Money is debt documentary

Working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch - The Irish Times
Controversial but interesting viewpoint:
Working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch - The Irish Times - Wed, Feb 25, 2009
NEWTON’S OPTIC: THE ANSWER to all our problems is staring us in the face. It may even be quite literally staring at you, right now, across the breakfast table.So put the paper down, stare back and ask yourself a selfless question.
Does the woman in your life really need a job?

Spain: who is responsible for the property bubble? - Credit Writedowns
Spain: who is responsible for the property bubble? - Credit Writedowns
As recession takes hold, European citizens are starting to ask questions about how they were led into this, the deepest downturn in three-quarters of a century. The leading Spanish daily El Pais published a very thoughtful article today asking how things had unravelled so quickly and so spectacularly in Spain, previously one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Harvard Narcissists With MBAs Killed Wall Street: Kevin Hassett
The same is true of the financial sector. Back when Wall Street was run by individuals without fancy degrees, they had a proper skepticism toward fancy models and managed their risks with a great deal more humility and caution. Only when failed models became canon did catastrophe strike.Wall Street didn’t die in spite of being run by our best and brightest. It died because of that fact.

There’s no new motor to drive the economy
There’s no new motor to drive the economy | Matthew Parris - Times Online
We need to produce. The problem is we don’t have the skill-set anymore.Everyone has degrees in Golf Course Management, Beauty, Pet Psychology & Britney Spears.
James Stephenson, Coventry,
The way the brain buys
The science of shopping | The way the brain buys | The Economist
IT MAY have occurred to you, during the course of a dismal trawl round a supermarket indistinguishable from every other supermarket you have ever been into, to wonder why they are all the same. The answer is more sinister than depressing. It is not because the companies that operate them lack imagination. It is because they are all versed in the science of persuading people to buy things—a science that, thanks to technological advances, is beginning to unlock the innermost secrets of the consumer’s mind.
CynicusEconomicus: 2009 - The Year of the Fall of the West
CynicusEconomicus: 2009 - The Year of the Fall of the West
It is a very big question. I am not really sure that I know the answer. I am not sure how bad things may yet become. Many months ago, a commentator on a post asked whether I thought that there would be food shortages in the UK in the future. I suggested that this would not be the case, and still think that it will not become that severe. However, I do think that the UK is heading towards that kind of severity, though will never reach that point. There are still enough companies in the UK that can create genuine wealth, that are competitive in the world, but they are too few in comparison to the needs of the country. This has been evident for many years in the ongoing balance of trade deficits.
My comment:
Great post. Just one thing caught my attention:
You said “I do think that the UK is heading towards that kind of severity… (food shortages) though will never reach that point. There are still enough companies in the UK that can create genuine wealth, that are competitive in the world”
You believe we won’t see food shortages. I do.
The companies that are still competitive in the UK will flight as the situation deteriorates. No point in staying in a country with shrinking individual purchasing power, rising unemployment -so less people can buy your services- and a currency and hard assets -property, machinery- depreciating by the minute.
The capital will rapidly get out of here as things get tougher. This is already happening as yo u know.
Politicians will let the capital leave because they’ll be either pressured into doing so, or simply because wealthy politicians themselves will benefit of not impeding this massive and rapid capital flight.
There will also be “noise” by populist politicians and the masses on “spreading the wealth” more evenly, increasing taxes to the wealthy. This will only accelerate the capital flight process. End result: an economy that does not produce anything competitively exportable, where people can’t find jobs and small amounts of money change hands very slowly. If we add to this the fact that most western societies are not geared to producing their own food, why can you not see food shortages in the future?
We’ll be in Great Depression 2 by 2011 — here are 30 reasons why - MarketWatch
We pinpointed the dot-com crash at its peak, in a March 20, 2000 column: “Next crash? Sorry, you won’t see it coming.” Bulls-eye: The dot-com bubble popped. The economy went into a 30-month recession. The stock market lost $8 trillion. And today, over eight years later, the market is still roughly 40% below its 2000 peak. See previous Paul B. Farrell.
Factor in inflation and the average stock has lost well over 50% of its value. Stocks have proven to be a very big loser, a bad investment for Americans, thanks to Wall Street’s selfish greed, plus the complicity and naiveté of politicians, press and public.
Letters of Credit and The Disruption of International Trade: Systemic Risk, Contagion and Trade Finance
If cargo trade stops, the wheat doesn’t get exported. If the wheat doesn’t get exported, the mill has nothing to grind into flour. If there is no flour, the bakeries and food processors can’t produce bread and pasta and other foods. If there are no foods shipped from the bakeries and factories, there are no foods in the shops. If there are no foods in the shops, people go hungry. If people go hungry their children go hungry. When children go hungry, people riot and governments fall.
