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naked capitalism (Free subscription) | 10/07/2008
Willem Buiter has a penchant for ruffling feathers with his blunt pronouncements. He caused a firestorm at the Fed's recent Jackson Hole conference by, in his presentation, telling the central bank that it was a victim of "cognitive regulatory capture" and was excessively sensitive to the needs and special pleading of the financial services industry. Even though the hosts took umbrage,...
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Just World News (Free subscription) | 10/07/2008
This is my second pick of current highlights from my Google Read. Buiter is the former chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, currently Professor of European...
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The Telegraph (Free subscription) | 10/05/2008
The governments of the US and Europe have unsuccessfully put hundreds of billions of dollars into money markets in the hope of encouraging banks to lend to each other again. Because long-term loans between banks have all but dried up, loans to companies and households are following suit. A longer-term loan service from central banks would address these problems, Mr Buiter said in his blog.
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Just World News (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago
Willem Buiter gives the gathering of finance ministers of the so-called 'G-7' nations a very low grade for the quality of the decisions they made (or failed to make) during...
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Mark Wadsworth (Free subscription) | yesterday
Some of my UKIP chums tipped me off to this this evening. As ever, it was somebody else's idea - in this case Prof Willem Buiter's - I just do the numbers .
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zidouta.com (Free subscription) | 10/10/2008
Willem Buiter, Iceland’s bank defaults: lessons of a death foretold: “Early in 2008, Anne Sibert and I were asked by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki (now in receivership) to write a paper on the causes of the financial problems faced by Iceland and its banks, and on the available policy options. We sent the paper to the [...]
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Unqualified Offerings (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
D. Moon sends me a link to a Naked Capitalism blog entry that quotes economist Willem Buiter arguing that "the banking system in the North Atlantic region is insolvent and would be bankrupt but for the reality of recent government bailouts and the expectation of future government bailouts." Needless to say, I’m not qualified to declare [...]
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Memex 1.1 (Free subscription) | 10/07/2008
The headline is from Willem Buiter’s blog. The government of Iceland is using the threat of a €4 bn loan from Russia in exchange for a 99-year lease on the airport at Keflavik - a former American air base - as leverage to obtain financial support from the West. This is high-stakes poker -not without [...]
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The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/10/2008
... chose to invest millions of pounds of taxpayers' money in such a dodgy venture.Professor Willem Buiter, London School of EconomicsProfessor Anne Sibert, Birkbeck, University of London It is a serious criminal offence punishable by imprisonment for directors of limited companies to continue to trade when they knew or ought to have known that the company was insolvent. It is a striking...
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Dani Rodrik's weblog (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
... its effects. National authorities can best contain the crisis through two measures. First, as Willem Buiter has argued they must revive inter-bank markets by providing a temporary guarantee for short-term unsecured lending between regulated institutions. Central bank disintermediation of inter-bank markets is more costly and less sustainable. Second, national authorities should also...
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San Diego Union (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
... in a bid to support the ailing economy. “There is no such thing as a safe bank now,” said Willem Buiter, a political economist at the London School of Economics. “They are only as safe as the authorities make them.” Shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland slumped 39 percent yesterday, and Barclays fell 9 percent, reflecting the fear that a government capital injection would dilute existing...
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Indian Express (Free subscription) | 10/08/2008
Font Size In Britain, where earnestness is a sin and drollery a virtue, dismay about the global financial crisis is best masked with humour. The British reaction to bank failures is to josh that the best place to store money is under the mattress—or in an Irish bank. When America’s $700 billion rescue package stalled in Congress, Willem Buiter, an economics professor, prolific blogger...
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New York Times (Free subscription) | 10/07/2008
... analysts and investors feel are insufficient.“There is no such thing as a safe bank now,” said Willem Buiter, a political economist at the London School of Economics. “They are only as safe as the authorities make them.” Barclays, fresh off its acquisition of Brother’s investment banking business, denied reports that it had asked the government for capital. “Barclays has not requested...
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Conglomerate (Free subscription) | 10/06/2008
... that coincidentally happens to be both the size of the U.S. TARP and of Germany's blanket guarantee of private savings , extended on Sunday. Ireland went first, with a blanket guarantee of all liabilities for six big banks. As governments everywhere are taking over financial and quasi-financial institutions everywhere in the heat of the moment, Willem Buiter proposes "a permanent...
