Mark Fleming-Williams — China: The Next United States?

Stratfor's economic assessment of US-China rivalry.

EconMatters
China: The Next United States?
Mark Fleming-Williams, Stratfor Global Intelligence

Washington's Blog — Are Attorney General Holder’s Statements on Banks and Drones Connected?

Connecting the dots.

Washington's Blog
Are Attorney General Holder’s Statements on Banks and Drones Connected?
WashingtonsBlog

And who has the high ground on this? Rand Paul, preparing for his 2016 bid.

Washington's Blog — The Government Has It Bass-Ackwards: Failing To Prosecute Criminal Fraud by the Big Banks Is Killing – NOT Saving – the Economy

Failure to Prosecute Fraud Causes Economic Downturns

Washington's Blog
The Government Has It Bass-Ackwards: Failing To Prosecute Criminal Fraud by the Big Banks Is Killing – NOT Saving – the Economy
WashingtonsBlog

Mark Gongloff — Eric Holder Admits Some Banks Are Just Too Big To Prosecute

When the Attorney General of the United States admits some banks are simply too big to prosecute, it might be time to admit we have a problem -- and that goes for both the financial and justice systems.

Eric Holder made this rather startling confession in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, The Hill reports. It could be a key moment in the debate over whether to do something about the size and complexity of our biggest banks, which have only gotten bigger and more systemically important since the financial crisis.

"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy," Holder said,according to The Hill. "And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."

Holder's comments don't come as a total surprise. His underlings had already made similar confessions to The New York Times last year, after they declined to prosecute HSBC for flagrant, years-long violations of money-laundering laws, out of fear that doing so would hurt the global economy. Lanny Breuer, formerly in charge of doling out the Justice Department's wrist slaps to banks, told Frontlineas much in the documentary "The Untouchables," which aired in January.

Some observers have defended the Justice Department, suggesting that prosecuting law-breaking banks would amount to a death penalty that could upset the financial system and trigger another recession -- although nobody really knows if it would do any such thing. But by not prosecuting law-breaking banks, and confessing to its terror of prosecuting those banks, the Justice Department has waved a big checkered flag to the biggest banks to go ahead and break all of the laws they want.

The Huffington Post
Eric Holder Admits Some Banks Are Just Too Big To Prosecute
Mark Gongloff

And these are the institutions that the federal government has delegated its money creation power to?

Holder confirms that both capitalism and democracy have broken down. It looks like the only viable option to preserve democracy, eliminate privilege  and reestablish the rule of law is to nationalize the banking system by turning it into a public utility with only government having the money power.

The private sector has demonstrated that it cannot handle the money power responsibly and has grown so large that it cannot be controlled from within or without. It's a herd of rogue elephants on the rampage, where the great beasts have to compete ruthlessly with each other to survive.

Thomas Palley — A Keynesian Theory of Hegemonic Currencies – Or Why the World Pays Dollar Tribute

Several years ago (June 2006) I wrote an article advancing a new theory of why the dollar is the world’s dominant currency and why it is likely to remain so. The article was published in the midst of the last boom and sank like a stone. But now debate about the cause of the dollar’s hegemony has been revived in an interesting paper by Fields and Vernengo titled “Hegemonic currencies during the crisis: The dollar versus the euro in a Cartelist perspective” (also here). Their paper provides an opportunity to revive discussion, so I am posting the article again. Here it is (subject to a couple of word edits)

Thomas Palley
A Keynesian Theory of Hegemonic Currencies – Or Why the World Pays Dollar Tribute
Thomas I. Palley

See also, Ramanan, Kaldor’s Growth Plan, at The Case of Concerted Action