MetaFilter posts tagged with debt

The Politics of Radicalized Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money

Parallax.Error — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:25:08 -0800

Bush had Karl Rove. But the original wiretapping President needed brains too. Introducing Kevin Phillips. He predicted the prolonged Republican dominance of Washington 1970-present and advised the Ford and Reagan presidencies. He predicted a more liberal 1990s and when the Bushies killed his party he became uttery disgusted. Recently he spoke about the influence of the christian right, our addiction to oil, and America's debt (public and private) at the University of California Santa Barbara. Some Reviews of his work: New York Times on Phillip's books 1969-2005 Salon Review of American Theocracy Previously on Mefi in 06 and in 2004

bank shot

plexi — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:57:54 -0800

Little by little, millions of Americans surrendered equity in their homes in recent years. Lulled by good times, they borrowed — sometimes heavily — against the roofs over their heads.

Now the bill is coming due.

But if the vaults are empty, what will Scrooge McDuck swim in?

Asparagirl — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:58:40 -0800

According to the latest biweekly numbers released last Thursday by the Federal Reserve, for the two weeks that ended January 16th American banks had negative $1.3 billion in non-borrowed reserves. This is, historically, extremely unusual; just two months ago they had $30 billion (positive, of course) in non-borrowed reserves. The only reason some banks haven't been shut due to insufficient -- negative! -- reserve requirements is that the Federal Reserve is currently loaning them enough money through the brand new TAF (Term Auction Facility) program (also running in Canada and Europe) to make up their shortfalls. Today's TAF press release says that 52 American banks or institutions are currently receiving loans totaling ~$40 billion -- but the Fed refuses to name who they are. The banks' collateral for these TAF loans are those same yucky hard-to-price CDO's that caused the banks' liquidity problems in the first place -- and the Fed is purposely using outdated prices for the collateral to prevent their being marked-to-market and thus collapsing CDO prices and freezing matters even further. Not surprisingly, some economists see the creation of the TAF as a backdoor bailout of banks in trouble. But how much longer can this go on? [via] Coincidentally (one hopes), the banking system in the virtual online world Second Life has just collapsed following a run on their banks due to inappropriate valuations and bad counterparty risk, wiping out many players' real-world investments...

living in a gilded cage

geos — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:09:04 -0800

America 's debtor prisons .

Two hedge funds that predicted sub-prime crisis see corporate debt as next casualty

janetplanet — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:16:26 -0800

Two hedge funds that predicted sub-prime crisis see corporate debt as next casualty Two hedge fund firms that racked up huge gains betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown have begun winding down those trades and looking elsewhere. They're now betting against corporate debt using derivatives.

Is College Worth the Cost?

blue_beetle — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:13:50 -0800

Is College Worth the Cost? In strict dollar terms, is that degree going to be worth the parchment it's printed on?

Minsky Meltdown ahead?

umop-apisdn — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:56:28 -0800

Minsky Meltdown ahead? Named after Hyman Minsky, an economist who was known for his research concerning financial crises, specifically asset bubbles based on credit cycles. [much more inside]

You think you got it bad? Talk to the kid.

jbickers — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:25:24 -0800

"I have $334,442 in 'bad debt' (Im not counting even my student loans in that figure). Its likely that this blog will not last long, because its more likely that I am not going to make it." The journey of the "Debt Kid," who ended up with more than $300,000 of personal debt from playing the stock market. He's 23 years old. "I don’t have a choice to succeed or not. I have to succeed. To have any chance of a 'normal' life (wife, kids, ect), my business has to succeed. I’ve promised to pay my mother back (I owe her over 100K). I have to succeed." Suddenly, paying off a few thousand dollars in debt doesn't seem so impossible.

confessions of an economic hitman

6am — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:07:55 -0800

if you've not heard of the book "confessions of an economic hitman", then these few videos are gonna put your chins on the floor. it is disturbing how much the guy looks like george the second.

Pie chart of who owns the US debt.

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:51:19 -0800

Pie chart of who owns the US debt.