Links & comment
November 19, 2012 13 Comments
Is there racism behind recent insider-trading prosecutions? For example, does anyone really think that what Rajat Gupta did is rare? On the other hand, it may be less a matter of ‘racism’ per se than of other insider-traders having the right old-boy-network connections to avoid prosecution. (Which, of course, can correlate with race.)
Kurt Cobain’s list of his 50 favorite albums seems surprisingly uninteresting (and padded). I’m with him on Meet the Beatles, that’s about it.
Hispanics are natural Democrats. This multi-decade (R) obsession with squaring the circle of getting the Hispanics on board has been very strange to watch. It couldn’t have worked out better for the (D)s if the whole (stupid) idea was a (D) plant to begin with.
Unintended consequences of financial regulation: hello CFDs!
Is a lame-duck Geithner unilaterally gutting Dodd-Frank? Let’s hope so – you know what they say about stopped clocks.
Ah, ‘progressive’ local land-use/beautification ordinances: without them, how would a multimillionaire retired mediocre baseball player force his neighbors to cut down their trees so that his $4 million house has a better view?
WTF is Aerosmith doing on Cobain’s list? I’m stymied. To me, that’s like finding a well-worn copy of Atlas Shrugged in Chomsky’s library.
Early Aerosmith, not MIchael Bay soundtrack/Celine Dion’s songwriter Aerosmith. Wasn’t at all surprising to me.
“We were particularly tickled by the inclusion of Swans”
Why??
Duh. “If Kurt Cobain liked something I like maybe that makes me cool too..?”
Ah, I thought ‘tickled’ means there was something unexpected and almost amusing about it. At least Kurt killed himself, which is something Bowie should’ve done too. It’s almost a litmus test of a true rock artist, to die young. This means Michael Jackson is more of a real artist than Bowie, which makes no sense, but is obviously true. Also means Lennon was more that than McCartney (which is also true).
“Ah, I thought ‘tickled’ means there was something unexpected and almost amusing about it.”
Hmm, maybe it does. I didn’t really read that closely to be honest.
As long as banks are allowed to have uncontrolled maturity transformation, all other regulations are just window dressing.
All props to Moldbug and all, but I honestly don’t know what banking without maturity transformation would entail.
Unless it’s just the 100% reserves?
It goes beyond %100 reserve. All loans must be backed with investment contracts with matching fixed maturities.
So, you would probably pay a fee to have a bank account and your money would earn no interest unless you invest in a fixed term loan arranged by the banks.
Banks go from prop desk crazytown to simple investment matchmaking and evaluating business deals. The FDIC can be closed because bank runs are now impossible.
This is what banking would be if the fiat dollar with promises of infinite money were not looming over our finances.
“you would probably pay a fee to have a bank account and your money would earn no interest unless you invest in a fixed term loan arranged by the banks”
Yeah, that’s what I figured. I can’t help but wonder how popular this no-maturity-transformation idea would be, stated straightforwardly like that
The interest a modern bank pays obviously doesn’t cover the cost of inflation caused by the banking system. Real resources being fixed in the short term the result is obviously a transfer of wealth to the banks. As for how popular. Who gives a shit?
To honestly evaluate maturity matched banking’s popularity, the population must experience the downside to unbounded fiat currency debt growth. They haven’t – yet.
Well either way, the point is for now this is one of those things that rightly or wrongly I mentally put in the ‘never gonna happen’ category…