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Tuesday August 31st, 2010
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Flying Blind
posted 08/31/2010, 4:04 AM (Peter Schiff)
[Category: Economy]
Watching economists and media analysts react to breaking economic news is a bit like looking at a flock of pigeons flying over the New York skyline. A true wonder of the urban landscape, the flocks can include hundreds of individuals who show an uncanny ability to stay in tight formation as the group quickly zig-zags between buildings. What may be even more remarkable than their ability to randomly fly while maintaining cohesion is the flock’s refusal to stick to any particular direction... (more) |
The Fed's Biggest Bubble
posted 08/31/2010, 4:04 AM (Euro Pacific Capital)
[Category: Economy]
I’ve made a living out of exposing economic fallacies, but there’s one whale that I can’t seem to harpoon. Even top-flight Wall Street analysts seem to believe that the Fed’s doubling of the monetary base after the credit crunch has not had an inflationary impact on our economy. Their logic can be summed up like so: “The money the Fed created and dropped from helicopters has all been caught in the trees.” In other words, the Fed is creating money, but it is just being held as excess reserves by ... (more) |
How Regulations Grow
posted 08/31/2010, 4:03 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Economy]
The WSJ today runs a story on cigarette rolling machines that illustrates how the regulatory state can count on private enterprise to lobby for ratcheting up regulations.
It seems that there is a tax loophole that permits role-your-own smoke... (more) |
Meet The Fastest Growing Company Ever
posted 08/30/2010, 12:28 AM (Forbes)
[Category: Economy]
At least Mark Zuckerberg wrote a few lines of computer code at Harvard before he left to launch Facebook. Now Andrew Mason, a relaxed and lanky 29-year-old music major from Northwestern, has managed to build the fastest-growing company in Web history. Groupon represents what the dot-com boom was supposed to be all about: huge sales, easy profits and solid connection between bricks-and-mortar retailers and online consumers.Ahh the evils of capitalism! |
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Saturday August 28th, 2010
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Carts and Horses
posted 08/28/2010, 2:31 AM (Peter Schiff)
[Category: Economy]
In a CNBC debate last week, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich presented a set of contradictory beliefs that unfortunately reflect the conventional wisdom of modern economists. In a discussion with Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore, Reich correctly and comprehensively listed the reasons why American consumers could spend so lavishly before the crash of 2008 and why they can no longer keep up the pace. But instead of making the logical conclusion that former levels of s... (more) |
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Wednesday August 25th, 2010
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Nine Principles of Economics
posted 08/25/2010, 10:08 PM (Mises Economics Blog)
[Category: Economy]
A small set of ideas does most of the heavy lifting in economics. "Ten Principles of Economics" or "Ten Big Ideas" or "Ten Key Elements of Economics" are pretty standard in most introductory economics books. Here's my version, based on Chapter 1 of The Economic Way of Thinking.
1. People Act. People choose goals (ends), and they choose ways to achieve those goals (means). O... (more) This article is absolutely superb. |
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Tuesday August 24th, 2010
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Existing-home sales plunge 27.2%
posted 08/24/2010, 11:59 PM (MarketWatch)
[Category: Economy]
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The sale of existing U.S. homes sank 27.2% in July -- the biggest one-month drop ever -- largely because of the phase-out of a federal tax credit, according to an industry trade group. |
Obama To Replace Washington on the Dollar Bill?
posted 08/23/2010, 10:50 PM (Lew Rockwell)
[Category: Economy]
 Writes Fastcodesign.com: “It took George Washington 72 years to get on the front of the dollar bill. SF-UK design firm Dowling Duncan wants to put Barack Obama on it now. In blue. The Obama bill anchors their sweeping concept for redesigning U.S. banknotes, which also includes plastering a tepee on the five, the Bill of Rights on the 10, and FDR on the 100 — each in its own technicol... (more) |
Economics in One Speech
posted 08/22/2010, 12:12 AM (David Kramer)
[Category: Economy]
Now that few people read anymore (due to more pressing activities such as watching American Idol and having to work longer hours to earn enough money to keep up with the “Federal” Reserve-created inflation), it’s getting harder and harder to convince people to take the few hours needed to read Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. Fortunately, there is now a le... (more) |
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Saturday August 21st, 2010
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Thursday August 19th, 2010
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China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy
posted 08/16/2010, 6:26 PM (New York Times)
[Category: Economy]
SHANGHAI -- After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.
The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China's ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.
The recognition came early Monday, when Toky... (more) |
No Exit -- Stage Left or Right
posted 08/16/2010, 6:26 PM (Peter Schiff)
[Category: Economy]
This week, national attention was fixated on JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, whose bold, creative, and controversial exit strategy could revitalize his future prospects. Not nearly as noticed was the Federal Reserve's decision on Tuesday to avoid finding an exit strategy for its own never-ending career trap. Unfortunately, the Fed's choices affect our lives much more than Slater's.
Just a few weeks ago, pundits were asking how Ben Bernanke would shrink the Fe... (more) |
Antoine Dodson: from local news item to internet sensation (capitalism in action)
posted 08/15/2010, 12:24 AM (The Guardian)
[Category: Economy]
 A week ago, Antoine Dodson was just another boy from "the projects", the run-down housing estates which are a feature of every American town and city. Living with his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews in Lincoln Park, where opportunities were few and far between, Dodson had few prospects of escape from his bleak surroundings. This weekend he is a cult hero for millions of young followers, has struck a business deal with Apple and hopes to move his entire family into a more upmarket neighbour |
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Thursday August 12th, 2010
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In Defense of Deflation
posted 08/12/2010, 10:18 PM (Doug French)
[Category: Economy]
The Obama stimulus and bailouts haven't decreased unemployment rates or bankruptcy filings while home prices and home sales have fallen and can't get up. PIMCO's Bill Gross told Bloomberg this can all be fixed with nearly zero interest rates and additional debt to stimulate the animal spirits of investors and entrepreneurs. The federal-funds rate has been pegged at 0 to .25% since December 16, 2008, and Uncle Sam's debt is $13.3 trillion and counting. If this hasn't goosed the animal sp... (more) |
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Wednesday August 11th, 2010
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Federal workers earning double their private counterparts
posted 08/11/2010, 4:05 PM (USA Today)
[Category: Economy]
 At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds. Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.
Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while pri... (more) |
Is Deflation Really Bad for the Economy?
posted 08/11/2010, 4:04 PM (Mises Institute)
[Category: Economy]
On Friday, July 30, the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president, James Bullard, speaking on CNBC television, said that the Fed must weigh medium-term inflation risks against near-term deflation risks. For most economists and commentators, a general fall in prices, which they label deflation, is a terrible thing. They hold that a fall in prices generates expectations for a further decline in prices. As a result of this, consumers postpone their buying of goods at present because they expect to b... (more) |
The Golden Decade
posted 08/09/2010, 5:21 PM (Peter Schiff)
[Category: Economy]
As gold hovers near $1,200 an ounce and pundits speculate about a 'gold bubble', it's important for investors to remember that a mere decade ago the picture was very different. In the year 2000, gold sat at an unimpressive annual average of $279 an ounce – a two-decade low. At that time, most analysts thought gold was finished as a monetary metal. They said its price would never recover and only kooks with tin hats would invest in it. I was one of the very few financial commentators pu... (more) |
Faber: Dow May Plunge to 1,000
posted 08/09/2010, 5:21 PM (Money News)
[Category: Economy]
..."Prechter is right when he says that when manias come to an end, prices tend to retreat to where the mania started,” Faber writes.
“So from this point of view, a Dow Jones at 1,000 should not be excluded."
The implications of Dow 1,000 will be positive for one industry – printing, Faber says. “Does anyone really think that the money printing presses won't run 24 hours a day?”
Faber has an interesting suggestion for investors if the plunge comes to... (more) |
58% Oppose Federal Mortgage Forgiveness Plan for Troubled Homeowners
posted 08/09/2010, 5:20 PM (Rasmussen Reports)
[Category: Economy]
Rumors have circulated that the Obama administration is considering a partial mortgage forgiveness plan to help those who owe more than their homes are worth. Just 28% of U.S. voters favor such a proposal.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% oppose a proposal to have the federal government forgive a portion of the mortgage debt owned by troubled homeowners. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure about it.
Opposition is a few points higher ... (more) |
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Saturday August 7th, 2010
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IMF document illustrates plan to raise global currency
posted 08/07/2010, 8:15 PM (Raw Story)
[Category: Economy]
 It's no secret that many of the world's largest industrialized nations are somewhat eager to ease their reliance on the U.S. dollar. For months China and Russia have pushed ever subtly, for a new "global reserve currency," to give governments around the world enhanced economic stability in the event of greater fluctuations in the dollar's value.
But what wasn't known, until recently, is how far along the International Monetary Fund was in the planning of elevating its so-called "s... (more) |
It's Official: Social Security System Now in the Red
posted 08/07/2010, 8:15 PM (Daily Finance)
[Category: Economy]
It was only a matter of time, but it's finally happened: The nation's Social Security system will pay out more than it takes in this year and next, as aging baby boomers begin entering retirement. The milestone marks the first time in nearly 30 years that the system is in the red, according to a report issued Thursday by federal officials overseeing the program.
The shortfall has been e... (more) If you think this ponzi scheme will last another 30 years I have a bridge to sell you. |
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Thursday August 5th, 2010
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"Fed will print and print and print until the final crisis," says Marc Faber
posted 08/05/2010, 7:16 PM (Business Intelligence Middle East)
[Category: Economy]
INTERNATIONAL. Marc Faber the Swiss fund manager and Gloom Boom & Doom editor said the US Federal Reserve will create a "final crisis" by continuing to print money because it is underestimating the strength of the economy which shows no signs of stenghtening but signs of weakening everywhere in the world.
Speaking to CNBC Worldwide Exchange Tuesday in a live interview from Zurich, Faber said: " They will print and print and print until the final crisis wipes out the entire system.... (more) |
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Wednesday August 4th, 2010
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Ludwig von Mises Quote
posted 08/04/2010, 7:19 PM (Reddit)
[Category: Economy]
"Nothing is more unpopular today than the free market economy, i.e., capitalism. Everything that is considered unsatisfactory in present-day conditions is charged to capitalism. The atheists make capitalism responsible for the survival of christianity. But the papal encyclicals blame capitalism for the spread of irreligion and the sins of our contemporaries, and the Protestant churches and sects are no less vigorous in their indictment of capitalist greed. Friends of peace consider our wars as a... (more) |
Paul Krugman Gives Up
posted 08/04/2010, 7:17 PM (American Thinker)
[Category: Economy]
A marvelous thing happened over on Paul Krugman's blog at the New York Times last week. Krugman effectively conceded defeat on a range of economic debates. Who defeated him? People who posted comments on his New York Times blog. Mere commenters.
For those who do not know, Paul Krugman is one of the few who still claim that Keynesian progressivism is the answer to America's (and Europe's) problems, not their cause. He repeats that claim many times each month. Amid these repeat... (more) |
A World Currency for World Trade
posted 08/03/2010, 11:37 PM (Jacob Steelman)
[Category: Economy]
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis (from an Austrian perspective it is a market correction of the malinvestments caused by central banks and governments) a lot has been written about the cause of the crisis and how to prevent it from happening again. In September 2009 the BBC aired a documentary called "The Love of Money." The series focused on the daily events that unfolded during the collapse of the global financial system including the fall of Lehman Brothers as if this ... (more) |
Is an Internet sales tax coming?
posted 07/30/2010, 12:07 AM (Washington Post)
[Category: Economy]
A movement is slowly building in Washington to banish one of the biggest perks of shopping online: not paying sales tax.
That's because the perk has also cost states as much as $23 billion in lost revenue by some estimates, and they want it back. Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) this morning enlisted Republican South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) and other state lawmakers to rally support for his proposed Main Street Fairness Act, which would make it easier for states to go after th... (more) "That's because the *perk* has also *cost* states as much as $23 billion in *lost revenue* by some estimates, and they want it *back*."
Are you f&#%ing kidding me?
Not being robbed at gunpoint is a *perk*?
Not having the states stealing from people is a *cost*?
They *lost* this revenue which they have literally no claim to?
Now they "want it *back*", as if the products of other people's labor was ever theirs?
How much nonsense was fit into just that one sentence? It is so twisted on all points, it literally turns reality on its head.
The state is a gang of criminal robbers, they want to steal more peoples money so they can get more power over people, therefor they are working to create more laws to steal more wealth from the population and anyone who doesn't comply they will have their goons murder if they resist.
How's that for a setup? - Chris |
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Wednesday July 28th, 2010
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13 Ways to Spend $1 Trillion
posted 07/28/2010, 11:12 PM (Kiplinger)
[Category: Economy]
Confronting the federal deficit starts with grasping just how colossal that number actually is. So, what would $1 trillion get you?
The figure is almost incomprehensible: $1,000,000,000,000. One trillion dollars. That's a dozen zeros.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that during the first nine months of fiscal 2010 -- which ends September 30 -- the federal government spent $1 trillion more than it took in. That's another $1 trillion added to a total national ... (more) The government traffics in stolen goods, be it through taxation or indirectly through inflation. Every single dollar the government spends is a dollar taken out of the real economy. If this money was merely left for individuals in the free market to decide how it was spent, it would reengineer society in a direction away from government and towards what people actually want and are willing to pay for. Instead they steal the wealth society produces and burn it on social engineering and corporate welfare. - Chris |
Gold falls 2%, settling at three-month lows
posted 07/28/2010, 11:09 PM (MarketWatch)
[Category: Economy]
Gold for August delivery lost $25.10, or 2.1%, to $1,158 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was gold's lowest level since April 26 and its biggest one-day decline since July 1. It also marks a decrease of 8% from gold's record high of $1,258.30 set June 18. |
Oppose Efforts to Impose New Tax Burdens on the Internet
posted 07/27/2010, 10:16 PM (eBay Main Street)
[Category: Economy]
On July 1st, a bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives which would impose complex sales tax collecting requirements on internet retailers and entrepreneurs, including our eBay sellers. If passed, HR 5660, the so-called, “Main Street Fairness Act,” would require small online retailers to comply with varying and regularly changing sales tax rules and rates for thousands of tax jurisdictions and to collect and remit sales taxes from each customer. |
Marc Faber: Relax, This Will Hurt A Lot
posted 07/27/2010, 10:16 PM (ZeroHedge)
[Category: Economy]
Marc Faber closed out this week’s Agora Financial Symposium with a speech that pretty much recapitulated the view that the end of the world is if not nigh, then surely tremendous dislocations to the existing socio-political and economic landscape are about to take place (with some very dire consequences for the US). His conclusive remarks pretty much summarize his sentiment best: “We’ve had a trend for most of the past 200 years: GDP of countries like China and India went down while the West sur... (more) |
The Death of Paper Money
posted 07/27/2010, 10:16 PM (The Telegraph)
[Category: Economy]
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation ... (more) |
The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon
posted 07/24/2010, 11:05 PM (Investors.com)
[Category: Economy]
 Fiscal Policy: Many voters are looking forward to 2011, hoping a new Congress will put the country back on the right track. But unless something's done soon, the new year will also come with a raft of tax hikes — including a return of the death tax — that will be real killers.
Through the end of this year, the federal estate tax rate is zero — thanks to the package of broad-based tax cuts that President Bush pushed through to get the economy going earlier in the decade.
... (more) |
New Tax Burdens for Selling Gold
posted 07/23/2010, 12:06 PM (The New American)
[Category: Economy]
Gigantic congressional bills, crammed with every goodie needed to buy a senator or congressman, filled with little rewards for special interest groups who help the right people, and often jammed with just plain foolishness, are the hallmark of how business has been conducted for many decades in our capitol. The massive healthcare bill passed by Democrats last winter is an excellent example of this messiness. Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amends the Internal Reven... (more) |
U.S. financial bailout figure hits $3.7 trillion
posted 07/22/2010, 8:52 PM (Reuters)
[Category: Economy]
(Reuters) - Increased housing commitments swelled U.S. taxpayer infusions into the nation's financial system by $700 billion in the past year to around $3.7 trillion, a government watchdog said Wednesday.
The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government's pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market.
Increased guarantees... (more) |
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Wednesday July 21st, 2010
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Gold Coin Sellers Angered by New Tax Law
posted 07/21/2010, 7:05 PM (ABC News)
[Category: Economy]
Those already outraged by the president’s health care legislation now have a new bone of contention — a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny.
The issue is rising to the fore just as gold coin dealers are attracting attention over sales tactics.
Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently,... (more) |
Harry Schultz on the Power Elite, Free Markets, the Internet and Why Gold Is Going Much Higher
posted 07/20/2010, 4:12 PM (The Daily Bell)
[Category: Economy]
Introduction: Chevalier Harry D. Schultz, KHC, KM, KCPR, KCSA, KCSS, has written scores of books and is considered a founder of the investment newsletter business. Based in Monaco, and now in his 80s, he has been producing his newsletter, The International Harry Schultz Letter (HSL), for over 45 years. During his 65 years of publishing, Harry has lived in 17 different countries and published his work in many of them. He is truly an international man whose shoulders have r... (more) |
Death Tax Musings
posted 07/20/2010, 4:11 PM (S.M. Oliva)
[Category: Economy]
I was reading a Beltway columnist’s cry this morning over the can’t-return-quickly-enough federal death tax. The tax does not apply for deaths in 2010 -- but it will for deaths in 2011 and beyond -- which means George Steinbrenner’s sons were spared one heckuva tax bill. This upset the columnist greatly, not because she had anything against George, but because her beloved government was deprived of badly needed revenue.
It occurs to me, however, that it’s not the loss of death-tax... (more) |
GAO Report: Carbon Capture Increases Power Costs up to 80%
posted 07/20/2010, 4:09 PM (Human Events)
[Category: Economy]
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today found that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) schemes favored by Democrats under their proposed cap and trade national energy tax boondoggle would increase electricity costs, reduce electricity output and increase water consumption.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking Republican of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), released the GAO today covering the stat... (more) |
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The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: "One of the most secret programs that ever existed"
In a 
Prominent economists in China are calling for their government to ditch vast holdings of U.S. Treasuries in favour of tangible assets such as gold, a move that would have a far reaching impact on the economy.
ACTA: The War on Progress, Freedom, and Human Civilization
Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
Feds Ignore Due Process, First Amendment, Shut Down 73,000 Blogs
Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown
New Bill Gives Obama 'Kill Switch' To Shut Down The Internet
The "Tax Mahal": A Shrine to Corporate Socialism
Bilderberg 2010: Between the sword and the wall
Obama: Life Imprisonment Without Trial
Police Raid Wrong Apartment, Brutalize Terrified Refugees
Marxist Wealth Distribution for the Bankers