About Planet Finance
My hairdesser was right. He said give the $700 Bn to consumers for their mortgages and all will be well. Then he went off to Mexico on holiday. Turns out he was right. But of course none of the publications I write for would’ve quoted a hairdresser on the economy. That’s why Planet Finance was born. After 30 years of journalism (www.maureennevin.com) I see that even though I may see it coming and even get to write about it, I haven’t been able to change much. But hope…pick your cliche…keeps chugging along. I figure maybe if we put our minds together here, where everyone’s wisdom is held on merit alone, maybe it’ll land on fertile fields. Thanks being here: I hope you’ll try, too. Maureen Nevin, Inkstained Hack
January 10, 2009 at 6:24 pm |
Just discovered this website after reading about the Madoff scandal on CNN. Looks interesting, especially to an average guy like me who is looking around and thinking, “WTF?” I hope that I can learn more about what went on, what is going on, and what people like me can do to help get us out of this AND to learn from it.
Thanks,
Tony
Boston, MA
January 12, 2009 at 2:52 am |
Thanks for writing, Tony!
That’s why I started this site, so that everyday people can hopefully exchange ideas with ‘experts’ and each other. We may not have set this fire, but we’re sure getting burned and deserve a say in how to put it out.
I just watched 60 Minutes tonight, the segment on how speculators drove the price of oil from $60, I think, up to $147/barrel. It’s interesting to note that investment banks – those guys we bailed out — and AIG, the insurance company we bailed were among the biggest players in that market. Apparently, the Feds started looking into these market movements in September. Wonder if that’s why there was that sudden run on the banks in September. Was it Lehman, Morgan Stanley and AIG trying to unwind — sell off — their speculative bets on oil? If that doesn’t get you angry, you better check your pulse.
Sure there were problems in the economy, real estate sales and values dropping and credit drying up and those counterparty deals prior to that, but was the oil investigation the trigger for the collapse?
It’s time we we started looking at what’s wrong with this whole economic structure, which is obviously out of control:
There’s a danger here that we could be so focused on the details that we’re missing some cataclismic changes. Granted
we’ve been heading for disaster since the government started rewarding us for our credit balances, by letting us take off our interest payments on our tax returns, and penalizing us for the interest we earn on our savings. But there are other groundswells like the Age Wave, caused by Baby Boomers dumping their stuff instead of buying more. I hear a sucking sound for sure. Look at the yard sales. Decluttering your life is a major trend that Madison Av and apparently most economists have ignored.
And, technology: we’ve been moving from an industrial to an electronic age via computers for decades. Has that shift from humans to electronics hit a watershed mark?
Finally, how has the internet (together with those nonbuying baby boomers) changed the way goods are bought, sold and demand forecasted? It used to be that we had a product and a sizable market for it. But it’s harder now for suppliers to have relationships with buyers – they’re fragmented all over the world. The model that has worked so well for the US appears to be broken. What do we want to replace it with? And here’s the big question, can that model succeed as a humane one?
January 12, 2009 at 3:57 am |
I just finished “Wall Street Lays Another Egg”, now reading his 2006 piece, “Empire Falls”. I ordered Ferguson’s “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World” from Amazon. Perhaps in a week or so I will be able to wrap my head around some of these ideas/connections and have something meaningful (or at least coherent) to contribute. Thanks for the reference to Ferguson in one of your posts. Ciao for now
January 12, 2009 at 2:17 pm |
Dear Ms. Nevin,
Having uncovered fraud at Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and a little telecom in Reston, which just happens to furnish the networks over which Barclays Bank customers complete ATM transactions in the UK (TNSI); I have come to the conclusion that the current system of regulation and oversight of publicly traded companies is a complete sham.
What you wrote about your experience in Palm Springs at the STA bash is indicative of the corruption of both our securities traders and our SEC; but even worse is the situation we now have with the supposedly independent and professionally skeptical auditors who are opining on the financial statements of all of our publicly-traded companies.
We have external audit firms which are paid by their auditees! What kind kind of idiots are we! Do we not recognize how corrupting that relationship is? Do we not recognize that by allowing public company audits to be performed by vendors of those companies, we should expect to be lied to about the potential for material misstatement in the financial statements being audited? Do we not recognize that those auditors are going to ignore red flags raised in the audits, because to do otherwise means to lose the fees they charge for that work?
I pray that this crisis will finally end the corrupt and corrupting relationship corporate interests maintain with their auditors, and I hope that our government will finally take up the responsibility of forcing corporate entities, as well as not-for-profits, and even governmental entities to tell the truth when they publish financial reports. It’s time for the US government to set up an independent agency of public audit, answerable only to Congress and overseen by OMB; which is responsible for doing what is now done by the likes of PwC, Deloitte, E&Y, and KPMG. Those four firms have done more to transfer wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy, and out of this country altogether than any other set of companies on the face of the Earth, yet no one is calling for their culpability in this fiasco to be recognized and punished.
I hope you will continue to be the skeptic and to speak the truth about the crap that we now have in our financial system. The emperor had not been wearing clothes for many, many, many years. Thank you for saying that in public. I look forward to reading much more of what you write over the coming months.