The article raises more questions than it answers for me, but that's probably because I didn't have a strong grasp to begin with. I was completely blown away by this parenthetical. Regulated like a utility... I know it was an aside, but that's a brilliant idea. The only problem I can think of is the sheer unlikelihood of it becoming law or reality anytime soon. What would be the best way to go about understanding the big picture of commerce and international banking? I'll look up the definitions to most terms, like trade deficits and who benefits from them and when and why, but it seems that commentators use them in different senses and it gets confusing. I started by finding a copy of Yves Smith's eCONned, but where else?(for the record, Naked Capitalism routinely points out that banks get more subsidies than any other industry, including defense contractors, to the point that banks can't properly be viewed as private enterprises. They should be regulated like utilities).
'k. So the "big picture of commerce and international banking" is something I have a perspective on, not something I have an understanding of. As such, I can only point you to what got me to my perspective, while emphasizing that what I know and what's true may only touch in a couple of points. The thing that cracked my head open first was this: The book that filled in some of those cracks was this. The book that polished the understanding was this. You make it through those three, you won't be able to say you understand international banking... but you'll be able to say you understand it better than you did. With bonus Doom'n'Gloom from John Mauldin, who has so far been mostly wrong