To show you how things get around, I get this from Ed Steer’s Gold & Silver Daily, which linked to an essay by Adrian Ash, at bullionvault.com, posted over at safehaven.com, and bearing the title “Gold Gets All Political.”
[Read more...]US Deficit to Reach 100 Percent of GDP?
The Japanese have a new Prime Minister (Kan), and the currency markets don’t like it! The once so-called “safe haven” of yen (JPY), is getting sand kicked in its face, and rightly so, as the new PM has previously stated his goal of a weaker yen.
[Read more...]To Get Rich is Glorious
Imagine the looks on their faces, when Deng Xiaoping sold them out.
The old commies in China had tried to make steel in backyard barbecues. They’d carried the fat Mao on a litter, on a long march to nowhere. They’d pretended his Little Red Book was more than drivel. They’d endured one absurdity after another…purges, starvation, and misery…all for the cause.
[Read more...]US Debt and the Gold Price: Numbers On the Up and Up
As we sat down to write this morning, the cell phone began vibrating against the desk. Alice Gomstyn from ABCNews.com wanted to know what we thought about the national debt crossing the $13 trillion threshold.
Uh…the same as we thought about it crossing $12 trillion less than six months ago. Not good. (You can read the story here.) But what do we know. We’ve been whistling Dixie on this subject for the better part of our adult lifetime. No one really cares except when these psychological boundaries are crossed…tomorrow it’ll be business as usual.
[Read more...]US Debt Crisis the Result of Bad Behavior
Today, the euro. Tomorrow, the dollar.
The euro is taking a beating. Investors are worried that it won’t survive Europe’s debt problems.
Note, we said ‘debt’ problems. Many experts still believe it is a liquidity problem. That is, they think it’s just a problem of finding financing. They blame speculators and hedge funds for panicking…or for deliberately cutting off the flow of juice.
[Read more...]Emerging Markets vs. Submerging Economies
We’re back in Paris. The flight on Air France was long, but not disagreeable. It was even better in the First Class cabin. Not that we were in it. But we were curious about the people who were.
Usually, on the Air France flight from Washington to Paris, you see a few rich people. You also see some people you wonder about. Typically, there is an African diplomat…or a hack bureaucrat from an international agency. Sometimes you will see a hip-hop star…or a fashion model. Or just someone who lucked into an upgrade.
[Read more...]Path to Economic Recovery Filled With Lethal Obstacles
We just stepped off the plane… We’ll have to catch our breath and open our eyes before we have anything to say about China…
In the meantime, let’s look back at what is happening in Europe and America.
And we will begin by thanking Paul Krugman, economiste ordinaire at The New York Times.
[Read more...]Stockholm Syndrome and The State
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.”
The Nazarene borrows from Aesop’s fable, as relayed in the Gospel of Matthew (7:15-16)
It’s a strange freedom indeed when the cost of attainment is freedom itself.
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Re-Animating a Debt Dog
I have discovered that I am never, ever too drunk not to be instantly angry at the mere mention of the neo-Keynesian halfwit morons who are, despite mountains of evidence proving its complete failure, still clinging to that same, silly meth-based economic theory which I originally meant to write as “same, silly math-based economic theory” but, due to a typo, came out as “same, silly meth-based economic theory.”
[Read more...]