We wince at congressional ineptitude but in one category legislative aptitude is improving: propaganda. The on-again, off-again finance bill (it’s on-again) was described by the Wall Street Journal as “the most extensive remapping of financial regulation since the 1930s.” It is nothing of the kind.
[Read more...]Pushing a Frostbitten Zombie Economy Into the Freezer
July 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A recent article by Michael Pento describes how the Great Depression explains the greater one still ahead. It’s a trap President Obama and Fed Chair Bernanke have gotten the nation into… now — when deleveraging is most needed — they instead choose time and again to increase debt in order to temporarily pump new life into a zombie economy.
[Read more...]Seeds of War
February 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A while back, our colleague, Chris Mayer, employed a wonderful analogy to illustrate the passage of time from the roaring twenties through to the dustbowl thirties. The former decade, Chris explained, was captured in essence by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It was a period ripe with wild speculation, fueled by an explosion in EZ money, and of reckless excesses in general. (If any of this sounds familiar, you can probably already guess the point at which Chris was driving.)
[Read more...]Another Biggest Drop Since the Depression
February 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today, another biggest drop since the Great Depression… and this time the barometer of economic weakness comes in the form of hotel rates.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“San Francisco’s year over year room price drop was worse than the Northern California average decline of 13 percent, but consistent with other big tourist cities on the nation’s coasts, according to Tom Callahan, CEO of PKF Consulting.
[Read more...]“Every Single Human Being” Should Short Treasuries
February 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
No, the headline is not a paid promotion for The Daily Reckoning’s new and current Trade of the Decade… but it sure sounds like one. Author of “The Black Swan,” Nassim Nicholas Taleb, reflecting upon the fiscal and monetary policies in the US, sees it as a “no brainer” that “every single human being should have that trade.”
[Read more...]100 Years of Mismanagement
January 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
There must be some dark corner of Hell warming up for modern, mainstream economists. They helped bring on the worst bubble ever…with their theories of efficient markets and modern portfolio management. They failed to see it for what it was. Then, when trouble came, they made it worse.
But instead of atoning in a dank cell, these same economists strut onto the stage to congratulate themselves.
[Read more...]Taxpayer-Supported Colossal Blunders
December 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The days really are dwindling down to a very precious few. Tomorrow is Near Year’s Eve. And on Friday begins a new year…
What’s ahead?
We were right all along. Sort of. Kind of. It must have been two years ago that we looked into the future and thought we saw where we were headed.
[Read more...]Does “Catastrophe Lay Ahead” in 2010?
December 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In retrospect, the early 2000s bear an eerie resemblance to the early 1900s, and Martin Wolf describes in the Financial Times why that may be a problem. Much like then, there are ongoing and expensive colonial wars, and potential new superpowers emerging. When this occurred last century, even in the midst of relative peace, “catastrophe lay ahead: a world war; a communist revolution; a Great Depression; fascism; and then another world war.”
[Read more...]
A Few Reasons Why This Depression Will Be Even Greater
“This is the Greater Depression…and it's going to be worse…far worse…than the Depression of the '30s,â€? said Doug Casey.
“We're just in the eye of the hurricane now. It seems calm. But the other side of the storm is going to hit soon. And it's going to be much worse…â€?
[Read more...]