Tag Archive: On Economy

India: Why its Attempt to Go Digital Will Fail

2017-05-25

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2017-05-25

Modi Hero of Hatred
Over the three years in which Narendra Modi has been in power, his support base has continued to increase. Indian institutions — including the courts and the media — now toe his line. The President, otherwise a ceremonial rubber-stamp post, but the last obstacle keeping Modi from implementing a police state, comes up for re-election by a vote of the legislative houses in July 2017.

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Emerging Markets: Buyer Beware – An Interview with Jayant Bhandari

2017-05-07

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2017-05-07

Jayant Bandari
Maurice Jackson of Proven & Probable has once again interviewed one of our friends, namely Jayant Bhandari, a frequent and highly valued contributor to Acting Man. Jayant is probably best known to our readers for his strong criticism of the economic and nationalist policies implemented by prime minister Narendra Modi in India since he decreed the demonetization of the bulk of the cash currency circulating in the country (see his most recent article...

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Cracks in Ponzi-Finance Land

2017-04-27

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2017-04-27

Retail Junk Debt, April 2017
Retail Debt Debacles The retail sector has replaced the oil sector in a sense, and not in a good way. It is the sector that is most likely to see a large surge in bankruptcies this year. Junk bonds issued by retailers are performing dismally, and within the group the bonds of companies that were subject to leveraged buyouts by private equity firms seem to be doing the worst (a function of their outsized debt loads).

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French Selection Ritual, Round Two

2017-04-26

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2017-04-26

Marantonacron Still Life
The nightmare of nightmares of the globalist elites and France’s political establishment has been avoided: as the polls had indicated, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are moving on to the run-off election; Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s late surge in popularity did not suffice to make him a contender – it did however push the established Socialist Party deeper into the dustbin of history.

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Central Banks Have a $13 Trillion Problem

2017-04-24

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2017-04-24

Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, September 2016 - May 2017
GUALFIN, ARGENTINA – The Dow was down 118 points on Wednesday. It should have been down a lot more. Of course, markets know more than we do. And maybe this market knows something that makes sense of these high prices. What we see are reasons to sell, not reasons to buy.

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Simple Math of Bank Horse-Puckey

2017-04-23

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2017-04-23

Sky from Mt. Wilson
We stepped out on our front stoop Wednesday morning and paused to take it all in. The sky was at its darkest hour just before dawn. The air was crisp. There was a soft coastal fog. The faint light of several stars that likely burned out millennia ago danced just above the glow of the street lights.

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India – Is Kashmir Gone?

2017-04-21

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2017-04-21

Odisha Story
Everything Gets Worse (Part XII) – Pakistan vs. India After 70 years of so-called independence, one has to be a professional victim not to look within oneself for the reasons for starvation, unnatural deaths, utter backwardness, drudgery, disease, and misery in India.

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Hell To Pay

2017-04-18

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2017-04-18

Yellen Cartoon
Economic nonsense comes a dime a dozen. For example, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen “think(s) we have a healthy economy now.” She even told the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy so earlier this week. Does she know what she’s talking about?

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The Cost of a Trump Presidency

2017-04-13

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2017-04-13

Syrian Bombing
Last Thursday’s wanton attack on a Syrian air field by the US and its bellicose actions toward North Korea have brought the real cost of candidate Trump’s landslide victory last November to the forefront. Unlike most laymen, accountants, and financial analysts, economists look at cost differently.

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The American Empire and Economic Collapse

2017-04-05

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2017-04-05

American Empire
Despite widespread optimism among libertarians, classical liberals, non-interventionists, progressive peaceniks and everybody else opposed to the US Empire that some of its murderous reins may finally be pulled in with the election of Donald Trump, it appears that these hopes have now been dashed.

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Price Inflation – The Ultimate Contrarian Bet

2017-03-29

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2017-03-29

Egg in Berlin, early 1923
If there is one thing apparently no-one believes to be possible, it is a resurgence of consumer price inflation. Actually, we are not expecting it to happen either. If one compares various “inflation” data published by the government, it seems clear that the recent surge in headline inflation was largely an effect of the rally in oil prices from their early 2016 low.

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India: The next Pakistan?

2017-03-29

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2017-03-29

The Modimobile is making the rounds amid a flower shower. [PT] Photo credit: PTI Photo
India’s Rapid Degradation. This is Part XI of a series of articles (the most recent of which is linked here) in which I have provided regular updates on what started as the demonetization of 86% of India’s currency. The story of demonetization and the ensuing developments were merely a vehicle for me to explore Indian institutions, culture and society.

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March to Default

2017-03-25

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2017-03-25

“May you live in interesting times,” says the ancient Chinese curse. No doubt about it, we live in interesting times. Hardly a day goes by that we’re not aghast and astounded by a series of grotesque caricatures of the world as at devolves towards vulgarity. Just this week, for instance, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters tweeted, “Get ready for impeachment.”

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“People Need to Understand that their Biggest Asset is Individual Liberty” – an Interview with Claudio Grass

2017-03-21

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2017-03-21

As election season is upon us in Europe and political and economic tensions are heating up, Claudio Grass notes that “the euro is the most artificial currency in history”, highlighting one of the most fundamental problems at the heart of the EU’s troubles. It is undeniable that public awareness is growing, and so is active opposition to ever greater centralization of political power.

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The Long Run Economics of Debt Based Stimulus

2017-03-18

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2017-03-18

Miracle
Something both unwanted and unexpected has tormented western economies in the 21st century. Gross domestic product (GDP) has moderated onward while government debt has spiked upward. Orthodox economists continue to be flummoxed by what has transpired.

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The Big Myth

2017-02-27

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2017-02-27

Dodd Frank and All Other Laws 2009 - 2015
Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote an article, The Myth of Banking Deregulation, to debunk a lie. The lie is that bank regulation is good. That it helped stabilize the economy in the 1930’s. And that deregulation at the end of the century destabilized the economy and caused the crisis of 2008.

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Farewell, Welfare State

2017-02-25

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2017-02-25

Otto von Bismarck
The tweet was never sent and never received: “Lying Otto von Bismarck set us up for bankruptcy! What was he thinking? Sad!!” Instead, Mr. Trump said last weekend that, far from trying to curb the promises and cut the costs of the welfare state, he was nearly ready to unveil a plan to replace Obamacare with something better: a plan that would provide “insurance for everybody.”

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Is an Inflation Comeback in the Works?

2017-02-24

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2017-02-24

win
LOVINGSTON, VIRGINIA – Amid all the sound and fury of the Trump news cycle, hardly anyone noticed. There is a specter haunting this economy. It is the specter of inflation…

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When Trumponomics Meets Abenomics

2017-02-11

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2017-02-11

Trump and Abe
What will President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talk about when they meet later today? Will they gab about what fishing holes the big belly bass are biting at? Will they share insider secrets on what watering holes are serving up the stiffest drinks? [ed. note: when we edited this article for Acting Man, the meeting was already underway]

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Incrementum Advisory Board Meeting, Q1 2017 and Some Additional Reflections

2017-02-09

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2017-02-09

Yuan Onshore Weekly
The quarterly meeting of the Incrementum Advisory Board was held on January 11, approximately one month ago. A download link to a PDF document containing the full transcript including charts an be found at the end of this post. As always, a broad range of topics was discussed; although some time has passed since the meeting, all these issues remain relevant.

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