Repo Madness by Ellen Brown

Image by Sean Davis via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 12, 2020

Although the repo market is little known to most people, it is a $1-trillion-a-day credit machine, in which not just banks but hedge funds and other “shadow banks” borrow to finance their trades. Under the Federal Reserve Act, the central bank’s lending window is open only to licensed depository banks; but the Fed is now pouring billions of dollars into the repo (repurchase agreements) market, in effect making risk-free loans to speculators at less than 2%.

Is the Run on the Dollar Due to Panic or Greed? by Ellen Brown

Image by Sean Davis via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
November 8, 2019

What’s going on in the repo market? Rates on repurchase agreements (“repo”) should be around 2%, in line with the fed funds rate. But they shot up to over 5% on September 16 and got as high as 10% on September 17. Yet banks were refusing to lend to each other, evidently passing up big profits to hold onto their cash – just as they did in the housing market crash and Great Recession of 2008-09.

The Coming Savings Meltdown by Michael Hudson

Image by Friends of the Earth International via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 30, 2019

Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be. That point inevitably arrives on the liabilities side of the economy’s balance sheet.

Trump’s Trade Threats Are Really Cold War 2.0 by Michael Hudson + The American Dream Is Alive and Well—in China by Ellen Brown

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
June 16, 2019

President Trump has threatened China’s President Xi that if they don’t meet and talk at the upcoming G20 meetings in Japan, June 29-30, the United States will not soften its tariff war and economic sanctions against Chinese exports and technology.

Funding A US Green New Deal Without Raising Taxes by Ellen Brown

Image by Bart Everson via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
March 21, 2019

As alarm bells sound over the advancing destruction of the environment, a variety of Green New Deal proposals have appeared in the US and Europe, along with some interesting academic debates about how to fund them. Monetary policy, normally relegated to obscure academic tomes and bureaucratic meetings behind closed doors, has suddenly taken center stage.

The Problem of Debt Deflation by Ellen Brown

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog, Feb. 21, 2019
February 24, 2019

“Quantitative easing” was supposed to be an emergency measure. The Federal Reserve “eased” shrinkage in the money supply due to the 2008-09 credit crisis by pumping out trillions of dollars in new bank reserves. After the crisis, the presumption was that the Fed would “normalize” conditions by sopping up the excess reserves through “quantitative tightening” (QT) – raising interest rates and selling the securities it had bought with new reserves back into the market.

Why A Universal Basic Income Need Not Be Inflationary by Ellen Brown

Image by Generation Grundeinkommen via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
December 29, 2018

Calls for a Universal Basic Income have been increasing, most recently as part of the Green New Deal introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and supported in the last month by at least 40 members of Congress. A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a monthly payment to all adults with no strings attached, similar to Social Security. Critics say the Green New Deal asks too much of the rich and upper-middle-class taxpayers who will have to pay for it, but taxing the rich is not what the resolution proposes. It says funding would primarily come from the federal government, “using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks,” and other vehicles.

It Is All About Relative Power Of The One Percent by Michael Hudson + 10 Years Since Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy – Did the Economy Really Recover?

Image by May S. Young via Flickr

Updated: Sept. 19, 2018

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
September 18, 2018

Wall Street did not let the Lehman Brothers crisis go to waste. The banks that have paid the largest fines for financial fraud are now much bigger and more profitable. The victims of their junk mortgage loans are poorer, and the economy is facing debt deflation.

Michael Hudson and Ellen Brown: Avoiding The Road To Serfdom

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

by Michael Hudson, with Ellen Brown
Writers, Dandelion Salad
Michael Hudson, Jan. 28, 2018
The Web of Debt Blog
February 10, 2018

I appeared alongside Ellen Brown on Princetown Community Television in two parts. Enjoy!

Can Jill Carry Bernie’s Baton? A Look at the Green Candidate’s Radical Funding Solution by Ellen Brown

Image by cool revolution via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
August 2, 2016

Bernie Sanders supporters are flocking to Jill Stein, the presumptive Green Party presidential candidate, with donations to her campaign exploding nearly 1000% after he endorsed Hillary Clinton. Stein salutes Sanders for the progressive populist movement he began and says it is up to her to carry the baton. Can she do it? Critics say her radical policies will not hold up to scrutiny. But supporters say they are just the medicine the economy needs.

Brexit and the Derivatives Time Bomb by Ellen Brown

Image by Rich Girard via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
July 1, 2016

Brexit could trigger a $500 trillion derivatives meltdown, by forcing the EU to allow insolvent member governments and banks to write down debt. Italy is in financial crisis and is already petitioning for that concession. How to avoid collapse of the massive derivatives house of cards? Alternatives are considered.

The Citadel Is Breached by Ellen Brown

Image by Tony Webster via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 16, 2016

In a landmark infrastructure bill passed in December, Congress finally penetrated the Fed’s “independence” by tapping its reserves and bank dividends for infrastructure funding.

The bill was a start. But some experts, including Congressional candidate Tim Canova, say Congress should go further and authorize funds to be issued for infrastructure directly.

Overt Money Financing: Raining Money on Main Street by Ellen Brown

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
September 22, 2015

Predictions are that we will soon be seeing the “nuclear option” — central bank-created money injected directly into the real economy. All other options having failed, governments will be reduced to issuing money outright to cover budget deficits. So warns a September 18 article on ZeroHedge titled “It Begins: Australia’s Largest Investment Bank Just Said ‘Helicopter Money’ Is 12-18 Months Away.”

Trumping the Federal Debt Without Playing the Default Card by Ellen Brown

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
August 19, 2015

“The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default.”

— Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on Meet the Press, August 2011

Michael Hudson: Should The Federal Reserve Taper QE, If Banks Get Most of the Benefits?

Image by Mike Licht via Flickr

with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
June 15, 2015

TheRealNews on Jun 15, 2015

UMKC professor of economics Michael Hudson explains how the bond-buying program helps keep interest rates low for everyday people but has also shored up bad mortgage loans of corrupt banks.