Prime cuts - our favourite blog posts, articles and clippings

“Savour the sweet scent of Germany’s success” – Steven Rattner on why the prospects for Germany’s economy ‘glisten’. Read the full article here >

“Manufacturers find glimmer of hope on credit” – Brian Groom reports on how the EEF manufacturers’ federation have shown that manufacturers have re­ported “tentative signs” that their access to bank credit is improving, but remain worried about rising costs of bank borrowing. Read the full article here >

“Construction sector insolvencies jump by nearly a fifth” – Julia Kollewe on how figures fuel fears for industry already in recession as cuts in public spending take effect. a balance of 22% of companies reported an increase in the overall cost of credit over the past two months. Read the full article here >

“The Breakup of the Eurozone” - Is Iceland’s Rejection of Financial Bullying a Model for Greece and Ireland? Read Michael Hudson’s article on CounterPunch here >

“The New Normal” from Golem XIV Thoughts – David Malone (author of ‘The Debt Generation’) explains how the narrative is being re-written so that the ‘debt crisis’ is seen as something that is under control and being solved. Read the full article here >

“Eric Schneiderman vs. Wall Street and its political servants” – Glenn Greenwald praises Eric Schneiderman’s “seemingly solitary fight to hold Wall Street accountable for the vast corruption and criminality that spawned the 2008 financial crisis”. Read the full article here >

“Fund must turn away from DSK’s economic mistakes” – The poor economic performance in Europe risks blackening the IMF’s reputation in the same way as its programmes in the 1990s rendered the Fund a pariah, writes Desmond Lachman. Read the full article here >

“DSK and the Rikers Redemption” – read Robert Shrimsley’s hilarious imaginary scenario where the beleaguered IMF managing director is imprisoned but is able to break out, as in the Morgan Freeman movie. Read the full article here >

“Ireland is punished while her partners in Europe profit” - From Mr Brian McDonnell. Sir, You report that France continues to insist that Ireland raises its 12.5% corporate tax rate as a condition for having the punitive interest rate of 5.8% on its bail-out loans reduced. Read the full article here >

“The eurozone after Strauss-Kahn” - When the decisions ahead for Europe are so complex and fraught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s absence will be keenly felt, writes Martin Wolf. Read the article here >

“Still too many latent triggers of next crisis” - There is little left in the monetary and fiscal policy locker with which to address another financial maelstrom, writes John Plender. Read the article here >

“Why ETFs give an uneasy sense of déjà vu” – read Gillian Tett in today’s Financial Times on why the Financial Stability Board is right to warn about the dangers of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) . Could they be the new CDOs? Read the article here >

Charles Ferguson (Director of 2011 documentary ‘Inside Job’) discusses solutions to academic corruption. Watch the video at the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

John Whitting QC draws on his knowledge as an advocate in law to explain how Labour need to reframe the debate, ‘put debt and defecit into context‘ and counter the ‘myth of the maxed out credit card‘ as a suitable analogy for the UK deficit. Read the full article at the New Statesman.

“Sixty-seven years on, the heirs to Keynes return to Bretton Woods” – decades after the wartime Keynesian conference in New Hampshire, the world of economics again gathered for an emergency summit. Ann Pettifor was among the delegates. Read David Blanchflower’s article in the New Statesman.

“The Big Danger In Cutting The Deficit” – We need to increase employment–not decrease the budget. Read John T. Harvey in Forbes on why cuts in federal budget amoun to “a gun, cocked and aimed squarely  at the American worker”.

‘Stay tuned for a massive rise in the UK unemployment rate‘ says Billy Blog’s latest post. Read his analysis of the Phillips curve and his explanation of how the mainstream macroeconomic take on the subject is inadequate.

Read David Blanchflower in the New Statesman on why OECD forecasts are the lastest blow for George Osborne ahead of budget day. Read the full story >

Duncan’s Economic Blog highlights the low levels of UK investment when compared to international peers. Read it here >

Naked Capitalism published a guest post by William Hogeland, the author of the narrative histories Declaration and The Whiskey Rebellion and a collection of essays, Inventing American History. Titled ‘Democratic Finance V. Banking Fraud in Early America’.

“Was this crisis, as some have argued, a crisis not just of specific institutions and regulations, nor even just a crisis of markets in general, but also of an entire economic theory?”. Download Adair Turner’s paper for the FSA, ‘Reforming Finance: are we being radical enough?‘ for further insights.

Read Simon Johnson’s latest article Geithner’s Gamble on Project Syndicate, A World of Ideas on Treasury Secretary General Tim Geithner’s ‘deeply disturbing vision’ of the nature of world economic growth.

Read Globalisation and Second Best Solutions on Duncan’s Economic Blog on the urgent need for reform in the banking sector.

Read Olaf Storbeck’s article ‘The contemporary Keynes – why “The Economist” is wrong‘ at his blog Economics Intelligence for his take on The Economist’s list of the most influential economists of the last decade.

Learn about the rehypothecation of mortgages in Australia in the Macro Business blog post “Big profits, huge risk”. Deep T. explains how every Australian has been exposed to “massive systemic risk”.

PRIME exists because the ideas that shape current economic policy are so inadequate to today’s challenges. As Victoria Chick notes, there is” ongoing complacency…. (which) means that economists, commentators and policymakers are repeatedly embarrassed by economic outcomes.” Which is why this piece from the ‘Empty Wheel’ site is so pertinent: “No One Could Have Predicted the Middle East Status Quo Would Crash”

‘Irish bank flight quickens despite EU rescue’ is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s take on that debacle – a crisis that was also not predicted.

Here at PRIME we are avid readers of Yves Smith’s blog: Naked Capitalism. This is Yves on Dylan Radio