Juggling Dynamite

Anat Admati exposes the flaws in the banking system that could trigger another financial collapse, and lays out a plan to fix it in her new book “The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It.” Admati is the George G.C. Parker professor of finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She co-wrote the book with Martin Hellwig, an economics professor in Bonn, Germany. Here is a direct video link.

Also see more on Admati’s refreshing new Stanford course where she seeks to enlighten her students on the real world impacts of finance:  Beyond the basics:  finance and society elective teaches students to think about broader implications.

The Globe’s Report on Business section this Saturday was a cautionary feature extravaganza on Canada’s debt binge.  Some excellent articles and charts (see the info graphic summary here).

It is not a pretty picture, but facts must be faced and risks managed.  Sticking heads in the sand will not help.  Years of low rates have fueled reckless lending and borrowing and set Canada up for a doozie of a mean reversion cycle.  The exodus and closure of Canadian retailers (today Canada’s largest and most over-built sector) is only started.  This warns of more layoffs and empty commercial space.  It also underlines the financial fragility in Canadian families as well as the debt/risk-selling Canadian finance sector (see: A plague of financials), and the taxpayer-backed Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Times are a changing as debt revulsion spreads.  The adjustment periods are painful, but speaking publicly and admitting the debt mistakes people have made are critical parts of the healing process.  If we must make financial mistakes, earlier is better than later of course, when people have less time to recover.  Everyone can make better choices by learning from the stories of others.  Time for honest discussions.

‘It’s dream crushing’: law student on being $150,000 in debt. Here is a direct video link.

How one young family is digging out of debt.  Here is a direct video link.

Bankrupt at 19: How one man climbed out of debt and started a new life. Here is a direct video link.

This film focuses on Wal-mart, but the themes extend to multinational conglomerates generally and help to explain why local spending has increasingly been funneled out of local communities and into offshore jobs and shareholders.  We have all been part of creating current deficits, and we can all be part of the solution.  If we want to reverse these trends and rebuild financial strength, we must consciously direct our own spending in ways that stays and recycles through our own communities and economy.

The film exposes Wal-Mart’s unscrupulous business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Wal-mart executives. Here is a direct video link.