• Macron nommé politicien de l’année à l’étranger...

    #Macron nommé « #politicien_de_l'année » par le prestigieux #Financial_Time. Les Français ne « veulent pas entendre la vérité budgétaire », pour le quotidien économique. De quoi mettre du baume au coeur du président, mal aimé en son propre pays...

    https://mastodon.social/@paul_denton/111715349817190998

    article sous #paywall :


    https://www.ft.com/content/0c458668-9bb6-449d-aaeb-1f76dc718bf0
    #Emmanuel_Macron #étranger

  • How Many Crises Before It All Collapses?

    The Spark, #editorial, Mar 12, 2023

    On Wednesday, March 8, Silicon Valley Bank (#SVB) notified its shareholders that it would issue new shares of stock to cover a loss in the value of its investments. SVB is a very specialized local bank. Its clients inhabit Silicon Valley: IT and medical technology start-ups, and the so-called venture capital firms that advance money to them.

    On Thursday, the venture capital firms pulled out their deposits. By the end of the day, a run on deposits emptied the bank of all its cash. On Friday morning, the state of California declared the bank insolvent and shut it down. The FDIC, government insurer of bank deposits, took it over.

    #Silicon_Valley_Bank is not a typical bank. Over 90% of its clients had more than $250,000 deposited, even though the limit of FDIC insurance is set at $250,000.

    So now what? Some financial “experts” insist that government must find a way to reimburse these companies for all their losses, despite the limit. If not, they warn, the failure of SVB could end up bringing down the whole financial system.

    Other “experts” declare that this is an isolated situation. A spokesperson for Fidelity Investment blames it on risky banking practices, in which, Fidelity brags, it never engages.

    In fact, at this point, no one knows what’s going to happen. But one thing is sure: Silicon Valley Bank is not the only one with risky behavior.

    If the collapse of SVB leads to a wider #financial_collapse, it will happen for the same reason that the whole global economy nearly collapsed in 2008: the whole capitalist system is engaged in “risky behavior.” In 2008, the bankruptcy of one Wall Street trading firm, engaging in “risky behavior,” soon threatened all the biggest banks in the country.

    Since 1970, there have been crises, one after another, each one deeper and more serious than the one before: the monetary crisis and the first “oil shock” it led to; the second “oil shock,” which led to the “third world debt crisis"; the 1987 stock market crash; the collapse of the “dot.com bubble"; followed by the “sub-prime real estate” crisis. With each crisis, problems in the financial system spilled over into the productive economy, leading to unemployment and disruption—and to a worsening of the lives of laboring people around the world, including here.

    Each of these crises was alleviated by a government bailout. Government printing presses threw more money into the financial system to bail it out, but governments went into more debt to do so. And each bailout created a greater overhang of money circulating in the system, leading to more #speculation, which erupted into the next crisis.

    In fact, #capitalism does not use the money it already has on hand to invest in production unless it can make more profit there than elsewhere. This new money thrown into the financial system found its outlet in greater financial speculation, driving up prices in the stock markets of the world and on real estate... or on eggs and used cars!

    The financial system is a great big casino, where all the chips are paid for with government debt, which absorbs more and more of the value produced in the productive economy. Government, burdened down by more and more debt, cuts back on society’s collective needs. Schools degrade, as do roads, bridges, tunnels, railroad right-of-ways, dams, levees, and so on.

    Yes, there is a risk the whole financial system could suddenly collapse. That risk exists because crisis is endemic to the capitalist system, and it has been since the beginning. In 1920, in the midst of another crisis, #Leon_Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary, described the situation in this way: “So long as capitalism is not overthrown by the proletarian revolution, it will continue to live in cycles, swinging up and down. Crises and booms were inherent in capitalism at its very birth; they will accompany it to its grave.” The answer to capitalism’s crises remains, as it did in Trotsky’s day, with the working class, the only force that has the capacity to overthrow capitalism, and replace it with a society beneficial for the whole population.

  • FT Interview: Emmanuel Macron says it is time to think the unthinkable
    https://www.ft.com/content/3ea8d790-7fd1-11ea-8fdb-7ec06edeef84

    “I never imagined anything because I’ve always put myself in the hands of fate,” he says. “You have to be available for your destiny . . . so that’s where I find myself, ready to fight and promote what I believe in while remaining available to try and comprehend what seemed unthinkable.”

    #les_ravages_de_la_drogue

  • La #guerre contre #Huawei by Jeffrey D. Sachs - Project Syndicate
    https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-war-on-huawei-meng-wanzhou-arrest-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2018-1

    Les #États-Unis tentent d’attaquer Huawei notamment en raison de la réussite de l’entreprise dans la commercialisation des #technologies de pointe 5G au niveau mondial. Les États-Unis prétendent que la société présente un risque de sécurité spécifique grâce à des capacités de surveillance cachées dans ses matériels et logiciels. Pourtant, le gouvernement américain n’a fourni aucune preuve pour étayer cette affirmation.

    Une diatribe récente contre Huawei parue dans le #Financial_Times est révélatrice à cet égard. Après avoir concédé que « vous ne pouvez pas avoir des preuves concrètes d’ingérence dans les TIC, à moins que vous soyez assez chanceux pour trouver une aiguille dans une botte de foin », l’auteur affirme simplement que « vous ne pouvez pas prendre le risque de mettre votre sécurité dans les mains d’un adversaire potentiel ». En d’autres termes, bien que nous ne puissions pas vraiment pointer de mauvaise conduite de la part de Huawei, nous devrions néanmoins placer l’entreprise sur une liste noire.

    Lorsque les règles du commerce mondial obstruent les tactiques de #gangster de Trump, les règles doivent changer, selon lui. Le secrétaire d’Etat américain Mike Pompeo l’a admis la semaine dernière à Bruxelles. « Notre administration », a-t-il dit, est « en train de sortir ou de renégocier légalement les traités #obsolètes ou nuisibles, les accords commerciaux et autres accords internationaux qui ne servent pas nos #intérêts souverains ou ceux de nos alliés. » Néanmoins, avant de sortir de ces accords, l’administration est en train de les mettre en miettes par des actions téméraires et unilatérales.

    L’arrestation sans précédent de Meng est encore plus provocante parce qu’elle est basée sur des sanctions américaines extra-territoriales, à savoir, la prétention des États-Unis qu’ils peuvent ordonner à d’autres pays d’arrêter de commercer avec des pays tiers tels que Cuba ou l’Iran. Les Etats-Unis ne toléreraient certainement pas que la #Chine ou tout autre pays disent aux entreprises américaines avec qui elles peuvent ou ne peuvent pas commercer.

  • Un #journaliste du « #Financial_Times » admet avoir caché la gravité de la crise en #2008
    https://www.nouvelobs.com/economie/20180909.OBS2050/un-journaliste-du-financial-times-admet-avoir-cache-la-gravite-de-la-cris

    « Tout ce dont j’avais besoin, c’était un photographe. Quelques clichés de tous ces #banquiers bien habillés, faisant la queue pour retirer leur argent, avec une légende explicative. Nous ne l’avons pas fait. »

    Dans une série d’articles parus ces derniers jours à l’occasion du dixième anniversaire de la crise bancaire de 2008, le journaliste du « Financial Times » John Authers retrace comment le quotidien économique de référence a couvert l’événement en temps réel. Dans un billet à part publié samedi 8 septembre, il se livre à une confession éclairante sur les dilemmes du journaliste en période de crise : « Il est temps pour moi d’admettre qu’un jour, j’ai délibérément dissimulé des informations importantes à mes lecteurs », écrit-il.

    #auto-censure

    • Je crois que ce qui me choque le plus c’est ça :

      Did you consider by not telling the whole story you directly contributed to the rise of populism (including #Brexit/#Trump) and potentially undermined what would have been a much better policy response to the financial crisis

      Réponse du gars : « No »

      Dégré zéro de l’éthique : la pensée utilitariste. Bravo... Et en revanche il dit que quand ça concernera les retraites par capitalisation il ne sera plus obligé de la boucler, ce qui pose deux questions :
      – qu’est ce qui l’obligeait à la boucler ? l’article en question en va pas trop titiller la question...
      – pourquoi est-ce que dans ce qu’il croit être la prochaine crise il ne la bouclera pas ? Parce que ça ne concerne pas système bancaire ? Parce qu’il sera proche de la retraite ?

      Vu sa posture utilitariste je pencherais pour la deuxième solution (mâtinée de la première parce qu’il semble vouer une espèce de culte au système bancaire).

  • I circuiti dell’umanitario-finanziario tra il filo spinato di Moria

    In particolare, la Grecia è diventato il primo paese UE in cui si sta sperimentando un progetto europeo di finanziarizzazione delle misure di supporto ai richiedenti asilo in cooperazione con UNHCR. #Refugee_cash_assistance programme è il nome della piattaforma unica con cui vengono distribuite carte di debito ai richiedenti asilo dallo scorso aprile; progetto in cui sono state incluse tutte le ONG che operano nei campi di rifugiati o negli hotspot in Grecia. Per parlarne parto dalle gabbie di Moria, l’hotspot più narrato dai media europei e anche quello maggiormente sotto accusa per il sovraffollamento costante e la permanenza forzata di migranti al suo interno, in attesa che le domande di asilo vengano processate. L’ hotspot di Moria, in cui al momento sono bloccate circa 3200 persone, costituisce punto nevralgico delle politiche migratorie europee e, al contempo, lente attraverso cui guardare l’ Europa, è un luogo di confinamento noto per i livelli concentrici di filo spinato, ben visibili anche dall’esterno, che dividono in modo gerarchico i migranti all’interno, in base alla nazionalità. Dall’esterno tuttavia non si riesce a cogliere molto più che questo, oltre ad osservare la complessa economia del campo, che sconfina rispetto al muro esterno dell’hotspot, in particolare da quando ai migranti è stato concesso di uscire durante il giorno.

    L’hotspot, luogo ad accesso ristretto per eccellenza, ha tuttavia i suoi canali di ingresso possibili, in particolare quando si riesce a vestire una casacca di una ONG, che ho indossato per un giorno, con l’obiettivo di assistere alla distribuzione mensile delle #debit_cards ai migranti effettuata dall’organizzazione americana #Mercy_Corps. Appena varcato il cancello principale, l’economia spaziale dell’hotspot è visibilmente scandita dalle gabbie concentriche e dal filo spinato che avvolge ogni settore del campo. Le zone A, B e C, sono destinate ai “soggetti vulnerabili” in maggioranza famiglie siriane, e a donne sole. L’etichetta “vulnerabili” comporta che al cancello di ognuna di queste gabbie-settori vi sia un volontario, dell’ONG #Eurorelief che impedisce ai rifugiati degli altri settori del campo di entrare, e, in nome della protezione, respinge con forza all’interno un minore che prova ad uscire nel cortile antistante. Vulnerabilità che tuttavia, come spiegano gli operatori di MSF, spesso non viene riconosciuta da UNHCR quando resta non-visibile, come nel caso di torture e violenze sessuali subite dalle e dai migranti.

    Oltre ai settori “protetti” anche le altre zone dell’hotspot sono ad accesso limitato: per accedervi, ogni residente dell’hotspot deve mostrare un braccialetto che accerta la propria apparenza a quell’area di tende o containers. I nomi di queste zone del campo – “#Pakistani_sector” e “#African_compound” e “#North_African_sector” – indicano di fatto i criteri di diniego, ovvero di chi, tra gli abitanti di Moria, ha quasi la certezza di non ricevere lo status di rifugiato. Come si può evincere, a giocare un ruolo determinante nelle “selezioni” effettuate dallo European Asylum Support Office (EASO), sono le nazionalità: i cittadini di nazionalità pakistana sono tra i più soggetti alle deportazioni verso la Turchia, e l’aumento visibile di migranti algerini a Lesvos ha significato per loro un tasso diniego pressoché totale Il filo spinato avvolge anche l’ area in cui si trovano i containers di EASO e UNHCR: un filo di protezione, lo definisce il poliziotto che sorveglia la lunga fila di migranti fuori dall’ufficio di #EASO, in seguito alle numerose rivolte avvenute nell’hotspot a fronte delle attese infinite prima che le domande di asilo vengano processate, o addirittura per depositare la domanda di asilo.

    Con l’implementazione dello EU-Turkey Deal, chi viene dichiarato “inammissibile”, e dunque preventivamente escluso dai canali dell’asilo, così come chi riceve il diniego della protezione internazionale, viene trasferito nel #pre-removal_center interno a #Moria, in attesa di essere deportato in Turchia. Una prigione nella prigione, dove si perdono le tracce di chi entra: non ci sono numeri ufficiali sulle persone detenute: richiedenti asilo che venivano seguiti per assistenza medica o che ricevevano la ricarica mensile della carta di debito, improvvisamente spariscono.

    Tuttavia, in parallelo ai circuiti di filo spinato che delimitano i gradi di esclusione differenziale dai canali dell’asilo, vi sono altri circuiti non-visibili e immateriali che convergono negli hotspots e nei centri di accoglienza in Grecia. Questi sono circuiti di dati e informazioni che prendono forma a partire da una presa umanitario-finanziaria sulle vite dei e delle migranti, e in particolare su ciò che UNHCR stesso definisce le “popolazioni transnazionali in transito”. Gli stessi migranti che sono bloccati a Moria da un anno o più e a cui sarà molto probabilmente negata la protezione internazionale e dunque il diritto di restare in Europa, sono al contempo oggetto di misure di estrazione di valore dal loro stesso permanere in quel luogo. Non mi riferisco qui a ciò che in letteratura è stata definita la “migration industry”, ovvero l’economia che ruota attorno alla gestione dei centri di detenzione e di accoglienza, né al profitto ricavato dalle grandi corporation che producono nuove tecnologie per rafforzare i confini o identificare i migranti. I circuiti di cui parlo sono piuttosto l’esito dell’introduzione di nuovi modi di digitalizzazione e finanziarizzazione delle forme di intervento umanitario e di supporto monetario nei confronti dei richiedenti asilo. Questo si concretizza nell’erogazione di carte di debito Mastercard, con il logo di UNHCR e di ECHO, a tutti coloro che all’interno degli hotspots e dei campi greci vengono dichiarati da UNHCR “people of concern”. L’attore finanziario coinvolto è #Pre-Paid_Financial_Services con sede a Londra. Per ogni carta rilasciata, UNHCR paga una commissione di 6 euro a Pre-Paid Financial Services, e una tassa è prevista anche ogni transazione effettuata da ciascun richiedente asilo, cosi come per ogni ricarica mensile. Solo sulle isole, ogni mese vengono rilasciate circa 500 nuove carte, e a Lesvos si ricaricano circa 2500 carte ogni volta.

    90 euro a persona, 340 per nucleo familiare: queste sono le cifre fissate da UNHCR in accordo con le autorità greche, della ricarica mensile delle carte di debito. La cifra sale da 90 a 150 in alcuni campi di rifugiati o centri di accoglienza dove, a differenza di Moria, non viene fornito cibo. Tuttavia, anche nell’hotspot di Moria questa sembra essere la prossima tappa: interrompere la distribuzione di cibo e vestiti e far si che i richiedenti asilo cucinino autonomamente.

    All’interno di Moria una signora siriana mostra la sua asylum card, per ottenere la ricarica mensile della carta di debito: sul suo documento non compare, per sua fortuna, il timbro rosso, che indica le restrizioni geografiche (“geographical restrictions” ) imposte dallo EU-Turkey Deal, secondo cui tutta la procedura di asilo deve essere svolta sulle isole. Per la maggioranza delle persone bloccate da mesi a Moria, quel timbro significa non solo immobilità ma anche alto rischio di trasferimento forzato in Turchia. Mentre procede la registrazione mensile delle carte, tra tende e containers, nella prigione interna all’hotspot 35 dei migranti accusati di aver partecipato alle proteste del 18 luglio contro la lentezza nell’esame delle domande di asilo scompaiono dalla lista di Mercy Corps. La #Fast_Track_Procedure, concepita per espellere più velocemente i migranti dalle isole greche, si scontra e si articola con altri confini temporali che producono contenimento a oltranza, sulle isole.

    http://www.euronomade.info/?p=6338
    #Moria #asile #migrations #hotspots #réfugiés #business #Lesbos #Grèce #camps_de_réfugiés #économie #vulnérabilité #accord_UE-Turquie #expulsions #renvois #migration_industry #argent #cartes_de_crédit #financial_inclusion #nourriture #geographical_restrictions #liberté_de_mouvement #liberté_de_circulation #restrictions_géographiques #confinement #îles

    cc @albertocampiphoto

  • Measuring #financial_toxicity as a clinically relevant patient-reported outcome: The validation of the COmprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST) - Souza - 2016 - Cancer
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.30369/full

    #Cancer and its treatment lead to increased financial distress for patients. To the authors’ knowledge, to date, no standardized patient-reported outcome measure has been validated to assess this distress.

    METHODS

    Patients with AJCC Stage IV solid tumors receiving chemotherapy for at least 2 months were recruited. Financial toxicity was measured by the COmprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST) measure.

    (...)

    CONCLUSIONS

    The COST measure demonstrated reliability and validity in measuring financial toxicity. Its correlation with HRQOL indicates that financial toxicity is a clinically relevant patient-centered outcome.

    #santé #finance #sécurité_sociale #États-Unis

  • A faster FT.com
    http://engineroom.ft.com/2016/04/04/a-faster-ft-com

    “The data suggests, both in terms of user experience and financial impact, that there are clear and highly valued benefits in making the site even faster. From this research we’ve chosen to invest even more time in making every aspect of the new FT.com website even faster over the coming months.”

    #Financial_Times_webperf_study_impact_beclever

  • Financial Times on big screens
    http://labs.ft.com/2016/01/big-ft

    “It is now common to see huge digital billboards on roads and at train stations displaying rolling news from organisations like the BBC, Sky News or Reuters. But since digital billboards are limited to non-interactive content without audio, they actually make ideal platforms for newspapers like the FT.”

    #Financial_Times_billboard_big_screen_RWD_clevermarks_beclever

  • Le #FT abandonne le #Paywall au compteur au profit d’un accès total temporaire.

    Le #Financial_Times revoit sa stratégie numérique
    http://www.lefigaro.fr/medias/2015/02/28/20004-20150228ARTFIG00002-le-financial-times-revoit-sa-strategie-numerique.

    Petit big bang au Financial Times. Le quotidien économique, pionnier dans le développement des #abonnements numériques, a décidé de changer de modèle. Huit ans après son introduction, le titre abandonne le principe du « #compteur » (les internautes ont le droit de lire gratuitement un nombre fixe d’articles chaque mois, et doivent au-delà s’acquitter d’un abonnement), repris depuis par le #New_York_Times ou, en France, par #lexpress.fr. Désormais, le Financial Times proposera aux internautes une #offre d’essai leur permettant de consulter à volonté les contenus du site durant un mois pour un euro. Après cette période, l’internaute devra prendre un abonnement numérique s’il souhaite continuer sa lecture.

    #presse #sites_de_presse #commerce #abonnements

  • Europe / Eco : la politique économique de la zone euro est un fiasco, écrit le ’Financial Times’
    http://www.boursier.com/actualites/macroeconomie/europe-eco-la-politique-economique-de-la-zone-euro-est-un-fiasco-ecrit-le-

    (Boursier.com) — Dans son édito, le ’Financial Times’ tire ce matin à boulets rouges sur les dirigeants européens, qui ont laissé se dégrader la situation économique au point de voir les trois principales économies de la zone euro reculer (Allemagne, Italie), ou au mieux stagner (France). « Difficile d’imaginer de quelles preuves supplémentaires les politiques européens ont besoin avant de reconnaître que leur projet de croissance pour la zone euro ne fonctionne pas », peut-on lire dans le quotidien britannique des affaires, qui s’étonne que dans la zone euro, après tous les signaux récents, les décideurs restent persuadés que l’austérité budgétaire est le meilleur chemin vers la croissance. Le ’FT’ pense plutôt que c’est une bonne voie vers « la stagnation économique chronique et la menace perpétuelle de sombrer dans la déflation ».

    >>>

    L’Allemagne accusée d’avoir envenimé la situation

    <<<

    >>>

    la situation économique au point de voir les trois principales économies de la zone euro reculer (Allemagne, Italie), ou au mieux stagner (France).

    <<<

    #économie
    #Europe
    #zone_euro
    #Allemagne
    #Italie)
    #France
    #Financial_Times
    #PIB

  • Leaked document shows EU is going for a trade deal that will weaken #financial_regulation
    http://www.corporateeurope.org/financial-lobby/2014/07/leaked-document-shows-eu-going-trade-deal-will-weaken-financial-reg

    According to a leaked document, the EU is bent on using the #TTIP negotiations with the US to get an agreement on financial regulation that, according to this analysis by Kenneth Haar of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Myriam Vander Stichele of The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) will weaken reform and control of the financial sector.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ismB8IKsqmk

    Comment les Européens poussent les Américains à déréguler la finance
    http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2014/07/01/comment-les-europeens-poussent-les-americains-a-dereguler-la-finance_4448798

    Dans le cadre des négociations sur l’accord commercial transatlantique, les Européens s’apprêteraient à faire une proposition demandant moins de règles pour les banques et les marchés financiers et remettant en cause le travail d’encadrement de ce secteur réalisé depuis la crise.

  • Thomas #Piketty riposte aux critiques du « Financial Times »
    http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2014/05/24/le-financial-times-fait-la-lecon-a-thomas-piketty_4425046_3234.html

    Mis en cause par le Financial Times, l’économiste français Thomas Piketty a maintenu les conclusions de son ouvrage « Le Capital au XXIe siècle » sur l’accroissement des inégalités dans le monde. Dans son édition de samedi, le quotidien britannique épingle les erreurs de calcul commises par l’économiste, admiré par les milieux intellectuels américains. Son ouvrage monumental est devenu un véritable phénomène d’édition.

    Publié en septembre aux éditions du Seuil en France, le livre s’était déjà vendu fin avril à plus de 200 000 exemplaires aux Etats-Unis et au Royaume-Uni alors que l’ouvrage n’était pas encore sorti dans les librairies britanniques. La presse parle même d’une véritable « Piketty-mania ».

    L’article du Financial Times, journal des milieux d’affaires, critique durement le contenu du livre :

    « Les données sous-tendant les 577 pages de la somme du professeur Piketty, qui a dominé la liste des meilleures ventes au cours des dernières semaines, contiennent une série d’erreurs qui ont faussé ses conclusions. »
    LE FT ÉVOQUE DES ERREURS DE CALCUL

    La thèse centrale de l’économiste français, selon laquelle les inégalités n’ont jamais été aussi fortes depuis les années qui ont précédé le premier conflit mondial en 1914, reposerait donc sur des calculs erronés :

    « Dans ses feuilles de calcul, (...), il y a des erreurs de transcription à partir des sources originales et des formules incorrectes. (...) l apparaît également que certaines données sont sélectionnées ou construites sans source originale. »
    Le FT va même jusqu’à évoquer les deux économistes de Harvard, Carmen Reinhart et Kenneth Rogoff, contraints l’an passé de publier une correction à leur étude controversée sur l’impact de la dette publique sur la croissance, après la mise au jour d’erreurs.

    « Les données qu’on a sur les patrimoines sont imparfaites mais d’autres comme les déclarations de succession sont plus fiables. Je fais cela en toute transparence, je mets tout en ligne », a réagi samedi l’économiste interrogé par l’AFP. « Là où le Financial Times est malhonnête, c’est qu’il laisse entendre que cela change des choses aux conclusions alors que cela ne change rien. Des études plus récentes ne font que conforter mes conclusions, en utilisant des sources différentes », a-t-il ajouté.

    LES ÉLOGES DE KRUGMAN

    Reçu mi-avril à la Maison Blanche et au ministère américain des finances, M. Piketty a écumé colloques et conférences aux Etats-Unis et en Europe, afin de dénoncer l’extrême concentration des richesses et de plaider pour une plus forte taxation du capital via un impôt mondial. Dans l’article du Financial Times, il explique avoir utilisé « de nombreuses sources différentes » qui seront « enrichies dans le futur ». « Mais je serai surpris que cela change les données sur l’évolution à long-terme de la redistribution de la richesse », déclare le français.

    S’il a pu être qualifié de nouveau marxisme, son imposant ouvrage (près de 1 000 pages dans l’édition française) a notamment reçu les éloges de Paul Krugman, Prix Nobel d’économie et influent chroniqueur du New York Times, qui a assuré que ce livre « changeait la manière de réfléchir sur la société et de faire de l’économie ».

    #FInancial_Times #Capital_au_XXIe_siècle

  • Reports of the Vacuity of the Global Novel are Greatly Exaggerated
    http://africasacountry.com/reports-of-the-vacuity-of-the-global-novel-are-greatly-exaggerated

    It has been a few weeks since the literary journal #n+1’s diss of the global novel, “World Lite,” landed on our screens. The rebuttals on social media and academic blogs were swift, as was the rebuttal of the rebuttals from the N+1 editors on their Letters page. A particularly thoughtful response more recently appeared in the […]

    #BOOKS #OPINION #Financial_Times #novels #Pankaj_Mishra

  • Financial markets: The removal of a calming hand | The Economist
    http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/09/financial-markets?fsrc=rss

    Free exchange
    Economics
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    Financial markets
    The removal of a calming hand
    Sep 18th 2013, 15:08 by C.W. | LONDON
    SPECULATION is a dirty word. Market punters are often blamed for pushing securities prices from extreme to extreme, generating crises along the way. New regulations have half-heartedly tried to limit the worst excesses. 

    But some argue that another government force is buoying the speculators. To soothe worried markets, central banks have embarked on an ambitious programme of unconventional monetary policy. Measures such as quantitative easing (QE)—printing money to buy things like government bonds and mortgage securities—are in vogue. 

    Unconventional monetary policy has been attacked for prompting further financial gaming. With piles of cash to play with, the argument goes, investors have bid up prices of equities, bonds, and commodities. Stocks and shares have certainly been on the up. From a low in 2009—just after QE began—World Bank commodity price indices have increased by over 50%. The FTSE 100, an index of stock prices in Britain, has nearly reached its all-time high. 

    But a new paper from the International Monetary Fund suggests that unconventional monetary policies (UMPs) do not encourage speculation. Rather, they dampen it. UMPs reduce “tail risk”, or the odds of extreme market outcomes like hyperinflation or a new Depression. That, in turn, tamps down market volatility, and that reduces the incentive to speculate. When America announces that it will purchase more mortgage-backed securities or government bonds, markets quickly price in lower volatility. Risk measures can drop by 10% after the Federal Reserve makes unconventional monetary policy announcements, according to the IMF paper.

    #Free_exchange
    #Economics
    #Financial_markets

  • The anniversary of broken promises | Corporate Europe Observatory
    http://corporateeurope.org/financial-lobby/2013/09/anniversary-broken-promises

    The anniversary of broken promises

    http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/dollar_by_reubenaingber.jpg?itok=gsASBkAR

    September 13th 2013 The financial lobby

    5 years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the beginning of the worst economic crisis in decades, the EU has not delivered on promises of strong regulation of the financial sector. A swift overhaul is needed. Together with other organisations (full list at the end), CEO has signed the statement below. 

    The 15th of September marks the fifth anniversary of the most spectacular bankruptcy in the financial crisis of 2007-2008. On that day, renowned Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy due to disastrous investments in US real estate through financial products. At the time, European leaders made bold promises to reform financial regulation in the EU “to respond to crises, but also to avoid them in the future”, Commission President Barroso said. Five years on, the results are woefully insufficient.

    The financial crisis led to a devastating economic crisis in Europe. Unemployment in the EU has increased steadily to a record level of nearly 26 million – a staggering 10.7% of the labour force with youth unemployment much higher. It also set the euro crisis in motion which has resulted in painful austerity measures in almost all EU countries and hundreds of billions of euros in expensive bailouts of banks that made bad loans in the first place. Having paid such a high price, European citizens have every right to demand effective action from politicians to protect us from a repeat of this meltdown. But after five years of financial ‘reform’ in the EU, the return on our investment is woefully inadequate.

    The evidence is clear: European banks continue to be undercapitalised, and EU banking regulation continues to allow banks – such as Deutsche Bank and Barclays – to borrow even more than Lehman Brothers did before it crashed1; derivatives markets continue to grow and now stand at a value much higher than five years ago2; few toxic financial instruments have been banned, not even the complicated securities that played a key role in the crisis.

    One key reason for this failure is the success of the financial lobby to keep effective regulation at bay. The financial industry is spending millions to influence decision makers, and scaremongering is their standard argument: they claim that regulating finance would be costly to society in terms of unemployment. However, this is an absurd argument if one looks at the costs of the crisis in 2008, regarding bank bail outs and millions of people losing their jobs.

    Financial corporations have enjoyed uninterrupted privileged access to decision makers, for instance in the debate on new rules on banking and on derivatives. As pointed out repeatedly by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation in the EU (ALTER-EU) and others, advisory groups of the Commission and the Council were, and are still, dominated by representatives from big financial corporations. A group recently set up to advice the EU on measures to stop tax evasion is full with representatives of the same accountancy industry that is so instrumental in advising companies how they can minimize their tax payments.

    #Lehman_Brothers
    #financial_industry is spending millions to influence decision makers
    #investment is woefully inadequate.
    #financial_lobby
    to #stop_tax evasion
    #regulation of the financial sector
    #ftt
    #too_big_to_fail
    #speculation
    #anniversary
    #bankruptcy

  • Les data en forme | Paule d’Atha
    http://owni.fr/2012/04/03/les-data-en-forme-episode26

    La veille hebdomadaire du meilleur du datajournalism, c’est ici. Réalisée par les datajournalists d’OWNI. Cette semaine, ils vous proposent un voyage au coeur des data contre vents et marées, avec une Terre qui tourne et des courants marins visualisés en temps réel. Mais aussi des données en 3D qui se promènent au plafond de Grand central station, à New York.

    #Chronique #Cultures_numériques #Data #data_en_forme #david_mc_candless #DIY #financial_times #NASA #Simon_Rogers #The_Guardian #timeline #wind_map

  • What price the new democracy ? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe - The Independent
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-price-the-new-democracy-goldman-sachs-conquers-europe-6264091.ht

    Simon Johnson, the former International Monetary Fund economist, in his book 13 Bankers, argued that #Goldman_Sachs [aka “Vampire Squid”] and the other large banks had become so close to government in the run-up to the #financial_crisis that the US was effectively an oligarchy. At least European politicians aren’t “bought and paid for” by corporations, as in the US, he says. “Instead what you have in Europe is a shared world-view among the policy elite and the bankers, a shared set of goals and mutual reinforcement of illusions.”

    This is The Goldman Sachs Project. Put simply, it is to hug governments close.

    Toujours cette « communauté d’inspiration » rendant inutile toute « conspiration »

    Goldman Sachs, which has written over $2trn of insurance, including an undisclosed amount on #eurozone countries’ debt, would not escape unharmed, especially if some of the $2trn of insurance it has purchased on that insurance turns out to be with a bank that has gone under. No bank – and especially not the Vampire Squid – can easily untangle its tentacles from the tentacles of its peers.