Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

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Stockman Rages: Ben Bernanke Is “The Most Dangerous Man Walking This Planet”

2016-07-12

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2016-07-12

Ben Bernanke is one of the most dangerous men walking the planet. In this age of central bank domination of economic life he is surely the pied piper of monetary ruin. At least since 2002 he has been talking about “helicopter money” as if a notion which is pure economic quackery actually had some legitimate basis.

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Why Profitability Matters and Market Forces Are Not Random

2016-07-12

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2016-07-12

The tenets of the Efficient Market Hypothesis and Modern Portfolio Theory. It is widely held that financial asset markets always fully reflect all available and relevant information, and that adjustment to new information is virtually instantaneous.

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Fat People for Trump!

2016-07-11

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2016-07-11

BALTIMORE – One of the delights of being an American is that it is so easy to feel superior to your fellow countrymen. All you have to do is stand up straight and smile. Or if you really need an ego boost, just go to a local supermarket. Better yet, go to a supermarket with a Trump poster in the parking lot.

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Larry Summers Wants to Give You a Free Lunch

2016-07-10

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2016-07-10

Consequences of Central Bank Policies The existing capital stock continues to be frittered away at the expense of savers and retirees. Nonetheless, central bankers don’t give a doggone about it. This, after all, is one consequence of roughly eight years of near zero interest rate policy.

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Going Dutch? Netherlands Joins The 10Y NIRP Club

2016-07-08

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2016-07-08

For the first time in Dutch history, 10Y government bond yields have turned negative (-0.001% intraday) closing at 0.00%... Joining Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and Denmark... Pushing Global NIRP bonds over the $13 trillion!

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European Banks and Europe’s Never-Ending Crisis

2016-07-07

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2016-07-07

Landfall of a “Told You So” Moment… Late last year and early this year, we wrote extensively about the problems we thought were coming down the pike for European banks. Very little attention was paid to the topic at the time, but we felt it was a typical example of a “gray swan” – a problem everybody knows about on some level, but naively thinks won’t erupt if only it is studiously ignored.

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Yahoo Finance Editor “We’re Suffering Of Too Much Democracy”

2016-07-06

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2016-07-06

Following James Traub's mind-numbingly-elitist rebuttal of the democratic rights of "we, the people" in favor of allowing "they, the elite" to ensure the average joe doesn't run with scissors, "It's time for the elites to rise up against the ignorant masses."

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Planet Debt

2016-07-05

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2016-07-05

She is a low-interest-rate person. She has always been a low-interest-rate person. And I must be honest. I am a low-interest-rate person. If we raise interest rates, and if the dollar starts getting too strong, we’re going to have some very major problems.

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Housing Affordability – A Dose of Reality

2016-07-05

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2016-07-05

First, a few quick words on Brexit. Being the always positive and optimistic person that I am (big grin), I see one very positive outcome of Brexit – it is a revolution without bloodshed. For once, I’m not digressing. Brexit has a lot of parallels with housing affordability in the US.

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Mooning the Elite

2016-07-02

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2016-07-02

Dow up 269 points. Was that all there was? Is the “Brexit” scare over? We don’t know… but we’re going to take a pause today. Instead of trying to connect the new dots, we’re going to take a look at the old dots we’ve already strung together

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Money confuses and blurs economic relations

2016-06-30

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2016-06-30

Money, generally accepted medium of exchange, acts as a veil that confuse and blurs economic relations. This is especially true when it comes to intertemporal considerations. Whilst probably the most important institution in a free market, money can be highly destructive when politicized.

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The Coming End of the “Third Way” System

2016-06-30

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2016-06-30

We recently discussed the post-Brexit landscape with a friend (in fact, our editor), who bemoaned that “the EU is led by a drunkard”. Our immediate reaction to this was to exclaim: “That’s the best thing about the EU!”

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BofA: To Save Markets Central Banks Just Made Inequality And Populism Even Worse

2016-06-29

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2016-06-29

There is a large dose of irony to the post-Brexit market response: while on one hand stocks have soared and as of today the S&P500 has already recouped more than half its post-Brexit losses (the SPX sank 5.7% peak-to-trough since the referendum and has since bounced 3.5%) an even sharper reaction has been observed in bonds.

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There Is Now A Staggering $11.7 Trillion In Negative Yielding Debt

2016-06-29

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2016-06-29

It was not even a month ago when we last looked at the total amount of negative yielding debt around the globe, and were shocked to find that according to Fitch, for the first time in history (obviously), there was over $10 trillion in negative yielding debt. Fast forward 4 weeks later, and the grand total is now $1.3 trillion higher, or $11.7 trillion.

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Vive la Revolution! Brexit and a Dying Order

2016-06-28

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2016-06-28

A Dying Order Last Thursday, the Brits said auf Wiedersehen and au revoir to the European Union. On Friday, the Dow sold off 611 points – a roughly 3.5% slump. What’s going on?

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South China Sea: Storm in an Indian Ocean Teacup

2016-06-27

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2016-06-27

With global attention focused on BREXIT calamity, potentially more important questions are being overlooked, and especially in the South China Sea where storms are currently brewing between China and a range of littoral states for strategic control of territorial waters.

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Towards Freedom: Will The UK Write History?

2016-06-22

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2016-06-22

Every freedom loving person on the planet has their eyes fixed on this referendum. A clear majority voting for Brexit and therefore for more decentralization, would show that the British realized they can break free from their self-imposed nonage, and reclaim individual liberty.

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The Fed Doomsday Device

2016-06-21

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2016-06-21

Debt is just the flip side of credit. As debt goes bad, credit disappears. And then the system that created so much credit-money will go into reverse, destroying the nation’s money supply. The money supply (actually, the supply of ready credit) will shrink – suddenly and dramatically. And what should have been a minor, routine pullback in the economy will become a catastrophic panic.

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China the lender of last resort for many oil producers

2016-06-21

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2016-06-21

Bawerk explains how China will be the lender of last resort of many oil producers. China might let collapse a smaller producer and become much smarter at covering its political bases across producer states to protect longer term sunk costs.

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Money Supply Arguments Are Flawed

It goes without question, among economists of the central planning mindset, that if a central bank can just set the right quantity of dollars, then the price level, GDP, unemployment, and everything else will be right at the Goldilocks Optimum. One such approach that has become popular in recent years is nominal GDP targeting.

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