Rick Santelli rages against the machine - Beautiful

The natural progression of Greece

Greece is the canary in the coal mine for a lot of issues. First, we have the fiscal mess caused by unsustainable government entitlements and demographic decline. For most counties in this boat (especially the UK), it is offset by currency devaluation. However, since Greece is part of the Euro, this option is not possible and has now migrated to a sovereign debt issue. This is very similar to crises in Argentina, Mexico, and Asia over the past twenty years - where profiligate fiscal pocilies are exacerbated by arbitrary monetary systems (i.e. pegged to the U.S. Dollar). Now with the rest of Europe subsidizing Greece in order to maintain monetary union, the crisis will now impact Greek banks. Greek bank depositors are fleeing the banking system for other EU banks - on the fear of a banking collapse or a forced exchange of Greek deposits if/when Greece is kicked out of the Euro.

This is having a contagion effect - as it will move to other Euro countries with sketchy fiscal situations - primarily Italy, Portugal and Spain. Although some have said Ireland should be lumped in there, I have not on the basis that their government is actually doing something about the fiscal situation, unlike their Southern European compatriots.

We have gone through a prolonged period without any significant corporate or sovereign defaults due to the easy money policies pursued by central banks worldwide. We will be seeing a prolonged period of significant default rates as we revert to the mean - possibly rates beyond the teens.

The impact of this debt, fiscal, and banking contagion will be twofold. One - the idea of monetary systems based on fiat currencies run by enlightened civil servants also known as central bankers will be discredited. Whether we go back a gold backed currency or something else that cannot be tampered with by politicians is yet unknown, but I can see a future where the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank will have roles considerably diminished from where they are now.

Second, actuaries have been discredited in terms of being able to run defined benefit plans. These plans are cancers on the economies of the developing world as more and more resources will be diverted into propping up excessively generous plans for retirees that are retired for more years of their lives than actually working. Defined benefit pension plans will need to be outlawed in all forms. Whether funded private sector plans, government employee plans, or ponzi schemes called Social Security. This is a drastic solution, but all plans were forced converted into defined benefit plans that must be fully funded at all times - a lot of the fiscal problems that governments and large companies have would go.

The Curley Effect

I found this paper about how politicians attempt to shape the electorate by Edward Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer of Harvard. The name of their effect comes from James Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston and politician on the Boston scene for the first half of the 20th century. However, a more recent reference is Detroit Mayor Coleman Young.

The Curley effect essentially is the act of politicians implementing long-term destructive policies in order to shape the electorate to ensure re-election. In the case of Coleman Young, who barely won his first election as mayor of Detroit, he deliberately raised taxes and let services (especially police) whither in order to drive more whites to the suburbs and improve his chances of re-election.

This paper is the first time I've read a scholarly discussion on this phenomenon. I think it is really relevant with this administration. They are hell bent on implementing policies that are disastrous long-term for the U.S. However, the Democrats seem to believe that if they can create a large enough class of people dependent on the government for their basic needs that they will ensure a permanent majority.

Quick take on proposed banking Regs

Quick take on Obama's banking regulatory proposals:

Good:

• placing limits on deposit taking institutions on leverage and size
• prohibiting proprietary trading from deposit taking institutions

Bad:

• does not get rid of "too big to fail" syndrome
• would not have stopped firms like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers from failing or being propped up, even though they are not deposit taking institutions.
• does not address the issue of regulatory capture
• does not address culpability of SEC, congress, and Fed in causing problem.
• Goldman Sachs comes off as a huge winner at the expense of its competition.