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Entries Tagged as 'Economics'
Listen To Roubini Global Economics’ Megan Greene
CMC Market’s Michael Hewson interviews Roubini Global Economics’ Megan Greene. I was struck by one thing Greene said about the crisis in Europe, “In order to save the physical union (the EURO), Germany would have to agree to fiscal transfers to weaker countries forever.” You can see the interview at Zero Hedge,
Agreeing to unlimited fiscal transfers is unthinkable, but that’s what we’ve been practicing in the U.S. with our entitlement programs for some time with no end in sight. Now we are told that 50% of the people in the U.S. are living in poverty and 50% of the people pay only 5% of the taxes collected. The needs grow exponentially, until everyone is impoverished or the providers pull a John Galt!
The only thing smart for any of us to do is buy gold and silver for protection from this madness.
Margaret Thatcher Was Very Right!
“60 Minutes” had an interview with Meryl Streep who has a movie coming out soon in which she plays Margaret Thatcher. Streep says she respects the woman and her strength, but does not support her conservative policies.
Mish Shedlock has a video today of Margaret Thatcher speaking before Parliament and in one stretch oipines on the ECB. She says,
“…there would be no European central bank accountable to no one, least of all national Parliaments. The point of that kind of Europe with a central bank is no democracy, taking powers away from every single Parliament, and having a single currency, a monetary policy and interest rates which take all political power away from us.
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson ) said in his first speech after the proposal for a single currency was made, a single currency is about the politics of Europe, it is about a federal Europe by the back door.”
Churchill warned Parliament about the coming war and Thatcher is clearly right about the ECB and loss of soverign freedom.
Something Depressing This Way Comes
Graham Summers writes
Folks, we’re not out of the woods yet… not by a long shot. The same problems plaguing Europe today are coming to US shores. And when they do, everyone will realize what I’ve been saying since 2009: that 2008 was the warm-up — the real crisis is when the US defaults and we face systemic collapse.
The MSM is looking for signs of a turn in the economy. They grasp on every statistic like todays’ release of initial claims for state unemployment benefits. They “…fell 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000 in the week ended Nov. 5, slightly below the 400,000 that analysts polled by Reuters had expected. The government revised its estimate for claims during the prior week to 400,000 from 397,000.”
The FED is through temporarily with QE. The economy is “addicted” to QE. Look for the economy to crash going into Q2, 2012.
Economy? Bad Through Q1, 2012?
MaxedOutMama has a very scary chart in NFIB - The Swedish Movie
Book Review: “Time Will Run Back” By Henry Hazlit
While reading the article “Would Ayn Rand be Welcomed at a Tea Party?” I came across Henry Hazlit’s 1951 novel The Great Idea. It has been republished as “Time Will Run Back.” I downloaded the book to my Kindle for $4.99!
Few people in the 1950s imagined that communism would fall of its own dead weight, but Hazlitt understood what others did not. He also saw that a mixed system would fail of its own internal contradictions. This book thus teaches economics in a special way that is accessible to people of all ages, but to teens in particular because the story is fictional. And yet it is not fictional: what Hazlitt forecasts in this book — the unraveling of a system — actually did take place. So his novel might be seen as a foreshadowing of events in Russia, China, and elsewhere.
Book Review: CIVILIZATION: The West And The Rest
I just ordered the new book of Niall Ferguson CIVILIZATION: The West And The Rest.
You might check out this interview of Ferguson over at The Daily Ticker titled NIALL FERGUSON: The U.S. Is Playing “Russian Roulette” With Debt And Deficits.
You will probably want the book, too.
“The Western World Is Broke.”
The new Stansberry’s Investment Advisory letter arrived last week and I’ve just had time to read and think about its contents. The headline states “It’s Far Worse Than You Know…That’s The Good News” and the first sentence declares “The Western world is broke.”
It’s disquieting to say the least that nothing has changed since the crisis began in 2007. Stansberry writes,
Rather than reducing the p[ower of the central governments and reversing the massive debts, every action taken since the fall of 2008 has increased the role of government and amount of borrowing. Spending, taxdes, Federal Reserve manipulation, government debts…we’ve gotten more of all the things that caused our economies to collapse in the first place. This indicates to me we are a long way from learning anything from our past mistakes.
Stansberry sees five troubling trends:
- The FED taking actions that decrease confidence in the U.S. Dollar.
- The trashing of the rich will result in the rich fleeing.
- The takeover of state and local governments by the unions.
- A growing realization that the government will not deliver on its promises.
- The near-term possibility of major defaults.
Just today I heard that the governor of Washington State is considering suspending the use of school buses in order to save $280 million annually.
The very real possibility is that the U.S. is close, very close to witnessing violence here that has been seen in Greece fore the same reasons.
The Stansberry’s Investment Advisory letter is very valuable to me and I urge you to subscribe. I do!
“When Money Dies” Author Adam Fergusson
Zero Hedge has link to video of James Turk interviewing “When Money Dies” Author Adam Fergusson and they discuss (Hyper)Inflation.
Do we have politicians that will do the right thing to solve our problems and forego reelection as a consequence?
Lisa Fithian In The News
I thought Lisa Fithian was detained at the Canadian Border and was not to be let in to this country. In 2001 she was offered the choice of turning back or being arrested.
Now she has popped up again in relation to the #OccupyWallStreet movement. Andrew Breitbart’s web site has this story “Meet The Anarchist Leaders Behind The ‘Leaderless’ #Occupy Movement – Part One: Lisa Fithian” by Lee Stranahan. He writes ““Occupy Everything” is the culmination of a decades-long effort by militant radicals to create and fund a mass movement that has broad popular appeal. With the enthusiastic help of the institutional left, that effort finally seems to be working.”
And Lisa Fithian is right in the middle of it. She even has a website and a blog. Doesn’t hurt to know the enemy.
