|
Latest Articles: Economy
Fake Conservatives As Dangerous To Freedom As Obama
Post Date: 2012-04-18 19:14:22 by SJN
35 Comments
If Americans are looking for anything in the dark clouds of political dust and powdered ash that choke our air and leave us feeling naked against the elements, it is but a simple moment of sincerity. It sounds like an easily attainable thing, and yet, we continue to gasp and clamor. The visible surface of our nation is so devoid of honest connection with our social voice that we have turned to a cynical form of loneliness. We have embraced a life without clarity, and been made wretchedly bitter, desperate for even the faintest taste of truth. The false two party paradigm that drives America gives us a measure of sustenance. Just enough to keep us from going completely mad, but not enough ...
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Post Date: 2012-04-18 15:28:19 by Anthem
0 Comments
Just another week in the world of regulation:77 new final rules were published last week, the same number as the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 11 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 1,030 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,625 new rules.1,475 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register last week, for a total of 22,426 pages. At this pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 77,243 pages.Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 17 such rules published so far ...
From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: An Interview with Thomas Palley
Post Date: 2012-04-18 10:54:09 by lucysmom
37 Comments
Philip Pilkington: At the beginning of your book From Financial Crisis to Stagnation you refer to the 2008 crisis as a ‘crisis of bad ideas’. Could you please briefly explain why you refer to the crisis in this way? Thomas Palley: A central and critical element of my book is its emphasis on the role of economic ideas in generating the crisis. This feature fundamentally distinguishes it from mainstream explanations that tend to represent the crisis in terms of surprise events and economic shocks (e.g. black swans). My book starts with the fundamental idea that economies are made, not found. The way economies are organized and function is significantly the product of social ...
Visibly Annoyed Obama Gets Lecture From Female President of Brazil (economics)
Post Date: 2012-04-14 23:22:40 by Hondo68
0 Comments
An annoyed looking President Obama listened as President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil lectured him about the monetary polices of the US.
Poster Comment:The sexist swine doesn't like being told by a woman that communism is evil. She's a very bright lady, too bad it's all more than O'bungler can comprehend. Marxists just don't get economics, if they did they wouldn't be Marxists. He looks like he's considering a drone strike, unless she fixes him lunch.
Sovereign Debt, Gold and Okun's Law
Post Date: 2012-04-14 15:37:44 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
Is gold's run over? Let's look at some facts. The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion. That's roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September, 2011. Among advanced economies, only Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal have debts larger than their economies. The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011. The debt ceiling stands at nearly $16.4 trillion. Some predict the U.S. will run out of money by September 2012. ...
Bernanke, The Professor Who Did NOT Save the World
Post Date: 2012-04-11 14:19:22 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
"The Fed's efforts prevented a 'total meltdown' of the financial system at a time when fears of a second Great Depression were 'very real,' Mr. Bernanke said Tuesday at the third of his four lectures at George Washington University in Washington." - Wall Street Journal, "'Fed Prevented Total Meltdown,' Bernanke Said," March 28, 2012. This is not true. Each of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's four lectures at George Washington University was unfortunate in its own way. In his third assault on history, logic, and common sense, "The Federal Reserve's Response to the Financial Crisis," Simple Ben made it clear he ...
The Fed's Currency Swap Covert Bailout of the Eurozone
Post Date: 2012-04-11 14:17:38 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
On Tuesday, March 26, 2012, I was invited by Ron Paul and his staff to assist a meeting of the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services. The title of the hearing was "Federal Reserve Aid to the Eurozone: Its Impact on the U.S. and the Dollar." Unfortunately, Ben Bernanke had not come to the hearing, being busy with propaganda lectures in favor of the Fed. Instead, two of his colleagues, Mr. William C. Dudley (president and chief executive officer, Federal Reserve Bank of New York) and Dr. Steven B. Kamin (director, Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System), showed up to answer the ...
Wall Street sinks, S&P below support level (Stock Market Crash; Greatest Depression - Ever)
Post Date: 2012-04-10 16:36:32 by Hondo68
2 Comments
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell in a broad and steep decline on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 dropping for a fifth day to break under a key support level. The industrial and materials sectors represented the stocks suffering the biggest drops. More than four-fifths of the stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange slid, while about 80 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares declined.The three major U.S. stock indexes fell more than 1 percent in midday trading, with the S&P 500 sliding below its 50-day moving average of 1,372.30. That area is viewed as the support level that will make or break the current uptrend as Wall Street enters the first-quarter earnings season."Dropping below ...
Digital Cash from Canada
Post Date: 2012-04-07 14:09:15 by jwpegler
0 Comments
The Royal Canadian Mint has invented a new, digital currency called MintChip intended to be an alternative to using debit and credit cards. MintChip is modeled somewhat on Bitcoin, a digital currency invented by an unknown programmer that looked like it might succeed last year before falling prey to a serious of security and regulatory problems. The promo video for MintChip promises that transactions as small as $0.01 will be possible, something not feasible with credit cards due to the fees on each transaction. A competition is underway that will reward programmers with the best demonstration uses for MintChip. MintChips are exchanged as digital files that can be verified by software ...
Don't Catch Economic Recovery Fever
Post Date: 2012-04-05 19:52:04 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
Gold has been holding steady in the the $1,600-$1,800 band since early October. This could be attributed to consolidation after last summer's historic run up to $1,895, but I think this wait-and-see attitude reflects current market sentiment toward the US dollar. In fact, the first few days of April have seen a sharp dollar rally and decline in gold. This is rooted in deflated expectations of a third round of Quantitative Easing (QE3) after the most recent Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Once again, the markets are responding to the headlines while losing sight of the fundamentals. This is especially peculiar because the Fed did not explicitly take QE3 off the table. In ...
NIALL FERGUSON: This Is The Study That Shows Why The US Economy Is Doomed
Post Date: 2012-04-05 17:08:02 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
A Harvard Business School study that Niall Ferguson pointed us to today shows the U.S. has fallen severely behind in terms of international competitiveness. The study, from January, found that for Harvard alums personally involved in a company relocation decision, 57 percent said the decision "involved the possibility of moving existing activities out of the U.S." Meanwhile, only 9 percent considered moving existing activities from another country into the U.S. "A U.S.-based respondent was three times as likely to be considering moving business activity out of the U.S. than a non-U.S. respondent was likely to be considering moving an activity into the U.S," writes ...
Why the Fed Will Be Powerless to Stop The Real Crash
Post Date: 2012-04-03 16:37:13 by Capitalist Eric
6 Comments
Over the last two years, I’ve been caught into believing a Crash was coming several times. In some ways I was right: we got sizable corrections of 15+%. But we never got the REAL CRASH I thought we would because the Fed stepped in. So what makes this time different? Several items:1) The Crisis coming from Europe will be far, far larger in scope than anything the Fed has dealt with before.2) The Fed is now politically toxic and cannot engage in aggressive monetary policy without experiencing severe political backlash (this is an election year).3) The Fed’s resources are spent to the point that the only thing the Fed could do would be to announce an ENORMOUS monetary program which ...
'Massive Wealth Destruction' Is About to Hit Investors: Faber
Post Date: 2012-04-03 14:45:30 by Capitalist Eric
7 Comments
Runaway government debts have triggered uncontrolled money printing that in turn will lead to inflation that will decimate portfolios, according to the latest forecast from "Dr. Doom" Marc Faber. Axel Griesch | ASFM | Getty Images Dr. Marc Faber Investors, particularly those in the "well-to-do" category, could lose about half their total wealth in the next few years as the consequences pile up from global government debt problems, Faber, the author of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report, said on CNBC. Efforts to stem the debt problems have seen the Federal Reserve expand its balance sheet to nearly $3 trillion and other central banks implement aggressive liquidity ...
The Illusion of an Economic Recovery: The Backlash of Higher Gasoline Prices…
Post Date: 2012-04-01 13:15:46 by Hondo68
0 Comments
The housing recovery seems to have been a temporary affair. Preliminary data frames March as weak as last October. It looks like lower interest rates boasted sales. Those rates are up from 4.72% to 5.02%. Worse yet, Operation Twist is over. That is where the Fed sold the short end of the bond market and bought notes and bonds of 5, 7, 10 and 30 years. Even though the BIS, The Bank for International Settlements, said the program was a resounding success, it was not. American friends knew the Fed was a buyer, so they proceeded in selling long dated paper destroying what the Fed policy was trying to accomplish. Now we expect QE 3, which we have expected for sometime. Lest we not forget the ...
Warren Buffett: Why stocks beat gold and bonds
Post Date: 2012-03-27 11:12:16 by lucysmom
0 Comments
snip The second major category of investments involves assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer's hope that someone else -- who also knows that the assets will be forever unproductive -- will pay more for them in the future. Tulips, of all things, briefly became a favorite of such buyers in the 17th century. This type of investment requires an expanding pool of buyers, who, in turn, are enticed because they believe the buying pool will expand still further. Owners are not inspired by what the asset itself can produce -- it will remain lifeless forever -- but rather by the belief that others will desire it even more avidly in the future. The major ...
World Bank Nominee Kim Under Fire for “Dying for Growth” Book
Post Date: 2012-03-26 23:22:34 by lucysmom
6 Comments
The US nominee to lead the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has come under attack for editing a book called “Dying for Growth.” It apparently performs the cardinal sins of questioning whether a relentless pursuit of growth produces necessarily produces good outcomes and taking issue with neoliberalism. From the Financial Times: Some economists are arguing that Dying for Growth, jointly edited by Dr Kim and published in 2000, puts too great a focus on health policy over broader economic growth. “Dr Kim would be the first World Bank president ever who seems to be anti-growth,” said William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University. “Even the severest of World ...
Dead Man Walking Economy
Post Date: 2012-03-23 22:14:52 by Capitalist Eric
5 Comments
In an interview with Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery. [Skype rings: It's Doug Casey, calling from Cafayate, Argentina. He sounds tired, but pleased with himself.] Doug: Lobo, get out your mower; it's time to cut down some green shoots again, and debunk a bit of the so-called recovery. Louis: Ah. I have to say, Doug, the so-called recovery is looking more than "so-called" to a lot of smart folks. Even our own Terry Coxon says the recovery is real, albeit weak. Doug: Terry's probably looking at it by the numbers, some of which are reported to be improving. But let's come back to the numbers later ...
Job fair held for illegal aliens in Va. town (Unemployed Americans increase)
Post Date: 2012-03-22 13:08:21 by Hondo68
2 Comments
Harrisonburg, VA - On Tuesday, a group known as Our Community Place held a job fair for those who may have more trouble than others finding work, including illegal aliens. Where is their job fair? Credit: Getty Images The event billed on the group’s website catered to those experiencing “Challenges with addiction, transportation, no training, health, education, no ID, immigration issues, etc?” And, was “free to anyone in the world and provides refreshments and lunch.” Despite the fact that it is illegal for them to work in this country, Our Community Place volunteer Sigi Chabrier helps illegal aliens find jobs. Chabrier told WSHV: “These people are here living ...
Ben Bernanke Tries To Convince America That The Federal Reserve Is Good And The Gold Standard Is Bad
Post Date: 2012-03-21 11:54:55 by Hondo68
2 Comments
Ben Bernanke has decided that he needs to teach all of us why the Federal Reserve is good for America and about why the gold standard is bad. On Tuesday, Bernanke delivered the first of four planned lectures to a group of students at George Washington University. But that lecture was not just for the benefit of those students. Officials at the Fed have long planned for this lecture series to be an opportunity for Bernanke to "educate" the American people about the Federal Reserve. The classroom was absolutely packed with reporters and just about every major news organization is running a story about this first lecture. So the Federal Reserve is definitely getting the publicity ...
As Chuck E. Cheese Goes So Goes America (Brawls)
Post Date: 2012-03-16 11:45:24 by Hondo68
4 Comments
Why are wild brawls breaking out at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants all over the United States? Sadly, the epidemic of Chuck E. Cheese fights that we have seen in recent months is just another symptom of what is happening to America on a larger scale. The truth is that the fabric of our society is slowly but surely coming apart, and the rest of the world is laughing at us. But it is really sad to see Chuck E. Cheese become known more for brawls than for entertainment. When I was a kid, I loved to go to Chuck E. Cheese. The combination of pizza, arcade games and animatronic music shows was irresistible. But if you go to Chuck E. Cheese today, there is a chance that you might get taken out of ...
CBS Report: Real Inflation = 8%
Post Date: 2012-03-01 13:05:50 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government's widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research. The not-for-profit research group measures inflation without looking at the big, one-time purchases that can skew the numbers. That means they don't look at the price of houses, furniture, appliances, cars, or computers. Instead, AIER focuses on Americans' typical daily purchases, such as food, gasoline, child care, prescription drugs, phone and television service, and other household products. The institute contends that to get a good read on ...
Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red States Are the Parasites
Post Date: 2012-02-29 11:41:03 by lucysmom
12 Comments
Last week, the New York Times published a widely discussed article updating an argument that progressive bloggers noticed a very long time ago. It's now well-understood that blue states generally export money to the federal government; and red states generally import it. Progressives believe in the redistribution of wealth, so we're not usually too upset by this state of affairs. That’s what it means to be one country. E pluribus unum, and all that. We’re happy to help, because we think we’ve got a stake in making sure kids in rural Alabama get educations and seniors in Arizona get healthcare. What’s good for them is good for all of us. We also like to think ...
The U.S. Fantasy Economy Is Coming to an End [Consumer "Sentiment" = Mass Delusion]
Post Date: 2012-02-28 21:46:20 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
U.S. Economy Extend and Pretend is Coming To An End The real world revolves around cash flow. Families across the land understand this basic concept. Cash flows in from wages, investments and these days from the government. Cash flows out for food, gasoline, utilities, cable, cell phones, real estate taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, clothing, mortgage payments, car payments, insurance payments, medical bills, auto repairs, home repairs, appliances, electronic gadgets, education, alcohol (necessary in this economy) and a countless other everyday expenses. If the outflow exceeds the inflow a family may be able to fund the deficit with credit cards for awhile, but ultimately running a ...
George Osborne: UK has run out of money [Natural Result of Socialism]
Post Date: 2012-02-27 17:12:49 by Capitalist Eric
1 Comments
Mr Osborne is under severe pressure to boost growth, amid signs the economy is slipping back into a recession. In a stark warning ahead of next month’s Budget, the Chancellor said there was little the Coalition could do to stimulate the economy. Mr Osborne made it clear that due to the parlous state of the public finances the best hope for economic growth was to encourage businesses to flourish and hire more workers. “The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years,” the Chancellor said. “The money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.” POLL RESULTS: What should George Osborne do to ...
Financial Markets 2012: Bombs... er Government Bonds, Fiat Currencies and Gold [GLOBAL ECONOMY COLLAPSE CONTINUES]
Post Date: 2012-02-27 17:03:50 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
The UNFOLDING destruction of the developed world's economies and financial/currency systems continues apace. Public servants are trying to defy Mother Nature with the stroke of a pen; she will not yield to this. Radical Marxist POLITICAL solutions to practical problems are at the end of their collective ropes (double entendre intended). You CANNOT store wealth in paper, PERIOD. Those who do will get what they deserve: NOTHING. It has been and will be printed endlessly from this point forward as Socialist government policies have destroyed wealth creation and substituted Ponzi asset-backed economies in their place. Now those economic models have reached their COLLECTIVE endpoints. ...
Latest [Newer] 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [Older]
|
