Jerome Kerviel, fast-overtaking John Law as France’s worst-ever financial mishap, claimed on his most recent resumé to enjoy judo and sailing, as well as running up $7.1 billion in losses for his employers in his spare time.
Something of a loner according to the world’s media (only 11 friends on Facebook - can you imagine!), he’s [...]
Europe
Commentary on European economics, politics and society by your Daily Reckoning editors in Melbourne, Australia. Still haven’t subscribed to the Daily Reckoning? What are you waiting for… sign up here, it’s free!
A chronological listing of articles is below.
Jerome Kerviel, France’s Worst Ever Financial Mishap
The European Central Bank is being Cagey
The European Central Bank is being cagey. Recently, Jean-Claude Trichet tried to explain himself. We do not have the same mandate as the U.S. Fed, he put forth. The Fed is meant to do two things at once - protect the value of the dollar…and maintain a healthy, prosperous economy. Our mission at the ECB, [...]
January 17th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
The South Sea Bubble and the Northern Rock Bust
Dealing with a banking crisis used to be such a simple affair for the Bank of England - not least when the crisis rolled up at its own front door!
Back in Sept. 1720, just as the South Sea Company was hurtling from bubble to bust - and hurtling into the history books as a result [...]
Inland Revenue’s Loss of Data Confirms Worldwide Lack of Privacy
I do not think that the Inland Revenue’s loss of records which cover 25 million people will prove to be a local incident, of importance only in Britain. It certainly is important in Britain, where it has shaken Gordon Brown’s Labour administration, but it shows a fault line in the modern world.
All administrative systems [...]
Defence of Acquis communautaire a Danger to EU Survival
Perhaps Europe’s biggest problem is that the European Union is unreformable. The European Union itself has generated 80,000 pages of regulation, known as the “Acquis communautaire”. When the new members joined from Eastern Europe, they were made to swallow the whole of the acquis communautaire, with minor adjustments, mostly by timing.
This is not an accidental [...]
Gold Price Indicates British Pound Suffering From Worldwide Credit Crunch
What will it take for the mass of investors to wake up and buy gold?
Are they still waiting for a new all-time high perhaps, even after watching the metal beat stocks and bonds for more than six years?
Well, a new all-time high in the gold price just came for British investors. You might not think [...]
European Union Treaty Questioned by Eurosceptics in Britain
Hardly anyone even in Britain understands the constitutional relationship between Britain and Europe, let alone the changes that have been proposed. Most of my American friends think that the European Union is a good thing because it is some sort of continental federation, like the United States. They suspect Britain of being isolationist in resisting [...]
October 12th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 3 comments | Continued
UK Money Supply Has Tripled Since 1997
Thomas McAnea was a drunk, an ex-con freed on a technicality and a failed businessman with barely “two pennies” to rub together, according to the Scottish police.
He was also an expert forger, a specialist in faking holograms for official documents. And in January, ‘Hologram Tam’ - as his underworld clients knew him - was caught [...]
UK Tories Pledge to Cut Inheritance Tax, Levy Rich Foreigners Instead
Ten years ago, in 1997, James Davidson and I published “The Sovereign Individual” in which we tried to assess the impact of the Information Age on the relationship between individuals and the state. We discussed at some length the prospect that globalisation would erode the taxing power of nation states. We wrote:
“Information technology facilitates dramatically [...]
Bank of England Could See Changes Ahead in Wake of Northern Rock
There are six Central Banks that make a real difference to the world, the Federal Reserve of the United States, the European Central Bank, the Bank of China, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the Russian Central Bank. Two of these are federal banks with statutory independence, the Federal Reserve and the [...]
September 27th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 0 comments | Continued