Bankers and politicians couldn’t have done it better.

Reflect on what has happened over the past 10 to 15 years. In the late 1990s Western economies were really feeling the pressure from Asia, even though the Asian Financial Crisis had dealt a severe blow to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. In the early 2000s the sub-prime bubble started to inflate.  Bankers, politicians, regulators, rating …
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US downgrade – the world is beginning to wake up

So S&P, one of the rating agencies that fuelled the bubble and bust, has downgraded US credit rating.  Its about time.  Not that the US isn’t wonderful, but its economic profligacy expanded to new levels in the last decade and the culture is becoming one of gratuitous consumption at the cost of future earnings. The …
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Ireland’s future depends on breaking free from bailout

Ireland’s future depends on breaking free from bailoutIreland’s future depends on breaking free from bailout by Morgan Kelly in teh Irish Times: WITH THE Irish Government on track to owe a quarter of a trillion euro by 2014, a prolonged and chaotic national bankruptcy is becoming inevitable. By the time the dust settles, Ireland’s last …
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Has economics reached its sell-by date?

A note by Richard and Stella, voicing frustrations many of us feel in the imploding Irish economy. How far will things have to disintegrate before we cop on that we cannot continue to do things in the same way? At the moment, issues of the economy are determining political decisions, and consequently, are affecting decisions …
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Banking, Budgets, Inflation, Food prices

Four degrees of separation?  I just browsed through three links that interested me and suddenly noticed that they drew the banking crisis and the food crisis (which is barely on many people’s radar) together. Here it is: US banking system ‘open to abuse’ One of the US’s top fraud investigators is warning that America’s policing …
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Inequality in America is stretched wider

The US Census Bureau’s report – Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the US: 2009 says the number of people in poverty increased by nearly 4m – to 43.6m – between 2008 and 2009.  One in seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009 with the level of working-age poor the highest since the …
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Synthetic life – It’s just about money.

It would be comforting to believe that the production of synthetic bacteria in the laboratory is going to accelerate cures for disease, replacement body parts and sympathetic engagement with nature.  But that is not happening.  The positive hopes are the marketing headline. The reality, proven by the track record of Venter and his hairy faced …
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Environment destruction is harming economies.

Earth’s ongoing nature losses may soon begin to hit national economies.  The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), a major UN report, warns that some ecosystems may soon reach “tipping points” where they rapidly become less useful to humanity.  These tipping points include rapid dieback of forest, algal takeover of watercourses and mass coral reef death. …
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