Monday, April 27, 2009

Will Hutton "Documentary"

Anyone watch it tonight?

Was it as bad as I would expect?

Saturday, April 11, 2009

When you make a commons out of your currency there will be a tragedy

Basel 2 eliminated reserves.

The amount of credit in the system is limited by 1/Reserve so 1/0 = infinity. i.e. There's no limit on credit creation! Credit is now very fungible with money so there's effectively no limit to the money supply i.e. the state has abandoned it's role as regulator of the currecny.

No reserves means that the currency has no owner. The credit market becomes a commons and you'd best have as much as possible ASAP before someone else takes it.

This incentivised banks to lend the most rather than lend to the best.

and now the commons has inevitably "run out".

If governments are going to keep their currency monopoly then reserves are going to have to be based on the affordability of the assets purchased, especially mortgages. It's no point saying 3% of mortgages have to be held in reserve (30 times lending) to stop these problems happening in the future we need to demand that regulators specify that 3% mortgage reserves are ok when houses are 4 times earnings after tax.

BTW. Here's the tragedy of the commons game
http://www.bunnygame.org/

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Thanks Gordon

We're writing to let you know about a pricing change to Google Apps Premier Edition.

Google reviews prices on a quarterly basis, and the price of Google Apps Premier ($50 and £25 for UK customers) has remained unchanged for the last two years. Effective immediately, the price will change from £25 per user, per year to £33 per user, per year for all customers transacting in GBP. At renewal, you will be charged the new price of £33 per user, per year. The price of Google Apps Premier for USD and EUR will remain at the same price of $50 and €40 respectively, the current increase for GBP reflects the recent unprecedented changes in the dollar versus pound exchange rate.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Banker Who Said No

Bernard Condon and Nathan Vardi, 04.03.09, 05:00 PM EDT
While the nation's lenders ran amok during the boom, Andy Beal hoarded his money. Now he's cleaning up--with scant help from Uncle Sam.


Read the whole thing!