Category Archives: Patience is a virtue…Delusion is a vice
Let Them Eat Credit
By most counts, the U.S. economy started growing in the middle of last year. For many Americans, though, it does not feel as if the Great Recession has ended—unemployment and underemployment are still alarmingly high, and job growth is weak. … Continue reading
Great-est Depression???
This forecaster is saying something that I thought was just common sense and I mentioned a year ago or more. That is to say, without a vibrant middle class to effect the necessary 70 % consumption that represented the bulk … Continue reading
Playing The Market Plunge
investors should marshal their cash smartly. For a decade or more, Wall Street’s financial-planning machinery has claimed to have optimized the investing equation and boiled it down to simple calculations encouraging investors to abide by asset-allocation models heavy reliant on … Continue reading
Washington Possessed
My Nov. 10, 2008 column warned that big government was walking away as the knockout winner over the private sector in the financial crisis. But it’s going much further than I’d feared. The federal government has accelerated its takeover of … Continue reading
Howdy, Neighbor!
When asked what advice he would give to residents of Ashtabula County Ohio because of cutbacks in official law enforcement budgets, Judge Alfred Mackey said they should: “arm themselves. Be very careful, be vigilant, get in touch with your neighbors, … Continue reading
Greenspan helps create the problem and then explains it?
Washington’s Blog Greenspan’s big defense is that the financial crisis was caused by a “once-in-a-century” event. Forget about the fact that the “once-in-a-century event” couldn’t have happened if Greenspan’s Fed hadn’t: Turned its cheek and allowed massive fraud Acted as … Continue reading
ECONed: Sic Transit Gloria Americanus
Richard Smith, a London-based capital markets information technology manager, was kind enough to provide an advance copy of his review for the book ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism by Yves Smith, the author of the … Continue reading
Sic transit America?
Flagging: a US sailor stands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington If a week is a long time in politics, a decade is starting to look like an age in geopolitics. Comparing the America that … Continue reading
The Demonic Religion of Abortion
It’s getting more and more obvious. Last week, in two separate incidents, those favoring abortion set forth their goals and services in religious language. During a December 2nd “Stop Pitts” rally in Washington and in new video advertisements for a … Continue reading
Operation Rollback: Wal-Mart’s World of Business
The expansion of international “supply chains” from Asian factories to American consumers has certainly created global trade imbalances and international currency flows that are not necessarily sustainable over the long run. A readjustment of the world economy, not a slackening … Continue reading
Our secret government
“When an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars were lent to financial institutions in unprecedented ways and the Federal Reserve refused to make public any of the details of its extraordinary lending, Bloomberg News asked the court why U.S. citizens don’t … Continue reading
Socialism in America
Socialism in America A great deal has been made in recent weeks about Ronald Reagan‘s critique of nationalized or socialized health care from 1961: We can go back a bit further, though, and take a look at an intriguing piece … Continue reading
The recovery puzzle’s missing piece
Eric Sprott, a veteran fund manager and researcher based in Toronto, believes the buyers are in la-la land when it comes to interpreting economic data emanating from the world’s largest economy. A few of his salient points include: A prolonged … Continue reading
Securitization was maddeningly complex. Mandated transparency is the only solution.
With so much complexity, and uncertainty about future performance, it is not surprising that the securities are difficult to price and that trading dried up. Without market prices, valuation on the books of banks is suspect and counterparties are reluctant … Continue reading
Obama’s Economic Box
Despite the administration’s aggressive and costly economic policy initiatives, there is trouble all around. Barely six months in office, President Obama already finds himself in an economic box. For despite his aggressive and costly economic policy initiatives, the jobs market … Continue reading
We’ve Wiped Out All The New Jobs Of The 21st Century
What’s the best way to express just how bad the job market is? You could look at the soaring unemployment rate, or perhaps the ever-shortening work week. How about this: Total nonfarm payrolls, notes economist James Hamilton, are now back … Continue reading
The end of the recession will merely be the start of a long, painful journey, says Edmund Conway.
t’s a game of far more than two halves: more tactical than cricket, more stomach-churning than boxing and more complex than bridge. Throughout a magnificent summer of sport, one competition has lasted longer than any other, and generated the most … Continue reading
Bilkers, suckers and Wall Street atrocities – Is Madoff Really Worse Than Fuld?
Somewhere back around 1946 or 1947, Nick Etten–by now a pretty much forgotten first baseman for the Yankees–signed a one-year contract in the amount of $15,100. This sum struck many observers as an odd number, but not one canny New … Continue reading
Say that ten times – a convincing mantra
So maybe we could summarize the recent strength in the leading economic index this way. The main reason we think the economy is improving is because many of us think the economy is improving. I Think The Economy Is Improving, … Continue reading
Is inflation our next big worry?
Why inflation is around the corner The government wants inflation to some degree. Congress and the White House have spent nearly $3 trillion recapitalizing U.S. banks, revamping the domestic manufacturing industry and replacing a portion of the consumption spending Americans … Continue reading
Kool-Aid Drinkers Survive Financial Overhaul
June 19 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama doesn’t need to just overhaul financial regulation. He needs to exorcise the ghost of Alan Greenspan. For far too long, regulators weren’t willing to regulate, inspired by the view of the former Federal … Continue reading
Forgetting What We Learned
ILLITERACY IN HIGH PLACES by Paul Craig Roberts If a person lives long enough, he can watch everyone forget everything they learned. Everyone includes Federal Reserve Chairmen, economists, Bank of America “strategists,” and even Bloomberg.com. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke … Continue reading
indicators show the economy turning around…..but
The signs of a V-Shaped economic recovery are all around, for anyone willing to see. New claims for unemployment insurance have been trending down, despite unprecedented layoffs in the auto sector. Home sales have started to climb from the lows … Continue reading
Beggars Are We All…..
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/ Bernanke’s wager is on a virtual free lunch by printing money. “Fed chair Ben Bernanke has long argued that central banks can bring down long-term borrowing rates by purchasing bonds “at essentially no cost”. His frequent writings rarely ask … Continue reading
The Committee to Defraud the World
To say now that ‘No one knew’ or ‘I was mistaken’ or ‘I was just doing as I was told’ is another in a series of lies and deceptions that have supported one of the greatest frauds in the history … Continue reading →