Inflation is far higher than official statistics reveal, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of the "Gloom, Boom and Doom" report told CNBC on Wednesday, with increases in the cost of living between five and eight percent in the United States and just below that in Europe.
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, discusses his investment strategy in emerging markets and the outlook for the U.S. recovery. He speaks from Troika Dialog's "Russia Forum" in Moscow with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse."
Hans Rosling's famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before - using augmented reality animation. In this spectacular section... (more)
Right in the beginning of Peter's response he says what are the billion starving people to do, well, watch this video and you'll see what brings people out of poverty.
Here's a clue: It's not centrally planned dictatorships. - Chris, InfoLib
"The first great error here is the mental habit that many have of thinking that big government and big business are somehow at odds."
American political rhetoric seems to operate on a regular cycle, like a clock, which is why it seems lately like we are reliving the Clinton years.
The story goes like this. A Democratic administration with lefty ideas gets elected, pushes hard for a series of goofy reforms like protosocialized medicine, which prompts a backlash and ... (more)
John Maynard Keynes was born in 1883 and died in 1946. Henry Hazlitt was born in 1894, eleven years after Keynes, and lived much longer, until 1993. Their lives and loyalties are a study in contrast, and mostly of choices born of internal conviction, in Hazlitt’s case, or lack thereof, Keynes’s case.
Keynes became the most famous economist of the 20th century and the guru-crank whose work has inspired thousands of failed economic experiments a... (more)
Why the US and Europe will outperform emerging markets this year, with Ma... (more)
I've heard a few people predicting the US will do good for the first half of the year due to an inflationary boom. Some people in the comments are saying Faber has lost it or something, I don't think that's the case, I'm sure his long term outlook is still bearish for the US, he is just saying the US is exporting it's inflation to the emerging economies. - Chris
Most voters still aren't convinced that government bailouts have been a good idea.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters think, looking back, that the bailouts of banks, auto companies and insurance companies were bad for the United States. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree and feel the bailouts were good for the country. Sixteen percent (16%) aren't sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Here's how I explain the economic situation the US is in to friends and acquaintances:
The US is a drug addict with no money and a horrible addiction to spending other people's money. The US government for the last few decades went from being on top of the world with tons of money to totally broke and now it has to hit China up for cash just to get a fix.
But like anyone who lends money to a drug addict, eventually you have to realize you're not going to get it back and it's not a wise use of your money.
When the world finally cuts the government off, you're going to see one hell of a crash and a violent drug addict on a rampage. - Chris
BEIJING—Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasized the need for cooperation with the U.S. in areas from new energy to space ahead of his visit to Washington this week, but he called the present U.S. dollar-dominated currency system a "product of the past" and highlighted moves to turn the yuan into a global currency. [...]
Mr. Hu also offered a veiled criticism of efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate growth through huge bond purchases to keep down long-term interest rates,... (more)
You didn't think that state governments would rack up all of this debt without eventually coming after your money, did you? In 2011, dozens of U.S. states are either implementing tax increases that have already been passed or are debating new tax increases that have recently been proposed. In most states, the actual state income tax is not being raised. State politicians have learned that voters really tend to get angry when that happens. Rather, our politicians on the state level are lookin... (more)
The U.S. government is insolvent. Who says so? Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
Geithner sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2011 asking for the debt limit to be raised. If it is not raised, he warned, the U.S. will default on its debt. In his words:
Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to r
Suppose for a moment that Republican Congressman Ron Paul's fondest wish came true, and the Federal Reserve Bank was not only audited but closed down. As far-fetched as such a notion may seem, it would not be the first time in our nation's history that a central bank has been shuttered. For all the Fed's imposing grandeur, Ben Bernanke is running our third (albeit longest-running) try at a central bank. This country has lived without a central bank before and, if given the chance, could do so ag... (more)
