India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunnedIndia is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, DEBKAfile's intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.
By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's ... (more)
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Bankrupt Solyndra Caught Destroying Brand New PartsFREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.
At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.
Forklifts brought o... (more) You know, the government burned some $500 million taxpayer money on this company, that's around the same amount the DOJ (falsely) claims megaupload cost the movie studios. - Chris |
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The US Government Is BankruptEveryone knows that the US government is bankrupt and has been for many years. But I thought it might be instructive to see what its current cash-flow situation actually is. At least insofar as it's possible to get a clear picture.
As you know, the so-called Super Committee recently tried to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion and failed completely. To anyone who understands the nature of the political process, the failure was, of course, as predic... (more)
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Mere Mortals at the FedThe secrecy of the Federal Reserve is legendary, but pressure in recent years has led to some opening up. Already in the last 12 months, we've seen some eye-popping records of who received credit during the 2008-09 credit crunch. We've seen lists of institutions that the Fed favors, and these lists have confirmed the worst fears. Hint: It's all about the big banks.
But now we get the really fun stuff. The transcripts, released five years after the fact, of the open market committe... (more)
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24 Statistics To Show To Anyone Who Believes That America Has A Bright Economic FutureBeware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about how the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream media can be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television your brain tends to go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it becomes easy to slip thoughts and ideas past your defenses. Sometimes when I am watching television I realize what the media is trying to do and yet I can still feel it happening to me. In this day and age, it is ab... (more)
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Rand Paul returns $500K in office budget to TreasuryThanks Rand, we'll make sure to spend this money on killing people instead!
- Sincerely, the US government |
Bernanke Doubles Down on Fed Mortgage BetBen S. Bernanke is signaling his willingness to double down on a three-year bet that’s failed to revive housing, showing the extent of the Federal Reserve chairman’s effort to wrest a recovery from the deepest recession.
Since the Fed started buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage bonds in January 2009, the value of U.S. housing has fallen 4.1 percent, and is down 32 percent from its 2006 peak, according to an S&P/Case-Shiller index. The central bank is poised to buy about $200 billion... (more)
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Money or Capitalism in Crisis?When the Financial Times started its series on "Capitalism in Crisis," I winced. Here we go yet again, an attempt to blame private enterprise for what are actually the failures of the state and paper money. And some writers — but not all — in the series have done exactly this, while obscuring the differences between free and unfree markets by referring only to the way "the system" has failed.
And what is the evidence of this failure? It is everywhere. Household income continues to... (more)
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The Dollar's Lucky StreakRecent U.S. economic data, such as the modest drop in the unemployment rate and the massive expansion of consumer credit, have suggested that the American economy is finally recovering. Opposite conclusions are being thrown at Europe, where many are convinced that recession is returning. Not surprisingly then, the dollar is currently hitting a multi-year high against the euro. The strength of the dollar itself is often held up as one of the major proof points that the U.S. economy is “improving.... (more)
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The Prospects for Sound MoneyA silver lining of the global economic crisis is that millions of people have been awakened to the importance of sound money to a modern economy. The housing bubble and subsequent bust, excessive leveraging, reckless speculation, and the sovereign-debt crisis afflicting Europe and the United States would all have been averted had money been commodity-based (e.g., gold and silver) and therefore not subject to periodic devaluation by political authorities.
Since President Richard Ni... (more)
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Liberal Minimum-Wage Nonsense Hurts the PoorThe liberals are at it again. They’re calling for another increase in the minimum wage in their purported attempt to help the poor. Two new minimum-wage articles have recently been posted on the liberal websites Counterpunch and Common Dreams. One is entitled “The Bogus Case Against the Minimum Wage Hike” by Dean Baker and John Schmitt and the other is “America’s Skimpy Minimum Wage”... (more)
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Massive Beat? Not So Fast - Morgan Stanley Warns 42,000 "Jobs" Bogus Due To Seasonal Quirk Enamored with the 200,000 number? Don't be - the reason why the market has basically yawned at this BLS data is that as Morgan Stanley's David Greenlaw reports, 42,000 of the 200,000 is basically a seasonal quirk, which will be given back next month, meaning the true adjusted number is 158,000, essentially right on top of the expectation. From David Greenlaw: "some of the strength in this report should be discounted because of an seasonal quirk in the courier category of payrolls (Fed-ex, UPS, ... (more)
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U.S. IRS Audited Record Millionaires in Fiscal '11The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said it audited 12.48 percent of individual tax returns (USCBTAXR) with income exceeding $1 million during fiscal 2011, a high reached at a time of debate over the taxation of top earners.
The announcement marks the third consecutive year that the IRS increased its audit rate on returns showing income of more than $1 million. According to IRS data, the previous record was the 8.36 percent of returns in that category audited during fiscal 2010.
... (more)
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Paradise Lost for Aussie Surfboard Makers Amid China ImportsOn Australia’s Gold Coast, a 22-mile- long (35-kilometer) stretch of beaches named Surfers Paradise and Rainbow Bay, Neil Rech opened a surf shop in December and unwittingly disturbed the peace.
His store, Sedition Surfboards, sells Chinese imports for A$250 ($258), one-third the cost of some Australian-made boards that competitors are offering. Rival retailers averse to discounts and upset about local job losses questioned his patriotism, and even threatened violence, he said.... (more) Awesome story, I can't wait to buy one. - Chris |
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It's The Little ThingsIn their last desperate months, the management of MF Global instituted cost cutting initiatives to try and save the company. The Wall Street Journal’s Aaron Lucchetti and Mike Spector write that a memo went out to the firm’s 2,800 employees telling them to start printing on both sides of paper and listed other ways to save the company money.
... (more)
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Gloom, Doom, and OptimismMarc Faber is a market analyst and publisher of the "Gloom, Boom and Doom Report" newsletter. As you may have gathered from that title, he's rather pessimistic about the economy. (He's also been very accurate concerning economic trends over his career.) But he really dropped jaws recently when he made the following statement on CNBC:
I am a great optimist in life; otherwise I would commit suicide in view of the kind of governments we have nowadays. Hyperbo... (more)
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There Is No Joy In Muddlethroughville: World's Biggest Hedge Fund Is Bearish For 2012 Through 2028, And Is Long Gold That Ray Dalio, famed head of the world's largest (and not one hit wonder unlike certain others) hedge fund has long been quite bearishly inclined has been no secret. For anyone who missed Dalio's must see interview (and transcript) with Charlie Rose we urge you to read this: "Dalio: "There Are No More Tools In The Tool Kit." For everyone who is too la... (more)
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Gold Surges Back Over $1,600
Gold has surged back to over $1,600 from it's recent low of $1,531. Silver has also rallied to just under $30/oz.
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World's Biggest Economies Face $7.6 Trillion DebtGovernments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs.
Led by Japan’s $3 trillion and the U.S.’s $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show.... (more)
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Whirlpool Wants Gov't to Force Consumers to Pay MoreOne of the ways that Whirlpool Corporation celebrated its 100th anniversary last year was to file petitions against two of its main South Korean competitors for “dumping” washing machines onto the market on Black Friday. Whirlpool claimed that Samsung was selling their 3.7 cubic-foot top-loading washing machines at a wholesale price of $363.18, way below the $751.46 Whirlpool says it would ... (more)
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The online poker gold rushLONDON (MarketWatch) — The news over the holiday weekend is that the Obama administration may be moving towards legalizing online poker.
An opinion by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, written in September but only published on Friday, may open the door to online poker once again. It argues that the federal Wire Act may only prohibit betting on things like sporting events.
Poker has been subject to a crackdown since President George Bush signed the U... (more)
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Young People More Likely To Favor Socialism Than Capitalism: PewYoung people -- the collegiate and post-college crowd, who have served as the most visible face of the Occupy Wall Street movement -- might be getting more comfortable with socialism. That's the surprising result from a Pew Research Center poll that aims to measure Ame... (more)
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