Category Archive: 6b.) Debt and the Fallacies of Paper Money

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Is the Stock Market Overvalued?

2016-04-20

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2016-04-20

  Dismal Earnings, Extreme Valuations The current earnings season hasn’t been very good so far. Companies continue to “beat expectations” of course, but this is just a silly game. The stock market’s valuation is already between the highest and third ...

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Fighting Recessions with Hot Air

2016-04-20

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2016-04-20

   “Prepping” for Recession GUALFIN, Argentina – Stocks are going up all over the world. Meanwhile, it appears to us that the U.S. economy is going down. Go figure. For instance, a labor-market index created by Fed economists… and closely watched by ...

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A Morally Sound Tax Reform Proposal

2016-04-19

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2016-04-19

  The Oppressed U.S. Taxpayer This year, Americans’ day of tribute to their federal overlords falls on April 18.  As calculated by the Tax Foundation, the average American will work from January 1 to April 24 (Tax Freedom Day) to pay his share of tax...

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US Economy – Ongoing Distortions

2016-04-18

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2016-04-18

  Business under Pressure A recent post by Mish points to the fact that many of the business-related data that have been released in recent months continue to point to growing weakness in many parts of the business sector. We show a few charts illust...

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11 on the Nutty Scale – Banks are Paying Interest to Mortgage Borrowers

2016-04-18

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2016-04-18

  Wicked Don Giovanni GUALFIN, Argentina – Tuesday evening, we went to the main opera house in Buenos Aires, the Teatro Colón, to see Mozart’s Don Giovanni. On our way over, our taxi driver told us that Luciano Pavarotti rated it as the second best o...

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Double Whammy Economics

2016-04-16

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2016-04-16

What’s up with U.S. consumers? They seem to have come to their senses at the worst possible time. They can no longer be counted on to push economic growth up and to the right. Specifically, they’re not spending money on stuff.A little public service on etymology: “Double whammy” was reportedly first used in a 1941 Oakland Tribune article related to boxing. It means a devastating blow, setback or catastrophe. In today’s economy, it often means...

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Why All Central Planning Is Doomed to Fail

2016-04-15

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2016-04-15

We’re still thinking about how so many smart people came to believe things that aren’t true. Krugman, Stiglitz, Friedman, Summers, Bernanke, Yellen – all seem to have a simpleton’s view of how the world works.

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China – A Reversal of Urbanization?

2016-04-13

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2016-04-13

  Economic and Demographic Changes We have discussed China’s debt and malinvestment problems in these pages extensively in the past (most recently we have looked at various efforts to keep the yuan propped up). In a way, China is like the proverbial ...

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Argentina – The Times, They Are A-Changing

2016-04-13

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2016-04-13

  Our Argentine “Ranch Rebellion” Is Over… for Now… BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Not much action on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow sold off slightly. Gold and oil were up a bit. How about here in Argentina? “Everything has changed. Everything.”   Mauric...

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State of Fear – Corruption in High Places

2016-04-13

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2016-04-13

  Mr. X and his Mysterious Benefactors As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports, a money-laundering alarm was triggered at AmBank in Malaysia, a bank part-owned by one of Australia’s “big four” banks, ANZ. What had triggered the alarm...

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In Memoriam: Dr. Tibor Machan

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

  A Rara Avis – The World Is Poorer Without Him In It Our friend Dr. Tibor Machan, a greatly valued contributor to this site, has passed away on March 24.   Dr. Tibor Machan, libertarian philosopher   Unfortunately, we haven’t known Tibor for very lo...

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A Fatal Flaw in the System

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

  The Hard Rocks of Real Life BALTIMORE – The Dow dropped 174 points on Thursday, the biggest fall in six weeks. Not the end of the world. Maybe not even the end of this year’s bounce-back bull run. As you’ll recall, stocks sold off at the beginning ...

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Bill Bonner

2016-04-07

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Bill Bonner is a business professor at the University of Regina. He has done extensive research on P3 projects. Video created by Laura Beamish.

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Frisky Yen Upsets Japan’s GOSPLAN

2016-04-06

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2016-04-06

  It Wasn’t Supposed to Do That… When you’re a central banker in a pure fiat money system and even your ability to print your own currency into oblivion is questioned by the markets, you really have a problem. This is actually funny on quite a number...

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Going Into Debt to Invest Into Debt…

2016-04-06

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2016-04-06

  Bankers Hate It When You Hold Cash In an extraordinary turn of events, last week we were contacted by our local bankers. Since we were turned down for a mortgage in 1982 (our business finances were thought to be “too shaky”), we have had little tru...

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Rotten to the Core

2016-04-06

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2016-04-06

  Poison Money BALTIMORE – We live in a world of sin and sorrow, infected by a fraudulent democracy, Facebook, and a corrupt money system. Wheezing, weak, and weary from the exertion of trying to appear “normal,” the economy staggers on.   Staggering...

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A Tribute to the Jackass Money System

2016-04-04

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2016-04-04

  A Witless Tool of the Deep State? Finance or politics? We don’t know which is jollier. The Republican presidential primary and Fed monetary policies seem to compete for headlines. Which can be most absurd? Which can be most outrageous? Which can ge...

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The Other Problem with Debt No One is Talking About

2016-04-01

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2016-04-01

  Faux Growth Recovery Nearly 7 years have elapsed since the official end of the Great Recession.  By now it’s painfully obvious the rising tide of economic recovery has failed to lift all boats.  In fact, many boats bottomed out on the rocks in earl...

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Federal Devolution

2016-04-01

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2016-04-01

  Leaning Into the Wind BALTIMORE – During our lifetime, three Fed chiefs have faced a similar challenge. Each occupied the chairman’s seat at a time when “normalization” of interest rates was in order.   Recently, we remembered William McChesney Mar...

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Are We Becoming a Nation of Silver-Haired Crooks?

2016-03-30

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2016-03-30

  A Salutary Effect BALTIMORE – “Ike and Dick Sure to Click” was an exciting election slogan. Their Democratic opponents, Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver, had their snazzy campaign jingle, too: “Adlai and Estes… They’re the Bestes.” Surely, the me...

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