In his famously doleful, dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell described a world enthralled to what was functionally a "permanent war economy," an "economy existing by and for continuous warfare."
Today, on the heels of a debt ceiling increase calculated to forestall a federal-government default, we both are witnessing and are yoked to the many indispositions of what could be characterized as a permanent debt economy.
This is one of the best interviews I've seen with Doug Casey, the host is a bit adversarial in a good way and it makes for a great interview. Filmed on Sept 9th.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking member, and all distinguished members of this panel. Thank you for inviting me here today to offer my opinions as to how the government can help the American economy recover from the worst crisis in living memory.
Despite the understandable human tendency to help others, government spending cannot be a net creator of jobs. Indeed many efforts currently under consideration by the Administration and Congress will actively destroy jobs. These initiatives m... (more)
In a feature on issues in the 2012 campaign for CBS News, Brian Montopoli asks, "Who's to blame for the wealth divide?" Citing the fact that, according to a Harvard/Duke study last year, "the top 20 percent controlled about 84 percent of the wealth," Montopoli contends that political "decisions tend to follow the desires of the affluent."
Montopoli couldn't be more right that Washington and p... (more)
Although it was labeled and hyped as a "jobs plan," the new $447 billion initiative announced last night by President Obama is merely another government stimulus program in disguise. But semantics are of supreme importance in American politics...some could argue that word choice is the only thing that matters. As a result, despite the fact that this plan bears no substantive difference from previous stimulus bills, the President never once mentioned the word "stimulus" in his hour-long ... (more)
Eleven years into a gold bull market, Marc Faber publisher of the Gloom Boom and Doom report still doesn't think gold is in a bubble. Joining us via Skype from Chiang Mai, Thailand Thursday, Faber told the Daily Ticker's Aaron Task t... (more)
Marc Faber is out with the latest issue of his famous Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report which is always a must read for serious investors. Unlike most of the other talking heads, Faber has an excellent track record. He correctly predicted the top in the equity markets in Nov 2007 and caught the bottom in March 2009, making his subscribers a lot of money. Here is a summary of his September 2011 report:
1. Stocks---Faber says stocks face two potential outcomes: a brief rally to b... (more)
True or false: Barack Obama wants to raise taxes and Republicans in Congress want to cut them. The surprising answer is, False. Although it can usually be said that the president never met a tax hike or spending increase he didn’t like, such is not the case right now.
One does not have to be a fan of Obama or his motives to recognize a good deal for the American people and applaud him for proposing it. It seems that the president wants to extend the payroll-tax cut that is s... (more)
Sometimes only comedy can adequately convey the true hilarity, or absurdity of a situation. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart exposed the United Food and Commercial Workers of Nevada for the joke they are.
The Swiss central bank imposed a ceiling on the franc’s exchange rate for the first time in more than three decades and pledged to defend the target with the “utmost determination.”
The Swiss National Bank is “aiming for a substantial and sustained weakening of the franc,” the Zurich-based bank said in an e-mailed statement today. “With immediate effect, it will no longer tolerate a euro-franc exchange rate below the minimum rate of 1.20 francs&... (more)
Gold’s rally above $1,900 an ounce shows no signs of a “bubble” as central banks continue to boost money supply that has helped spur bullion to a record, according to investor Marc Faber.
“I don’t think that gold is in a bubble,” Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report, said in a phone interview yesterday from Chiang Mai, Thailand. “When you buy gold, it’s an insurance against systematic failure and problems in the financ... (more)
Introduction: Doug Casey has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows, and has been the subject of articles in People, US, Time, Forbes, The Washington Post and numerous other publications. For nearly three decades, Doug Casey and his team have been correctly predicting major budding trends in the overall economy and commodity markets.
Daily Bell: Welcome, Doug. Let's jump right in. Are you still conv... (more)
The markets are going through another sell-off phase, yet the traditional notions of a "safe haven" are changing. No longer is the US dollar the default shelter; instead, gold, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen are the preferred assets.
All three of these havens – gold, francs, and yen – have been surging upward this month. Two of them, however, are being actively devalued by central banks desperately (and foolishly) trying to curtail appreciation. T... (more)
I'm not entirely sure this headline is accurate, it appears the cable is talking about a public writing in a government run Chinese newspaper. Nonetheless, it's still interesting (and accurate). - Chris
Even if you are already wealthy, some thought on this topic is worthwhile. What would you do if some act of God or of government, a catastrophic lawsuit or a really serious misjudgment took you back to Square One? One thing about a real depression is that everybody loses. As Richard Russell has quipped, the winners are those who lose the least. And as far as I’m concerned, the Greater Depression is looming, not just another cyclical downturn. You may find that, although you’r... (more)
This morning many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession. I believe that we have been in one giant recession all along that was only temporarily interrupted by trillions of useless and destructive deficit and stimulus spending. Unfortunately, the August numbers will increase the talk of government efforts ... (more)
While inflation hawks understandably keep a close watch on the Federal Reserve’s money-creation activities, an equally worrisome Fed activity is taking place right under their noses. Under cover of addressing the financial crisis and recession, the Fed has become the central allocator of credit.
As San Jose State University economics professor Jeffrey Rogers Hummel points out in The Independent Review (Spring 2011), Fed chairman Ben Bernanke “has so expanded the Fed&r... (more)
