Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Janet Tavakoli on Anarchy in America


Along with Bill Black, Frank Partnoy, Elliot Spitzer and other people with expertise in financial crime, Janet Tavakoli has been writing about corruption at the root of the global financial crisis for some time. Here she turns her attention to the consequences on the middle class and poor, who have borne the brunt, while the perps were bailed out and have gone scott free.

The post is pretty dramatic. Scary, in fact.

Janet Tavakoli is the president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting to financial institutions and institutional investors. Ms. Tavakoli has more than 20 years of experience in senior investment banking positions, trading, structuring and marketing structured financial products. She is a former adjunct associate professor of derivatives at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. Author of: Credit Derivatives & Synthetic Structures(1998, 2001), Collateralized Debt Obligations & Structured Finance (2003),Structured Finance & Collateralized Debt Obligations (John Wiley & Sons, September 2008). Tavakoli’s book on the causes of the global financial meltdown and how to fix it is: Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street (Wiley, 2009).

7 comments:

Nathan Tankus said...

her snide underhanded attacks at "media watchdogs" trying to prevent police brutality are uncalled for and gross.I find it difficult to believe she knows anything at all about police abuses- or any the initiatives supported by media watchdogs in chicago. her day job is calling.

Matt Franko said...

Mike predicted this type of thing over 2 years ago... chaos and social breakdown, crime, etc...

Tom you are in a good location there out in the plains...

Resp,

Ryan Harris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
N.Pagett said...

When crowded together, all species fight for survival, that’s what’s happening right now. If you think ‘wildings’ are bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet! The USA has bet infinite growth against finite resources, and isn’t going to take kindly to losing. A fully armed nation of 300 million whose way of life has been destroyed is going to make the ‘Arab spring’ look like backyard target practice.
Poverty is gradually climbing the social ladder, and millions are struggling to stay one rung higher as politicians utter words of comfort about ‘growth’ and ‘job creation’ to solve the nation’s problems. The problem is people. A century of oil fueled plenty created the means by which they got here, (from 76 million in 1900) now they demand to be fed and housed just as the cheap oil-energy era is ending. Without government aid, 10% of Americans would starve and millions more are only one paycheck above that, in the most ‘advanced’ nation in the world.. The entire infrastructure is run on borrowed money, ($14 Trillion debt), which can never be repaid. Past debt can only be repaid out of future prosperity. In the absence of cheap oil there will be no future prosperity. As with all debtors, when the creditors (mainly the Chinese) have had enough, they will pull the plug. When that happens the collapse will be total. Already, police forces, like armies, are unaffordable, fighting off the forces of chaos is becoming increasing difficult as energy becomes more expensive. The same applies to health care. Just too many people needing it, too little money/energy to supply it. This isn’t exclusive to America, all the developed nations of the world overpopulated themselves on cheap energy. When there’s no cheap energy, your future is going to be very different. http://www.yourmedievalfuture.com/

Matt Franko said...

NP,
"entire infrastructure is run on borrowed money,"

Who did we "borrow" it from?

Please see this post and the astute comments there
, "money" does not just appear ex-nihilo. It does not just spontaneously generate.

"Past debt can only be repaid out of future prosperity": this statement implies TIME TRAVEL.

Ex some of the resource issues you identify (which can be managed imo) we get right out of this with the proper fiscal policy, yes it is that simple.

Resp,

Crake said...

Why were the 1930s (a period of “real” pain for a much higher percentage of people) so different – violent crime went down. For example: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97234406

Internet flash groups and police budget cuts explain it – seems to simple to me? Or are the reports exaggerated?

Matt Franko said...

Crake,

Repeal of Prohibition in the US in 1933 and an end to all of the violent organized crime associated with the bootlegging perhaps?

Resp,