Tag Archives: History Repeating

Ben Bernanke Was Incredibly, Uncannily Wrong [2009]

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“We now have the diametrical opposite of the famous ‘Peter Schiff Was Right‘ video (a compilation of 2006 and 2007 clips in which Schiff, a financial expert who subscribes to Austrian economics, predicted the deep recession that would follow the bursting of the housing bubble).  The new, opposite video is a compilation of the 2005–2007 prognostications of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. In it, Bernanke is shown to have been just as embarrassingly wrong as Schiff was uncannily right.  Could their differences in economic understanding have anything to do with this remarkable dichotomy?”

https://mises.org/library/ben-bernanke-was-incredibly-uncannily-wrong

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N.Y. Fed: Ample liquidity in U.S. corporate bond market

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“There is ample liquidity to buy and sell U.S. corporate bonds, a group of New York Federal Reserve economists found, dismissing worries that tougher regulations could threaten some investors’ ability to sell their holdings amid market turmoil.  Citing narrow bid-ask spreads and a low price impact from trades worth $100 million, the economists said their finding was ‘remarkable’ given the diminished role that Wall Street dealers have taken in making markets for corporate bonds. Dealers’ inventory of corporate bonds has plunged since the financial crisis to roughly a quarter from its peak of about $400 billion. Meanwhile, companies have been issuing U.S. corporate bonds at a record pace.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-corporatebonds-fed-idUSKCN0RZ1RE20151005

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Deja Vu: The Fed’s Real “Policy Error” Was To Encourage Years of Speculation

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“Investors repeatedly forget that reaching for yield in speculative securities only works if capital losses don’t wipe out the ‘pickup’ in yield. Since mid-2014, we’ve emphasized the increasing deterioration in market internals and credit spreads, noting that this deterioration has historically been a reliable signal of a shift from risk-seeking to risk-aversion by investors. This risk-aversion is now accelerating. Last week, a number of high-yield bond funds placed delays on redemptions in order to give them time to liquidate holdings into a collapsing market. When a problem is specific to a particular fund, orderly liquidation can protect investors. But in this case, the need for liquidation isn’t specific.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc151214.htm

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High-yield debt fund blocks investors from withdrawing funds

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“A high-yield mutual fund is blocking investors from withdrawing their money, in a rare and jarring move amid a severe downturn in below-investment-grade and distressed debt.  The move at Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund is intended to facilitate an orderly liquidation of the fund, which recently had $789 million in assets, down from more than $2.4 billion earlier this year. It comes amid redemption requests at the fund and reduced liquidity in some parts of the bond market. Those two factors made it ‘impractical’ for the fund to pay off departing investors without selling holdings at fire-sale prices ‘that would unfairly disadvantage the remaining shareholders.'”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/high-yield-debt-fund-blocks-investors-from-withdrawing-funds-as-junk-bonds-swoon-2015-12-10

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Glenn Greenwald: What Foreign Policy “Debate” Means on “Face the Nation”

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“Aside from the glaring demographic homogeneity — all middle-aged-or-older white people who have spent their careers in corporatized Washington establishments — there is a suffocating ideological and viewpoint homogeneity on this panel as well, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. All of the panelists, for instance, were vocal, aggressive advocates of the invasion of Iraq (as were all three GOP presidential candidates featured on this morning’s show).”

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/29/what-debate-means-on-face-the-nation/

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US announces ‘expeditionary force’ to target Isis in Iraq and Syria

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“A permanent new US ‘expeditionary force’ will target Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, operating independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time, defense secretary Ash Carter has revealed. Kurdish fighters have told the Guardian that US forces in Iraq have secretly been blurring this line for months by taking an increasingly active role on the frontline, but the creeping ground mission once expressly ruled out by Barack Obama now seems to be spreading to Syria.  Obama recently authorised the deployment of 50 special forces troops to Syria, but promised they were expected to work mainly alongside rebels on that side of the border.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/us-military-expeditionary-force-isis-iraq-syria

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Andrew Bacevich, The pretend war: why bombing Isil won’t solve the problem

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“[In 1956], as today, in both London and Paris, an emotional thirst for revenge overrode sober calculation.  The vicious Isis attacks in Paris represent another unpardonable offence. Through war, Cameron and Hollande seek to avenge the innocents who were killed and wounded. But as the humiliating outcome of the Suez war reminds us, there are some problems to which war is an unsuitable response.  Across much of the greater Middle East today, we confront one such problem. For western governments to reflexively visit further violence on that region represents not a policy but an abdication of policy. It’s past time to think differently.”

http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/sorry-but-just-bombing-isis-in-syria-wont-help-anyone/

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My Parents Were Put In Internment Camps—Don’t Bring Them Back

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“I never imagined having to explain that using racial bias to incarcerate and relocate more than 100,000 people, including my parents and grandparents, was a bad policy. But here we are.  In 1942, my family members were stripped of their possessions and their freedom because they looked like some of the people America was fighting. Excluding the mayor of Roanoke, this is universally viewed as one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. Many Japanese-Americans are still scarred by their extrajudicial internment. My parents have barely ever spoken of it.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/24/my-parents-were-put-in-internment-camps-don-t-bring-them-back.html

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Virginia Democrat mayor invokes WWII internment of Japanese Americans

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“A Virginia mayor ignited a backlash Wednesday after he cited America’s mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II as support for his call to deny Syrian refugees the opportunity to resettle in the United States.  For many public officials across the nation, the mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II has long been one of the most embarrassing moments in the nation’s history — a dark chapter that has been apologized for and legally repudiated, and which is now providing a mirror for some Asian American lawmakers to hold up to the present.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nn-virginia-mayor-refugees-20151118-story.html

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Ron Paul: The War on Terror is Creating More Terror

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“The recently-released 2015 Global Terrorism Index report shows that deaths from terrorism have increased dramatically over the last 15 years – a period coinciding with the ‘war on terrorism’ that was supposed to end terrorism. The world’s two most deadly terrorist organizations, ISIS and Boko Haram, have achieved their prominence as a direct consequence of US interventions. The interventionists are desperate to draw attention from the fact that their policies contribute to terrorism. After the Paris attacks, neocons like former CIA director James Woolsey actually pinned the blame on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden!”

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/november/30/the-war-on-terror-is-creating-more-terror/

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