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HomeThe Wall Street Oligopoly at Work in the Oil Markets
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 19th, 2013 9:24 AM |
Information is everything. Unparalleled access to information and the hoarding of the data collected are cornerstone principles of an economic system that is defined as an oligopoly.
How does this work? Rather than my writing, let’s take a quick 2-minute view of what is going on within the oil markets. (more…)
Will ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks Charge for Deposits?
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 25th, 2013 9:38 AM |
$82 billion.
What does that figure represent? The subsidy (aka competitive advantage) that accrues to our major banking institutions from favorable borrowing rates given their status as ‘too big to fail.’
Those tens of billions of dollars truly represent a nice, big head start for a handful of banks, and a withering assault on the precepts of free market capitalism for the rest of us.
As if $82 billion were not enough of a subsidy, let’s not forget that these banks pay you, as a depositor, virtually zero interest for the ‘privilege’ of holding your money there. Well, that may be changing. How so? How would you like to actually pay interest to the banks in order to keep your money in their institutions? Really? No way?
Yes way. (more…)
Manipulating Electricity: When Will Madness End?
Posted by Larry Doyle on July 22nd, 2013 7:25 AM |
Do readers recall how the morally depraved crowd at Enron manipulated the electricity markets so aggressively in California in 2000 as to force the state to implement rolling blackouts?
I am assuming there are some in our audience who not only remember the rolling blackouts, but actually lived through them.
Market manipulation of a basic good or service is a destructive force like none other. Many in America and around the world will dismiss the manipulation that goes on in a structured products market, such as mortgage-backed securities or auction-rate securities. They will similarly dismiss the clandestine dealings within the credit derivatives space or the arcane world of high-frequency trading. (more…)
Is Capitalism Dead?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 11th, 2011 8:20 AM |
While Uncle Sam in the persons of Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner et al may promote the fact that our capital markets currently are a reflection of a rebound in capitalism, they would be wrong.
Our markets and the Wall Street banks that dominate them no more embody the true tenets of capitalism than the incestuous nature of the Wall Street-Washington relationship truly represents the best interests of the American public. As The New York Times highlighted this weekend, Banks Are Off the Hook Again,
Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases. Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents. There were investigations. We’ve been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down. (more…)
