Robert Lenzner: The New World Order Of Global Markets

Forbes:

The best minds in finance--George Soros, Mohammed El-Erian, Larry Summers, Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Rubin--were not exactly raving bulls at the Financial Times conference on "The Future of Finance" this week. They were not the force driving the Dow Jones industrial average through 11,000 Friday, rather they were arguing convincingly of the constraints evident in the global economy that are bound to make investing anywhere more difficult and different than ever before.

Read the whole story: Forbes

Comments

[Lahonda]

07:54 PM on 10/09/2010

The US can't continue to make war and recover. That's impossible.

The reason that it will continue to make war with the world? Because more of it wants to or doesn't care enough to stop as yet. America has to make peace, but then comes regulation... the corporatists don't want to lose control.

[halfpricefaustian]

01:39 PM on 10/09/2010

So these guys agree that the financial reform bill does not solve the problems that led to the financial crisis. The republicans didn't want any regulation at all and are vowing to repeal the bill and deregulate further. So I guess our choice is between inadequate and hopeless.

[Intolerantcentrist]

02:41 PM on 10/09/2010

Exactly. And we are supposed to be worried about a financial collapse, what about a political collapse? We can’t fix the first without fixing the second.
F&F for your insight!

[halfpricefaustian]

03:17 PM on 10/09/2010

I've read your other posts here. I like the way you think. That and you seem to ~remember~ things that happened over a month ago. I appreciate that. Following you back.

[Lahonda]

07:25 PM on 10/09/2010

Regulation brings order. Slower growth? Yes.

But without order, we get these politicians playing fast and loose with big business. That leaves main street lacking protection from exploitative international conglomerates.

If they can't break the law, they'll still attempt to fly pretty close to the ground to get under it.

[Robert Lenzner]

05:52 PM on 10/13/2010

as long as they cant destroy the system. greed will always lead them to cheat if tghey think can get away with it. i say send a few to jail.

[breakingpoint]

12:59 PM on 10/09/2010

here they are
http://financialterrorists.org

[Countess]

12:42 PM on 10/09/2010

While corporate democrats are congratulating themselves on passing financial reform it is now clear they did nothing to address the real problem and to prevent the next crash from coming soon to a community near you. The entire economic team of this administration with the exception of Elizabeth Warren is hopelessly compromised.

[Robert Lenzner]

04:53 PM on 10/13/2010

thanks for taking trouble contact me. it was a weak-willed bill; too susceptible to wall st interests and lobbyists. go see Inside Job, documentary on Wall St. good sharp pt of view. many of them are imbeciles.

[ahjuci]

12:12 PM on 10/09/2010

Summers, Rubin and Greenspan ( Larry, Curly and Mo):

Apologise publicly to Ms. Brookesley Born for blunting her efforts at protecting the American people before we take anything you say seriously.

Watch PBS documentary "The Warning" online at :

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

[Intolerantcentrist]

02:47 PM on 10/09/2010

Of the three, only Greenspan has provided a mia culpa; in an awkward and self-serving attempt to maintain some meager sense of relevance.

[Robert Lenzner]

04:55 PM on 10/13/2010

thanks for contacting me. they are in denial about how rotten they were. scandal to give wall st. ability self destruct no oversight. go see Inside Job. Ive seen The Warning. BB can live with her conscience.

[BigDaddyWow]

12:03 PM on 10/09/2010

Why in the heck is Bob Rubin still getting a pulpit to spew his junk? The guy has done more damage to America than any other character in the economic crisis.

[Robert Lenzner]

04:56 PM on 10/13/2010

greenspan number one public enemy in public policy.

[jake1492]

12:01 PM on 10/09/2010

This idea of "growth" is a weird animal. The article talks about a "fast growing midget" in the chinese economy (the article says china's economy is currently about 20% the size of the US economy) and slow growing giant in the US economy.

Not sure where the 20% idea comes from. In terms of exchange rates, the chinese economy in 2009 was about 35% of the US economy. ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal).

The per capita PPP GDP of the chinese is about 15% of the US ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita. (The large proportion the population is more than 4 times as large.

In terms of PPP (purchasing power parity) the chinese economy was about 63% of the US economy ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP).

It is interesting that the multiplier for purchasing power parity is only 63%/ 35% = 1.8 considering that goods and services produced in china for chinese consumption are done with labor that costs a small fraction of labor in the US. PPP must be a very complex subject and strongly affected by commodity prices which, unlike labor, would have a similar absolute effect on these two economies that are vastly different in terms of labor cost.

It appears it will be less than five years before China PPP economy exceeds the size of the US.

[jake1492]

12:18 PM on 10/09/2010

So why would chinese growth continue to be so much faster than US growth? Because of the idea of need of course. Almost everybody in China has a great need for improved economic circumstances. That is not true in wealthy western economies. The idea that numbers are just numbers and a growth number here is equivalent to a growth number there totally misrepresents the two realities.

In short, there is no reason to believe that there needs to be continuous growth once a certain level of material comfort has been achieved. The idea of a little growth economy that functions in a fair way is just fine. Nothing in that idea prevents those who come up with new inventions, or ways of doing things better, or just continuing to do them well and providing a better price, and put reality to those things with hard work and good business acumen from being rewarded. A well functioning market economy that is experiencing no growth at all but in which the fortunes of the various players is rising or falling depending on their relative performance is a very rational idea.

A fair and sensible economy in which one's performance is rewarded just isn't good enough for a really small handful of people who demand the right to be hugely over paid for their efforts... just because they have economic power....and they can. The effect of this greed is to damage the economy for the rest of us.

[TheCatWhisperer]

01:06 PM on 10/09/2010

What about employment and debt? We continually have more people entering the job market and a huge public debt. Is there no need for economic growth to address this?

[Robert Lenzner]

05:27 PM on 10/13/2010

thanks for all this. china is a command economy with very precise 5 year plans, plenty of money and very little debt, 20% of gdp. they will exceed us sooner than later. best wishes, bob lenzner

[getoffmedz]

10:56 AM on 10/09/2010

There is absolutely no justification for the current market peak and may be the tallest deadcat bounce in history.

[mashtoe]

11:08 AM on 10/09/2010

Corporations are making record profits right now. The government is making money so cheap that it's helping corporations profit through non-productive ways.

Really all the Democrats did was inflate a new bubble based on cheap money.

[getoffmedz]

11:12 AM on 10/09/2010

What is it with you far-right revisionist historians? Cheap money has been around a lot longer than the current administration.

But for far-right trolls, history starts with Obama, right?

heckofajob

[Robert Lenzner]

05:41 PM on 10/13/2010

some corporations. the cheap money was necessary to prevent another depression.

[Tackora]

11:39 AM on 10/09/2010

How sad that you are right.

[MIKEBC]

10:10 AM on 10/09/2010

If the dems try to do any financial reform they get obstructed by the "hope america fails GOP party"

[Robert Lenzner]

05:30 PM on 10/13/2010

nah; the reform was undermined by wall street money more than republicans. all best. thanks for contacting me.

[AJoSi]

09:51 AM on 10/09/2010

"The best minds in finance--George Soros, Mohammed El-Erian, Larry Summers, Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Rubin...." I stopped right there. Forbes should concentrate on its strengths and continue their in-depth coverage of the 100 most powerful women on earth etc.

[Robert Lenzner]

05:41 PM on 10/13/2010

we should do both.

[Intolerantcentrist]

09:46 AM on 10/09/2010

Larry Summers wasn’t doing much blasting of the “Lobbying” problem when he was a significant member of the government, a person responsible for formulating our financial environment.

“Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879462053487927.html

“People related to Taconic Capital Advisors LLC:
Kenneth D. Brody - founding partner
Frank P. Brosens - founding partner
Robert E. Rubin - advisory board member
Other current Taconic Capital Advisors LLC relationships:
Managed Funds Association - member
Lawrence H. Summers – consultant”

http://www.muckety.com/Lawrence-H-Summers/969.muckety


“She [Brooksley Born ] proposed to issue a ‘concept paper’ that would raise the question of whether derivatives regulation should be strengthened. Even this step provoked furious opposition, not only from Wall Street but also from the economic heavyweights of the federal government—Greenspan, Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs chair) Robert Rubin, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. At one point, Summers placed a call to Born. As recalled by Michael Greenberger, one of Born’s lieutenants, Summers said, “I have thirteen bankers in my office, and they say if you go forward with this [regulating over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market] you for will cause the worst financial crisis since World War II.”

http://13bankers.com/excerpt/

[halfpricefaustian]

01:47 PM on 10/09/2010

The people in congress understood what she was saying. They just allowed the bankers to convince them that since they hadn't messed everything up ~yet~ that there was no need for regulation. Unfortunately instead of seeing this as an obvious conflict of interest, they took the bankers to be the experts. So they made the decision to let it go until it broke. You can't get much more irresponsible than that.

[Intolerantcentrist]

02:35 PM on 10/09/2010

Congress allowed the banker to convince or induce them; for a fee. Yes and not much has changed in Congress despite changes in majority party rule.

I find it troubling the Summers is getting somewhat of a pass now that he is taking a position at Harvard. Seeming, we are provide him the standing of a person neutral yet skilled in his field, despite the facts to the contrary.

[Robert Lenzner]

05:34 PM on 10/13/2010

thery played to their bias for wall st. and their primitive and dastardly wrong opposition to regulation. they didnt know what they were talking about.

[firstep]

09:35 AM on 10/09/2010

Huh? NWO? I thought that was just a kooky term used by conspiracy theorists? Rubin Soros Summers......and many others should be behind bars

[Robert Lenzner]

05:35 PM on 10/13/2010

why behind bars? no crime committed so far as I know. all best. bob lenzner

[Billy Jack]

09:17 AM on 10/09/2010

I believe there will be another severe economic crash. The recent gains in the stock market are unsustainable since they were not a result of increased production, but rather reductions in personnel.

[LHoney]

10:23 AM on 10/09/2010

That and the fact that every corporation in this country uses "Enron" style bookkeeping. The entire economy at this point is a house of cards.

[Decorina]

01:54 PM on 10/09/2010

Fanned.

Actually I think it was a result of them buying their own stock as well as dumping employees.

[MrDOB]

09:14 AM on 10/09/2010

Ha ha ha putting the crooks in charge. The biggest heist in the history of mankind and they are coming back for more.

[Robert Lenzner]

05:36 PM on 10/13/2010

they always come back for more, but it will be tougher to do., the bill reduces their opportunity and we're all awake now. thanks for writing. bob lenzner

[Passerineblue]

08:48 AM on 10/09/2010

Rubin and Summers are the "best minds in finance"? God help us. The people who got us into this mess are being touted as experts to get us out. How foolish is that?

[Tackora]

09:15 AM on 10/09/2010

They may very well be "smarter" than Al Capone was.

[Robert Lenzner]

05:44 PM on 10/13/2010

well, the FT thought so. And I went to report it. more later. i have not given up my rage at their abuse the system.