Masters of Money

[Sysman]

Good suggestions. I watched "The Ascent of Money" discussion this evening, and will watch the other one when I get time.

Then you didn't catch the full thing. As I recall "The Ascent of Money" it was 4 or 5 episodes of 50+ minutes apiece.

[Gentile]

Then you didn't catch the full thing. As I recall "The Ascent of Money" it was 4 or 5 episodes of 50+ minutes apiece.

Yes, I was just catching up with that fact. I was watching this. Was it the PBS series that they mention at the end of that interview that you were referring to?

[BrilloPad]

nobody can be sure of the best way to 'fix' it when things go wrong.

At the moment it seems that the solution to too much debt is more debt. There are 2 ways out :-
1. pain, misery, suffering
2. hyper inflation

The public ill never allow 1 so that leaves 2.

Personally I would cut cut red tape. Reduce taxes - except I would introduce a property tax and tax rental income. Let interest rates target growth. Split investment and retail banking. And if that does not work then trade tariffs.

[SueEllen]

At the moment it seems that the solution to too much debt is more debt. There are 2 ways out :-
1. pain, misery, suffering
2. hyper inflation

The public ill never allow 1 so that leaves 2.

Personally I would cut cut red tape. Reduce taxes - except I would introduce a property tax and tax rental income. Let interest rates target growth. Split investment and retail banking. And if that does not work then trade tariffs.

What red tape would you cut?

We already have a property tax it's called "Council Tax", and people and companies get taxed on rental income.

In regards to splitting banks that was done after the 30s recession but for some reason some people in the 80s thought it was a stupid idea.

[Gentile]

At the moment it seems that the solution to too much debt is more debt. There are 2 ways out :-
1. pain, misery, suffering
2. hyper inflation

The public ill never allow 1 so that leaves 2.

Personally I would cut cut red tape. Reduce taxes - except I would introduce a property tax and tax rental income. Let interest rates target growth. Split investment and retail banking. And if that does not work then trade tariffs.

The weirdest thing about the whole global financial mess is that, at root, it appears to have been caused by the American sub-prime mortgage market. Basically, Americans that couldn't afford it were being loaned money under the early Bush administration's Greenspan plan to buy their own homes. That debt and the risk it represented was then being sold on almost straight away through IBs to global 'investors' throughout the world that had no real appreciation of the risk, such as pension schemes and local town councils. If America were Iceland, Europe would have frozen their banks' overseas assets by now for selling such a shoddy financial product that's caused so much unforeseen loss as properties subsequently foreclosed on a massive scale.

[sbakoola]

What about the right wing monetarists e.g. Milton Friedman and Adam Smith !!!??!?

[BrilloPad]

The weirdest thing about the whole global financial mess is that, at root, it appears to have been caused by the American sub-prime mortgage market. Basically, Americans that couldn't afford it were being loaned money under the early Bush administration's Greenspan plan to buy their own homes. That debt and the risk it represented was then being sold on almost straight away through IBs to global 'investors' throughout the world that had no real appreciation of the risk, such as pension schemes and local town councils. If America were Iceland, Europe would have frozen their banks' overseas assets by now for selling such a shoddy financial product that's caused so much unforeseen loss as properties subsequently foreclosed on a massive scale.

Everyone borrowed too much.

And it was not a Bush idea. Clinton started it.

But apart from that +1.

[Incognito]

Everyone borrowed too much.

And it was not a Bush idea. Clinton started it.

But apart from that +1.

A good article here. The CDS, a British invention.

[vetran]

The weirdest thing about the whole global financial mess is that, at root, it appears to have been caused by the American sub-prime mortgage market. Basically, Americans that couldn't afford it were being loaned money under the early Bush administration's Greenspan plan to buy their own homes. That debt and the risk it represented was then being sold on almost straight away through IBs to global 'investors' throughout the world that had no real appreciation of the risk, such as pension schemes and local town councils. If America were Iceland, Europe would have frozen their banks' overseas assets by now for selling such a shoddy financial product that's caused so much unforeseen loss as properties subsequently foreclosed on a massive scale.

You man the banks and pension funds were sold dodgy investments by unscrupulous financial organisations that nearly made them bankrupt, poetic justice if you ask me.

I almost feel like phoning the banks up and asking them - How do you like them apples?

only pity is that the government bailed them out.

It's going to be inflation.

[Sysman]

What red tape would you cut?

We already have a property tax it's called "Council Tax", and people and companies get taxed on rental income.

Switzerland has a different approach to this problem. Home owners get taxed on a realistic valuation of the rent they are saving (the original UK rates system was initially based on the rentable value of a property, but at some point they stopped revaluing this to take inflation into account). Combined with other laws designed to prevent property speculation, Switzerland hasn't seen the silly property price escalation that the rest of the West has.