New World Order: G20 Reforms After The Financial Crisis

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined the reforms that the largest world economies agreed to in the G20 summit. The call is for greater global economic cooperation to self-regulate and to prevent banking excesses from happening again.
Has history finally changed us for the better?

Some of the reforms mentioned by Gordon Brown:

New [...]

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Stagflation Fears

Stagflation is an economic phenomenon characterized by slowing economic growth and rising inflation. It is an interesting economic problem since the traditional medicine for inflation–rising interest rates–is what chokes off economic growth, thereby aggravating stagflation.
In the aftermath of the global credit crisis following the crash of the housing market, interest rates have fallen dramatically as central [...]

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2004 Hindsight: Democrats On Fannie And Freddie

Here is a collection of 2004 statements of impassioned defense of the mortgage institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and how the Democrats downplayed any notion of crisis.
Notable is 6:05: Democrat Barney Frank, whom we’ve seen in recent news actively involved in the bailout of failed banks and mortage institutions, brushing off any idea of [...]

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More Unheeded Advice: Republicans Warned Us About Financial Crisis in 2002

Ever hear how “no one saw this crisis coming”?
A Fox-News report in September 2008 shows that as far back as 2002, members of the Bush administration as well as Republican senators were raising red-flags on the potential regulatory problems in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with threat of serious repercussions to the financial markets.
[...]

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Irving Fisher: Unheeded Advice

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, economist professor Irving Fischer explains how the crash was precipitated by excessive speculation using borrowed funds.
His lesson: don’t buy stocks with borrowed money.

Did anyone listen?

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Ukraine On The Brink: Did Socialism Have The Last Laugh?

A recent story on the Herald Tribune: (bold emphasis added)
Ukraine, once considered a worldwide symbol of an emerging, free-market democracy that had cast off authoritarianism, is teetering. And its predicament poses a real threat for other European economies and former Soviet republics.
It is not hard to understand why world leaders are increasingly worried about the discontent [...]

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Take A Number: Nationalized Citibank

Financial crisis humor with just a slight touch of irony.

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Rebooting Humanity

In this interesting talk from TED, technologist and scientist Juan Enriquez begins with a quote straight from today’s financial crisis:
The key to managing crises…
Is to keep an eye on the long term…
While you’re dancing in the flames.
- Sir Philip Hampton, Chairman
Royal Bank of Scotland
Are you sick of the financial crisis? See any end in sight? [...]

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Dr. Doom meets The Black Swan

Nouriel Roubini (Dr. Doom) and our favorite skeptical empiricist Nassim Taleb (The Black Swan) appeared on CNBC to discuss the current financial crisis.

Taleb makes a bold declaration: much of the causes of the crisis are still present: the same people who did not see the crisis coming are still in office. [...]

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How Much Are Banks Worth Nowadays?

Got this image from a Bloomberg email. It shows the market capitalization of Citigroup last January 2009 (green circle) compared to its value last 2007 (big blue circle). This shows how much the bank’s value has fallen in just one year.
How many of us would have thought back then that great banks like Citigroup would [...]

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