Mind Over Market

Full Text Follows: What Went Wrong By Robert Stowe England Remarks Made at a Book Signing at the Federal Street Gallery in Milton, Delaware November 5, 2011 Good day. My name is Robert Stowe England and I’m here today to shed a spotlight on the causes of the financial crisis of 2008. If you are like me, when this crisis broke, you were shocked and outraged that things could get so out of hand and cause such an enormous calamity – the worst financial crisis of modern times. Something had gone terribly wrong to deliver us into the world of Mad Max, where the norms we thought necessary for society have vanished. We saw financial institutions crashing all around us while authorities seemed powerless to do anything about it. As a financial journalist, I covered the mortgage industry at the heart of the crisis. I was on the frontlines reporting a multitude of institutional and market failures that began to unfold early in 2007. By August 2007, fully half the mortgage market had collapsed or...

In an interview on Bloomberg TV November 10, James Rickards says that while the Fed is saying it does not want to repeat the mistakes of Japan, the Fed is, in fact, repeating the very same mistakes. Rickards, senior managing director for Tangent Capital Partners, a merchant bank based in New York, is interviewed on Bloomberg's Money Moves with Deirdre Bolton. Rickards has a new book, Currency Wars , that was released November 10, that focuses on the role of currency wars in modern history and the role the a gold standard has made and can make to provide the kind of stability that is needed for sustained growth. Rickards criticizes the Fed for thinking that "they're playing with a thermostat" that they can dial up or dial down. However, they are, instead "playing with a nuclear reactor" with fuel rods. And, if they get it wrong, we can have "a massive meltdown." He sees the possibility of a lost decade in the United States as the best possible outco...

Remarks Made at a Book Party and Signing for Black Box Casino Event Hosted at 3101 Chain Bridge Road, Washington, D.C. 20016 November 10, 2011 By Robert Stowe England I’m here tonight to shine a spotlight on the causes of the financial crisis of 2008. If you are like me, when this crisis broke, you were shocked and outraged. Something had gone terribly wrong to deliver us into the world of Mad Max, where the norms vanished that we thought necessary to sustain our way of life. Financial institutions were crashing all around us while authorities seemed powerless to do anything about it. It was the worst financial crisis of modern times. As a journalist writing for Mortgage Banking magazine for more than 20 years, I covered the mortgage industry at the heart of the crisis. In January 2007, I found myself on the frontlines of the crisis reporting on a multitude of institutional and market failures than were just beginning to get underway. By August 2007, fully half the $11 trillion mortgag...