Financial Crisis: Death By A Thousand Cuts

Speaking 10 years after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Hank Paulson worried that, while banks were not over-leveraged, governments had no room to stimulate growth because they were already spending and borrowing record at record rates and interest rates couldn't go any lower. Another 5 years on, and the era of cheap money is over, inflation has rocketed and suddenly there's a crisis of confidence in banks, not governments. What the hell happened? Well, it's the same old problem: greed and stupidity are winning, but this time it's everywhere, all at once. 

The result is a broader crisis in confidence - or the lack of it. No matter where investors turn unexpected holes are appearing. A string of crypto collapses culminating in the discovery of a vast fraud in FTX and the ensuing crypto-contagion that bled into the banking system via Silvergate; the SEC finally calling time on numerous unregistered crypto-securities programmes, again stressing real world investors and funding providers; the Truss-Kwarteng 'mini-budget' producing unaffordable mortgages and declining property prices amid flat-lining business investment and other trade problems in Brexit Britain, now the basket-case of the G7; Russia's invasion of Ukraine driving energy price explosion and rampant inflation, to which central banks have responded with rapid interest rate rises that in turn cut the market value of long term bonds held by banks with needy depositors, like SVB, First Republic and other lesser US banks that Trump exempted from proper scrutiny. And then there's the perennial doom-spiral that is Credit Suisse. 

Where will it end?

Who knows. Buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.

Behind Every Major Public or Political Decision Is A "Private" Message... Release Them All

From FauxFoxNews' 'coverage' of Trump's "stolen election" claims to a seemingly endless list of British government decisions to police officers' own misconduct, access to the participants' "private" messages has revealed gross dishonesty on issues of critical importance to the public they are supposed to serve. WhatsApp launched in 2009. Given the evidence of such outrageous abuses of public trust can be found on that service (and no doubt others launched since), it's vital that government ministers and senior public officials should be prepared to publish their private messages on such platforms.

Of course, those in public office may - and must - hold opinions, but they must also be genuine champions of truth and honesty. The mere fact of the revelations cited above underscores the point. So, too, the consequences of the rampant dishonesty that many public officers seem to privately share. Witness the attempted slaughter on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 or the degree to which Britain's care homes unwittingly became a killing zone during the pandemic or the extent to which the country's police prey on women and minorities. 

There's an endless list of issues in relation to which ministers and public officials seem to have been less than frank with the public and I will not list them here. But I'm willing to bet that sustained pressure to release their private messages during the periods when they were deliberating on those issues will, if they survive in public office at all, help deter dishonesty when it comes to their next important decision.