Some readings this week-end

- How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? by Paul Krugman (The New York Times)

- G-20 agree to boost banks' capital requirements, set rules on bonuses (Wall Street Journal)
The text of the final G-20 declaration is here.

- The new masters of Wall Street (Forbes). A brash new generation of traders is making a fortune by remaking financial markets. Political furor aside, that’s good for the little guy.
Read the comments: all readers without any exception are against these high-frequency trading practices.

- Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. (Wall Street Journal): Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

- China pushes silver and gold investment to the masses (Mineweb): A report suggests that the Chinese government is pushing the general public into buying gold and silver bullion, which could have a dramatic effect on the markets.

- Worst of slump yet to come (Times online): Ann Pettifor predicted a painful end to the good times. Now she says that only radical action can prevent further gloom.
Ms Pettifor’s long-standing worry over the “financialisation” of the economy that has allowed banks to become the “masters, not the servants” of industry at the expense of genuine entrepreneurial activity. Future lending should be directed towards sustainable home ownership and business activity, rather than speculation.

- Bernanke in denial (2005-2007) (video): Bernanke telling us not to worry about housing, mortgages, or car companies in the years before the recession, like denying a train wreck that is coming down the tracks. Bernanke was chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and now as chairman of the Federal Reserve, he's the fourth most powerful person in the world according to Newsweek.
On a humorous note: this guy was recently reappointed by Obama as chairman of the US Fed...