The Greased Pig

I came across an interesting speech by Simon Johnson at INET. Simon Johnson was the former IMF chief economist and is now professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is an outspoken critic of government regulators cozying up with financial institutions, particularly in the United States. In this speech he highlights the crazy situation we now have with "Too Big To Fail". Will anything get done about this? Have we learnt and will we be able to avoid the next slide into misery?

I sincerely doubt it. In a very interview on Bloomberg former FCIC chairman Phil Angelides compared Wall Street to a greased pig that is hard to catch. Besides this very telling comparison, his most interesting observation was that the US now has a dual justice system: "One for ordinary people and then one for people with money and enormous wealth and power."

Video of Simon Johnson's speech further below.

Corruption Worldwide Inc.

When living in the Philippines you always hear about rampant corruption in all corners of the government. Well, despair not, it seems its really the norm all over the globe. In a nice article from Matt Taibbi (of the Vampire Squid fame - highly recommended!) it seems that the US has its fair share of grafters too. Be sure to check out his article The Real Housewives of Wall Street in the Rolling Stone.