Noting the economy’s "bumpy ride" over the past few years, the segment spotlights one "sure thing" in these tough times: Taxi medallions. Due to the high price, most drivers must take out loans to own them, giving the lender a security interest &md... (more)
A destructive myth has wrapped itself around laissez-faire capitalism. It is the erroneous notion that the free market harms the "vulnerable" within society; specifically, it is said to harm women and children by cruelly exploiting their labor. The opposite is true. Laissez-faire capitalism offers the one element that the vulnerable need most to survive and to advance: choice. The most liberating choice individuals can have is the ability to support themselves and not be dependent upon anyone el... (more)
Ellen Brown, who is an attorney, has written an article about what she calls "An Economic Bill of Rights". I will argue that her case is totally wrong. It is totally permeated with factual and conceptual errors.
Even without my showing precisely how her financial analysis is in error, we can understand that she is propounding nonsense by looking at her pie-in-the-sky conclusion: ... (more)
The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.
In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.
The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no ... (more)
No, you didn’t hear them actually say it. In fact, Bernanke says quite clearly “no” – gold is not money. But their actions speak much louder than words. The Financial Times reports that central bank gold buying is at a 40-year high. In other words, whereas central banks have primarily been net sellers of gold since the crash of the Bretton Woods sys... (more)
MANDURAH, Australia—One of the fastest-growing costs in the global mining industry are workers like James Dinnison: the 25-year-old high-school dropout from Western Australia makes $200,000 a year running drills in underground mines to extract gold and other minerals.
The heavily tattooed Mr. Dinnison, who started in the mines seven years ago earning $100,000, owns a sky-blue 2009 Chevy Ute, which cost $55,000 before a $16,000 engine enhancement, and a $44,000 custom motorcy... (more)
Occupy Wall Street after spreading across the country over the last 60 days, in protest of inequality and bank bailouts, to name a few issues, has seen a crackdown. Zuccotti Park, home of Occupy Wall Street was cleared out early this morning by riot police. Yesterday, hundreds of police in riot gear dismantled Occupy Oakland camp, arresting protesters. As for the movem... (more)
The recent bankruptcy of financial stalwart and Wall Street casino failure MF Global in the US, has claimed a new and unlikely victim. Following the company’s glorious collapse, Trends Research founder Gerald Celente had his own six figure gold investment account completely looted by chapter 11 trustees, and he is fighting to get it back.
Oil in New York climbed above $100 a barrel to a five-month high as Enbridge Inc. said it will reverse the direction of the Seaway pipeline, adding an outlet for crude from the central U.S. and Canada.
Futures rose as much as 3.1 percent after Enbridge agreed to acquire ConocoPhillips (COP)’s share of the pipeline that runs between Cushing, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast and announced the reversal. The change may alleviate a bottleneck at the Cushing storage hub that has lower... (more)
China’s economy has a reputation for being strong and prosperous, but according to a well-known Chinese television personality the country’s Gross Domestic Product is going in reverse.
Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in Ch... (more)
Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) - Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report," talks about the outlook for global stock markets. Faber also discusses Europe's sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve monetary policy. He speaks from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up."(Source: Bloomberg)
Let me begin with a brief description of what a capitalist-entrepreneur does, and then explain how the job of the capitalist-entrepreneur is changed under statist conditions.
What the capitalist does is this: He saves (or borrows saved funds), hires labor, buys or rents capital goods and land, and he buys raw materials. Then he proceeds to produce his product or service, whatever it may be, and he hopes that he will make a profit.
Back by popular demand, it's Peter Schiff at Occupy Wall Street. And this time, he's uncut, unfiltered, and unleashed!
Last week, Reason.tv released an 18-minute video of investment guru, radio show host, and unflappable defender of capitalism Peter Schiff as he spent three hours among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. ( htt... (more)
The travel industry today became the latest to slam federal rules and bureaucracy, charging that tough visa rules for potential tourists have robbed the nation of $600 billion and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Two grim facts: More Chinese now visit France than the United States, in part because it's hard to get a U.S. visitors visa. And while the U.S. used to be the destination for 17 percent of the world's tourists in 2000, that's dropped to 12.4 percent and shows no sign of cha... (more)
To China, the world's biggest energy consumer, another Saudi Arabia of oil may lie beneath the ocean to its south. Escalating regional tensions mean large-scale drilling may be slipping further into the future.
The South China Sea may hold 213 billion barrels of oil, or 80 percent of Saudi Arabia's reserves, according to Chinese studies cited in 2008 by the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The world's second-largest economy claims "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the sea, i... (more)
In this video, Doug Casey, founder and chairman of Casey Research Institute, talks to the GoldMoney Foundation's James Turk about the greater depression that is facing the developed world. In Casey's view, finding intriguing investment opportunities is difficult at the moment, owing to the dislocations affecting economies as a result of central banks' money printing ef... (more)
It is seven-thirty on a Sunday night. I have just completed the last leg of my trip home from Guilin, China. As I travel across the Arkansas River bridge from the Little Rock airport, headed for the bedroom community of Maumelle, where I live, I notice something conspicuously absent from my drive: Horns; nobody is honking! In China, both in Shanghai and in the smaller city of Guilin, every vehicle has a horn. Every driver is damn proud of their possession and uses it liberally. In fact... (more)
Residential property prices are in freefall in China as developers race to meet revenue targets for the year in a quickly deteriorating market. The country's largest builders began discounting homes in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen in recent weeks, and the trend has now spread to second- and third-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Hefei, and Chongqing. In Chongqing, for instance, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa cut asking prices 32% at its Cape Coral project. "The price war h... (more)
Veteran investor Jim Rogers warned this morning that there is a “100% chance” the world is facing a financial crisis worse than 2008, as Italy was plunged into chaos on the back of soaring bond yields which now make the country’s huge debt unsustainable, mandating yet another EU bailout.
“We’re certainly going to have more crises coming out of Europe and America; the world is in trouble. The world has been spending staggering amounts of money that it ... (more)
The word “equality” is being rammed down our throats every day, with special focus on the so-called “income gap.” The presumption is that we should all denounce the gap, work to eliminate it and embrace perfect equality as an ideal.
It’s true that inequality is growing, but the focus on that alone is sheer folly. Equality applies to math equations. You could also use it to describe how the law should be impartial with respect to persons — the tr... (more)
Yes, most Americans realize that the economy is not doing well right now, but most of them also believe that this is just a "temporary" downturn. The mainstream media tells us over and over that a "recovery" has either already begun or that one is right around the corner. Sadly, the truth is that the U.S. economy is in much worse shape than most Americans think. Yes, there will be economic "peaks and valleys" as we move along, but it is absolutely imperative that all of us unde... (more)
