OECD – the absurdity club

I got a bit intrigued by OECD’s latest “revelations” and the absurdity of it so I took a closer look at this Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel figure and lord and behold; I found a small little article from The Observer with an interview and collected some good pieces from this OECD Chief Economist. If one didn’t know who this guy is, you might think it is Barack Obama or some social democrat speaking.


It is likely that recovery will be slower than in recent economic downturns, but the actual pace of recovery will depend largely on how quickly financial markets resume transactions and lending, even if that lending remains relatively restricted, at least compared with 2002-2007

Aha, so borrowing more money and spending them is the answer to this crisis? Together with more restrictions? I wonder what got us into this mess in the first place… And the American lending spree was "free" without restrictions and no government involvement? You can almost see this guy reading Kafka and Marx alone under a dim light rubbing his hands together.


Of course, this is the worst financial crisis in decades, but a repeat of the 1930s Great Depression is highly unlikely, thanks in large part to those massive rescue plans now in place.

Hum… I wonder what they did back in the 20’s and 30’s? oh, that’s right, they had several massive rescue plans.
President Hoover set up National Credit Corporation (NCC). This government agency aimed to induce banks to pool $500 million to help save failing financial institutions. That followed by Finance Corporation (RFC) which had the War Finance Corporation (WFC), a government bailout fund set up to allow the government to shore up banks and other financial interests during the First World War, as guiding star. Anything of this that sounds familiar?


Yet the precise timing and intensity of future recessions are impossible to predict. In this particular case, neither economists nor market participants, nor indeed governments foresaw a financial crisis of the type and magnitude we have now.

Then how come so many, myself included, did see this coming several years ago? There are those who have predicted this month per month. This a-hole is lying!



Many countries lacked comprehensive and unified regulation of financial conglomerates and their market instruments, while capital regulation and accounting rules exacerbated pro-cyclical bank leveraging and lending. (…)We require better regulation, not just more regulation.

In short, countries wasn’t socialistic enough and we should have a new Comintern vis-à-vis Stalin

This is the guy who is going to save us all and present his suggestion to the g20 meeting with all the thieves and robbers assembled? Holy Polar Bears! I want to be at that meeting. It’s going to be fantastically funny!