MA & PhD in Critical Thinking Blog

While it lacked the dramatics of a 2008 that featured a Black September that will go down in history as one of the most chaotic and fear-inspiring episodes in modern financial / economic history,

2009 has been pretty rough in most places, as the aftermath of that trauma has continued to reverberate throughout the year.

In that context, here are our Top Five Christmas wishes for the world political economy as it concludes a roller-coaster of what Queen Elizabeth, in a different context, called, an ‘annus horribilus‘

Here’s my comment IN the NYTimes on its INCREDIBLY important story about how Goldman Sachs was betting AGAINST the very same mortgage-backed securities securities they were SIMULTANEOUSLY selling TO their clients … …

Please note that my point is about the MEDIA aspect of this …

I tried to keep it short & sweet … you might want to find the comment and RECOMMEND it … … that would be MUCH appreciated … …

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html?sort=oldest&offset=6

Beyond this, my “Five Top Christmas Wishes” piece will be up shortly on Economy Watch — as soon as I can figure out how to do the CMS that my brilliant colleague Keith usually handles … … …

Enjoy … …

This is a BRILLIANT piece of IMPORTANT reporting … thank you so much … …

Just one question: why did it appear on the day before Christmas ???

It would seem many people would be interested in seeing this who probably won’t, given the usual holiday “madness” …

http://www.economywatch.com/

The Copenhagen environmental talks ended in a weak, informal ‘agreement’ that some called the end of the UN-based world ecological process that began in the early 1990s with the Rio de Janeiro meetings.

In the midst of this generally dismaying sequence, there were, however, some significant events – the most important of which, unfortunately, bodes even worse for the global future than the generally disheartening results from the Danish capital.

This was the extraordinary blow-up between the US and China at the climactic moment of negotiations, involving both Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Barack Obama personally.

While it wouldn’t take much to have a more activist response than the downright laissez-faire – and, consequently, increasingly irrelevant –

approach of the Obama administration to the on-going and, indeed, steadily deteriorating economic / financial situation,

the UK government of Gordon Brown – and his surprisingly cogent and active Chancellor of the Exchequer [Treasury Secretary] Alistair Darling – are at least doing something, albeit not too much either … …

During the decade after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, China was generally seen throughout East Asia as a friendly alternative power-center to the American-led Washington-consensus.

But in the last couple of years, some of China’s neighbours are beginning to wonder if ‘friendly uncle’ is more of a ‘roaring dragon’ — one which, ironically, its own people might have the most to fear from.

We thought we’d cut President Obama some slack this week, altho once again his ill-conceived reliance on incredibly unreliable middle-men reinforces our uncertainty about his whole approach,

and take a look at some of the issues that are complicating the search for the holy grail of clean /renewable / safe energy …

Indeed, in a global economic scene dominated by continuing uncertainty, one of the few ’sure bets’ has SEEMED to be the ‘green tech / clean tech’ – whatever you want to call it – sector.

But in the last weeks, significant bumps have appeared in what has almost universally been considered one of the few relatively unblocked roads to ‘certain’ prosperity.

Hey, all … …

Congratulations to President Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize, notwithstanding the deeply mixed reaction to it coming from many parts of the world …

That behind us, the most urgent question is whether Obama is, in fact, becoming increasingly irrelevant to the process / solutions to the problems now confronting America and the world …

That, sadly, is not very clear …

On four key policy fronts, Obama is making the same mistake.

From the Too Big to Fail Banks / to the health “care” debate / and from the collapse of the housing market / to the mystifying “double-down” on Afghanistan,

Obama is relying on middlemen who are not committed to his agenda to carry out his policies.

And while he begs them for help, they ignore even the most minimal exhortations to act in the nation’s interest — rather than their own immediate / short-term benefit –

and chortle into their Veuve Cliquot … making it a joke for them, but not so funny for everyone else …

Back from a fabulous — if insanely busy and, at certain moments, stressful — nearly-two months in the US,

and now back on track with my colleague Keith Timimi at Economy Watch … …

Hope you “enjoy” this piece about how the chief problem for the US ECONOMY is its sadly broken and corrupt POLITICAL system … …

More to come …