The Ship of Fools – in Foucault’s book Madness and Civilisation – set sail from Basel in the 14th Century. Today the European Central Bank is launching its own Ship of Fools with quantitative easing, argues Ian Crowther. Basel is home to a museum of alchemy and micro prudential banking regulation. It was also where […]
Global Debt Soars in the Post Crisis Economy
The McKinsey Global Institute last week released a report highlighting the fact that global debt has increased in the years since the credit crunch. Here Ian Crowther of the Business School at The University of Manchester analyses the findings and what the impact may be. A rather disturbing report was released by McKinsey Global Institute […]
Is QE funding speculative bubbles – and becoming the precursor to long-term government control of money?
The Federal US Central Bank began to taper Quantitative Easing (QE) last Wednesday, signaling the beginning of the end for cheap Government funding – and that economic recovery is underway, writes Ian Crowther. And although the UK and the Bank of England appear to be some way off making such announcements, inflationary pressure is beginning […]
Tinkering around the edges; how policymakers are avoiding the big banking issues
The European Central Bank met this week to begin debating a European-wide bank crisis plan. But if we are to avoid further systemic issues in banking, it is the whole structure that needs to be addressed, argues Ian Crowther. We are in danger of learning nothing from the financial crisis, with bankers, policymakers and regulators […]