozen similar stories in recent US history, and the trend goes a long, long way back.

There is a powerful story of a radical reduction in the power of the nation-state to influence events-even minor ones. And it's not only the US that's a victim of corporate capture.

"Rights issues" are a good example.
No amount of pressure, jawboning, even ridicule could cause the federal investment in the US financial sector to be structured IN ANY WAY that might transfer control, or even major influence over the entities being recapitalized (herein referred to as "Bailees")  to the central government /taxpayer/public (The Bailors). Not even voting rights.
Who owns AIG?
-the  taxpayers.
Who runs AIG? A few changes, but essentially the same assholes who ruined it.
Who thought this setup was a good idea? No one but the guys who got all the marbles. Not even their legislative stooges could make a coherent case for such an arrangement.
I'm deeply envious of anyone who lives in a world where smart men of good will-"clear-headed, hard nosed", have the latitude to grab the levers of power and move them.
But it sure aint mine.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.