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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (38880)	6/22/2011 5:38:42 AM
From: axial	1 Recommendation Respond to of 46821

While there is considerable truth in his sub-points, the author attempts to conflate different phenomena. "The underpinnings of the current financial crisis lie in a living arrangement -- the American pattern of development -- that does not financially suppport itself." On this thread, the point has been made time and again: the historically unprecedented abundance we have known was fueled, or funded by virtually unlimited access to cheap energy and resources, with complete disregard for ecological cost. Most people now recognize that course can be maintained only as long as cheap energy and resources hold out, and the ecological cost can be avoided. In other words, it's unsustainable. It follows that dependent economics are also unsustainable. However the author proposes an untenable thesis when he says that the "underpinnings" of the financial crisis lie therein. While it's true that after the first Oil Embargo, western economies assumed progressively greater debt in order to perpetuate energy-intensive lifestyles, it's NOT true that this was a primary driver of the financial crisis. The primary driver of the financial crisis was ideation among academic, political and economic elites which resulted in a relaxation of prudence. This, in turn, permitted incentivized risk-taking, global adoption of opaque and often fraudulent transactions in financial and corporate sectors culminating in the worldwide collapse of the credit system. When money flows stopped, once again world governments invoked Keynesian responses to the damage caused by Bluewater Economics, and guaranteed the failures of its proponents at the expense of taxpayers. Energy is tightly woven into every aspect of our existence, and its cost has been increased by some of the financial "innovations" that cause the financial sector to become a rentier. Enron's lessons were not lost on the financial sector. It was a long list of specific steps that caused the conjoined financial and economic crises. The role of energy was secondary. However, as we now approach the limits of sustainability, and as ecological costs continue to mount, energy will reassert its primacy in economics. Jim

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (38880)	7/18/2013 6:16:27 PM
From: axial	Respond to of 46821

J.P. Morgan Staring at Record Fine Over Energy Bank Set to Pay Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Over Allegations of Electricity-Market Manipulation online.wsj.com (use Google to access if you aren't subscribed)... --- Barclays, traders fined US$488M amid U.S. energy probe "European antitrust regulators are investigating allegations of price manipulation and collusion by traders in crude, refined-product and biofuels markets. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is considering opening a probe into potential manipulation of the WM/Reuters currency rates, which are used to set the value of trillions of dollars of investments." business.financialpost.com --- Enron lives. "God's work" -- predatory, and profitable: Matt Taibbi Jim