There is a Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report titled Shadow Banking.

In contrast to public-sector guarantees of the traditional banking system, prior to the onset of the financial crisis of 2007-2009, the shadow banking system was presumed to be safe due to liquidity and credit puts provided by the private sector. These puts underpinned the perceived risk-free, highly liquid nature of most AAA-rated assets that collateralized credit repos and shadow banks’ liabilities more broadly. However, once private sector put providers’ solvency was questioned, even if solvency was perfectly satisfactory in some cases, the confidence that underpinned the stability of the shadow banking system vanished. The run on the shadow banking system, which began in the summer of 2007 and peaked following the failure of Lehman in September and October 2008, was stabilized only after the creation of a series of official liquidity facilities and credit guarantees that replaced private sector guarantees entirely. In the interim, large portions of the shadow banking system were eroded.

I haven’t had a chance to read all 38 pages of the report, but even the introduction is packed full of useful information. As I learned from the person who suggested this paper to me, it is possible to read this paper and let your preconceived notions completely obscure the lessons of this paper. I don’t know how you could read the excerpt above, and miss the message, but somehow the suggester that I read this managed to do it.

There is a scene in an episode of the TV show “Emergency” that metaphorically illustrates what happens when I warn people of impending political disaster. I have not been able to find the video anywhere on the internet. Please help. Perhaps you can get it from NetFlix if you have a subscription.

I have been unable to find the video of this episode to be able to post the scene on the internet. Close to the end of the episode, the team is called to an accident on a movie set. As the fire engine approaches the scene, the captain sees someone trapped in a crashed vehicle. There is a gasoline spill at the accident. The captain sees a technician about to light a torch to cut the vehicle open. The captain gets on the loudspeaker in the fire engine, and shouts “Don’t light that torch”. The technician does not listen, and he lights the torch. The car immediately goes up in flames killing the occupants. I think the video of this scene would have much more impact than my description of it. That scene still sticks in my mind 43 years after I saw it.

Democracy At Work has the video Economic Update: Libertarianism, Capitalism & Socialism.

[S9 E47] This episode of Economic Update features an exploration by Professor Wolff of how Libertarians defend capitalism by saying its many current flaws/faults flow from the state’s economic interventions, not from the system itself. He then explains why Libertarians oppose socialism as another, even more, state-dominated intervention into the capitalistic system. Prof. Wolff then offers a critique of Libertarianism based on Capitalism’s long history of strong state interventions and socialism’s long-standing anarchistic components. He goes on to wrap it all up by inviting Libertarians and Socialists to find potential points of agreement against capitalism.

This might blow the minds of Libertarians (and even some Socialists).

Business Insider has the article Unemployment is low only because ‘involuntary’ part-time work is high.

Misleading unemployment numbers may be prompting the Fed and the Bank of England to make a huge error.

It is not that misleading unemployment numbers are prompting the Fed to make a huge error. The point is that the Fed and Trump are purposely using misleading numbers to justify transferring more wealth to the wealthy.

The value of this article is that it explains how Trump is lying with statistics better than I could just be using qualitative explanations.

“Headline” unemployment is only at a record low because of a 42% increase in the number of people who are in “involuntary” part-time work.

To back up my statement about the use of misleading numbers, I give you yhis quote.

“During early 2018, involuntary part-time work was running nearly a percentage point higher than its level the last time the unemployment rate was 4.1%, in August 2000,” according to Rob Valletta, a vice president in the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “This represents about 1.4 million additional individuals who are stuck in part-time jobs. These numbers imply that the level of IPT work is about 40% higher than would normally be expected at this point in the economic expansion.”

The Fed is fully aware of what the problem is. They just aren’t bothering to make it clear to the public. The oligarchs’ news media has no incentive to inform its readers with this information.

New Economic Perspectives has the article How White Collar Criminals Get Away with Murder. I don’t watch The Real News Network anymore since they pushed Paul Jay out, so I only post this because it is an interview with WIlliam K. Black and I was pointed to this from New Economic Perspectives.

White-collar crime prosecutions are at a 33-year low. Corporate leaders can cause environmental disasters, economic crashes, and the deaths of thousands and still walk free. But there’s a way out.

CNN has the MSN article that appears to come from The Washington Post. Confidential documents reveal U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan. You can translate the phrase “failed to tell the truth” into “lied like hell” if you want a more accurate headline.

“Our policy was to create a strong central government which was idiotic because Afghanistan does not have a history of a strong central government,” an unidentified former State Department official told government interviewers in 2015. “The timeframe for creating a strong central government is 100 years, which we didn’t have.”

This is something I figured out years ago. If I could figure this out despite all the lies we were being told, how could the so-called experts in our government fail to figure this out? We do revere these kinds of people who are blind to the obvious. You can imagine what these experts don’t see about what is happening in the world now. Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Syria, Bolivia, and on and on. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are typically blind as Secretaries of State.

CFS Institute European Investment Conference 2019 has the video Stephanie Kelton: Modern Monetary Theory’s Take on Fiscal Policy.

Please listen to this description. If you think you see anything here that is wrong, just ask. I think I can set you straight. It is hard to argue that MMT (Modern Money Theory) is not a true description of how money works. MMT just let’s you see what you can do and what the consequences will be. It does not tell you what choices you have to make. If you are willing to take the consequences of your actions, then you can do anything you want. If you don’t like the consequences, then you are not free to make those choices.

My Facebook post is the best place to carry on a conversation about this.

YouTube has the video Keiser Report: US Stock Prices Hit a Permanently High Plateau (E1470).

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss Irving Fisher’s correct but early call in 1929 when he said that stock prices had hit a permanently high plateau. He just needed to wait some few decades for an all fiat regime controlled by a banker-coddling central bank. They also discuss the $4 trillion from the NY Fed propping up the stock market — an allegedly ‘unintended consequence’ of bailing out repo markets.

In the second half, Max interviews Ross Ashcroft of Renegade Inc. about the cantillon effect, taxing land values, turmoil in repo markets, and a global debt jubilee.

The bullshit level in this episode of the Keiser Report is as close to 0 as you can get. If you want to know what I worry about as my stock market gains roll in, this is it.

As I used to mutter under my breath as I saw all the people making money on the dot com bubble. “It’s not what you you gained today that matters. it’s what you get to keep.” Eventually, I was right.

You have to watch the video to see the irony in the headline.

YouTube has the video Professor Bill Mitchell – Reframing the Progressive Agenda, London

The talk considers questions such as:

How can the debate on the economy be reframed around the things that really matter – people and the environment?

Does Modern Monetary Theory hold the key?

Toward the end of the lecture Mitchell showed the following slide:

The purpose of the lecture is to unfuddle your head. There has been an effort for over 50 years to fuddle your head, and that effort has been far too successful.

Youtube has the video Mr. Rogers and the Power of Persuasion.

I wish I could use what I learned here in all my online and offline interactions.