1 day agoBringing Offshore Money Home“Anybody has a right to evade taxes if he can get away with it.” — J. P. Morgan This is the second in a series on tax evasion that begins here. So, how do you get the money back home? You’ve seen the movie methods of cash in false-bottomed suitcases…Taxes3 min readTaxes3 min read
6 days agoEasy Tax Evasion“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Real Estate Tycoon Leona Helmsly to her maid This is the first in a series on how the super-rich can evade paying taxes altogether. ● There is sufficient money in offshore tax evasion by the US superich to pay the…Taxes8 min readTaxes8 min read
Nov 14Why Fannie FailedThis is the final post in the series on the financial system. The series begins here. Fannie and Freddie are two of the world’s largest financial institutions, but what is known about them and what of how they progressed from helpful to harmful in the US economy? …Protest6 min readProtest6 min read
Nov 7How the US Financial System Is Designed to Be FragileThis is the tenth in a series on banking that begins here. “What’s critical, of course, is that any change protects the core principle: ‘Thou shalt not gamble with the public’s money.’” Paul Volcker, Former Head, The Federal Reserve Bank This topic about system fragility is inspired by the book…Economics5 min readEconomics5 min read
Oct 31How the Banks Got Their Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card“It is easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.” Mark Twain This is the ninth in a series on banking that begins here. After the Savings and Loan Crisis in the 1980s over 1000 bankers were convicted of criminal offenses. But in the aftermath of 2008…Economics8 min readEconomics8 min read
Oct 25The Dangerous Business of BankingThis is the ninth article in a series on banking that begins here. Banking is a business that can make money out of nothing, lend it and get paid back with interest and administration fees. How could anyone mess that up? But they often do. …Finance5 min readFinance5 min read
Oct 10The Mysterious Creation of Money“The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it.” John Kenneth Galbraith Money: Whence it Came, Where it Went (1975) This is the eighth in a series on how banking facilitates…Social Justice6 min readSocial Justice6 min read
Oct 3Why Nobody Saw It Coming“ Why did nobody see it coming?” Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II, to economics professor Luis Garicano, November, 2008. True, none of the mainstream economists, those who influence what we read in the news and what governments do, saw the 2008 crisis coming. Some self-deprecating economist drew a meme…Social Change4 min readSocial Change4 min read
Sep 26The Continuing Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction“Wall Street is addicted to derivatives trading like the masses are addicted to sports betting.” Charlie Munger to Robert Lenczner of Forbes Magazine As early as 2002, Warren Buffett began warning that our financial system was riddled with financial weapons of mass destruction — certain forms of derivatives. No one…Economics7 min readEconomics7 min read
Sep 19Demystifying High Finance“Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.” Warren Buffet, 2002 “ Large derivatives remain a potential time bomb on the banks’ balance sheets”. Warren Buffett, 2016. The terminology of high finance is intentionally made obscure so the voting public will not understand when the bankers get caught, and how the…Economy6 min readEconomy6 min read
