Just a quick note. Which I must warn you is to be read or ignored as ‘pondering out loud’. Is it me or is something happening in the Bond market that hints at broader changes? This morning a German government bond auction for €5 billion in 10 year bonds, failed. In normal times that would […]
Who trades where? – pondering out loud Read More »
In part one of Spain – Bad Banks, Assets, Losses and Lies – henceforth known as Spain’s BALLS. I set out what a Bad Bank actually is and how I think it will be used largely to the detriment of the Spanish people. In this second part I want to see if we can piece
Spain’s BALLS – Part two – Asset, losses and Lies. Read More »
I thought it might be a good moment to take a broad look at Spain’s financial troubles and outlook. For those of you who tire of details, the executive summary is that is that it is bad and without a doubt going to get considerably worse over the next 6 – 18 months despite Spanish
Spain, Bad Banks, Assets, Losses and Lies Read More »
I just wanted to write a quick note about HSBC and money laundering. When we hear of a bank caught money laundering there is a tendency, gently encouraged I think, by the banks and the media, to think of it as we would if we heard of someone in our street having been caught fencing
A word about banks and the laundering of drug money Read More »
Governments, so they tell us, want the banks to lend into the real economy to get people working, earning, buying and paying both their taxes and their debts. Problem is, I do not think the financial industry shares this desire. They say they do. They say they are doing their bit. But they are not.
In case any of you might be interested to see it, I have another film coming out. “Of Hearts and Minds’, was our working title but it was deemed too obscure. It is now called, “Heart v Mind: What makes us Human.” It will be shown on Tuesday 10th of July at 9pm on BBC4 and
Of Hearts and Minds Read More »
This may seem very odd but this morning I received an email from Bashar al-Assad. I just thought I should make this public in case anyone from the UN is reading. In it President Assad said he had been thinking a lot about recent events and had realized that killing lots of people had been,
Email from Bashar al-Assad Read More »
This piece was written as part of a debate currently being run by Open Democracy called “Writing on the wall for the Eurozone”. You can read the other pieces written for the debate at the Open Democracy site. http://www.opendemocracy.net/freeform-tags/writing-on-wall-for-eurozone The strongest force holding the Euro together is the political force of creditors. Were the currency to
Save the Euro? Who for? Read More »
Work takes me away for a few days and then on the weekend I shall be talking at the TUC summer School in Bradford. Maybe see some of you there. In the meantime some thoughts for you to consider. We are all now sadly familiar with the role of Off-shore tax havens. They allow companies
Portugal’s entry in the EuroFiscal Corruption Contest is a more modest affair than Spain’s. It centres round a simple fact, which I picked up a few days ago from Bloomberg, that Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s president, is the biggest shareholder in Portuguese cable-television company Zon Multimedia (ZON) SGPS SA, and holds 19 percent of Portuguese
The Eurofiscal Corruption Contest – The Portuguese Entry Read More »
