You Can’t Taper a Ponzi Scheme: Time to Reboot

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

One thing to be said for the women now heading the Federal Reserve and the IMF: compared to some of their predecessors, they are refreshingly honest. The Wall Street Journal reported on July 2nd: Two of the world’s most powerful women of finance sat down for a lengthy discussion Wednesday on the …

BETTER MARKETS: Attention on the 4th anniversary of the landmark Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) resumes

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

Financial Reform Newsletter July 23, 2014     Attention on the 4th anniversary of the landmark Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) resumes: Better Markets’ new poll on voters’ unhappiness with the pace and extent of financial reform continues to get broad coverage: Check out this terrific editorial by Bloomberg News on …

The World Future Council and the EU Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung are organising an international workshop on “A Mandatory Approval of Financial Instruments”

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

The World Future Council and the EU Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung are organising an international workshop on   A Mandatory Approval of Financial Instruments (Finance TÜV)   September 22nd/23rd  2014   Venue: EU Office Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Rue du Taciturne 38 1000 Brussels.   Complex financial instruments increase levels of opacity – …

Electronic Bulls, Bears and Pigs: Predicting the Next “Flash Crash”

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, Articles by Hazel Henderson

By Hazel Henderson Remember the old Wall Street adage, “Bulls make money; bears make money; pigs go broke!”? Today, not so much. Pigs often win, particularly those armed with computers and algorithms. Speed and complexity are the tools of those seeking alpha, hiring quants to create ever more complex derivatives …

Only a broad-based financial transaction tax will be effective

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

Only a broad-based financial transaction tax will be effective SULEIKA REINERS 26 April 2014 A well constituted financial transaction tax (FTT, or Tobin tax) can not only reduce levels of inequality but also curb some of the destructive elements of financial activity and make a positive contribution to economic growth. Just …

Enough Is Enough: Fraud-ridden Banks Are Not L.A.’s Only Option

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, Community Development Solutions

Enough Is Enough: Fraud-ridden Banks Are Not L.A.’s Only Option Posted on January 29, 2014 by Ellen Brown “Epic in scale, unprecedented in world history.” That is how William K. Black, professor of law and economics and former bank fraud investigator, describes the frauds in which JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has now been implicated. They involve more …

The Armageddon Looting Machine: The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

The Armageddon Looting Machine: The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives Posted on September 17, 2013 by Ellen Brown Increased regulation and low interest rates are driving lending from the regulated commercial banking system into the unregulated shadow banking system. The shadow banks, although free of government regulation, are propped up by a hidden …

Gag Me With Lawrence Summers

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

Gag Me With Lawrence Summers Robert Scheer – Huffington Post The idea that Barack Obama would still consider appointing Lawrence Summers to head the Federal Reserve rather than order an investigation into this former White House official’s Wall Street payments, reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal, mocks the president’s …

Other News: Edward Snowden and Financial Speculation Taxes

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

     Edward Snowden and Financial Speculation Taxes   Dean Baker* – The Huffington Post   In the last few weeks Edward Snowden has been holed in Moscow’s airport trying to negotiate terms of asylum with various countries around the world. Thus far it doesn’t seem that Snowden has been …

Book Review: The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money

Jay OwenBooks and Reviews

The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money By Brett Scott, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013   Popular anger against the financial system has never been higher, yet the practical workings of the system remain opaque to many people. The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance aims to bridge the gap between …