Louis: Doug, a lot of readers have been asking for guidance on how to know when it’s time to exit center stage and hunker down in some safe place. Few people want to hide from the world in a cabin in the woods while life goes on in the mainstream, but nobody wants to get caught once the gates clang shut on the police state the US is becoming. How do you know when it’s time to go?
[Read more...]Debunking the Myth of the Great Recession
January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There is a rumor — which we started ourselves — that Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia has been invited to join the Federal Reserve.
Obviously, in view of the recently released minutes of its meetings in 2006, the Italian ship’s captain and the Fed are meant for each other. Both are prone to error, cowardice and confusion.
[Read more...]The Basic Problem With the Fed
January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We had to wait five years. But it turns out our suspicion that the Federal Reserve is clueless, at best, is true. We know because we read it in The New York Times.
Welcome to another Friday the 13th… Where if things aren’t exactly scary, they’re definitely surreal.
The Fed performed its ritual year-opening document purge overnight… unveiling the transcripts from Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings in 2006.
[Read more...]When a Great Correction Doesn’t Stick to the Script
December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Darkness without a dawn…
The Dow down 167 yesterday. Gold down $48. Nothing to get excited about.
The excitement is still ahead. When the Dow cuts through the 10,000 mark and heads to 6,000. Stay tuned…
In the meantime, yesterday’s Financial Times told us that the industrialized nations will borrow $10 trillion this year. Next year, the figure should be higher.
[Read more...]When Consumers Stop Consuming
December 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Dow up 46 yesterday…gold bouncing around.
Not much change, in other words. Nobody can figure out what is happening in Europe. Investors wait…and watch.
In America, the news has been good and bad. The good news was that unemployment was not as bad as it had been. But the bad news was that the good news was largely fraudulent.
[Read more...]On the Continuing Zombification of the US Economy
November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We have been exploring the zombification of the US economy. Major industries — finance, health, education and defense — have been taken over by zombies, parasites whose real interest is to transfer wealth to themselves, from the part of the economy that remains productive.
As the economy becomes more zombified, the part of it dominated by these non-productive industries increases, leaving fewer resources for the productive part. And as the productive part weakens, so does the entire economy’s ability to produce real wealth, or grow its way out of debt.
[Read more...]Pea Shooters, Elephants and Government “Solutions”
October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
“Do something” is fast-becoming the recurring whine of most financial market commentary. In fact, “Do something” is fast-becoming the recurring whine of almost all socio-economic expression in the Western World.
From the rioters in Greece, to the Occupiers on Wall Street, to the long-term unemployed of America’s big cities, to the underwater homeowners of America’s small towns to the heavily indebted college grads nationwide; the desperate citizens of the Western World are turning to their governments and shouting, “Do something!”
[Read more...]Making Sense of Revolution
October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Last week, the economy seemed to be looking up after all. No recession. No bear market. No muss. No fuss.
But this week started out on the wrong foot. All of a sudden, there was muss and fuss again. Stocks sold off yesterday…with the Dow down 246 points. Oil slipped a little. Gold too.
[Read more...]
Tax Laws, Corruption and Other Reasons to Expatriate
Here’s a meaningless abstraction for you, Fellow Reckoner. You ready?
US GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.7% for 2011.
Now, what does that sentence actually tell us? What does it reveal about life or the quality of it; about the long arc of history and where we are along it; about the Heavens above us, the Hells below and our place in the present somewhere in between? What useful piece of information does this arrangement of letters and numbers divulge that has this morning’s news wires so abuzz with excitement?
[Read more...]