The terrible job market has vexed an entire generation. It shows no hope of improving anytime soon. Young people are shut out. College students are taking refuge in matriculation without end. Thirty-somethings are zoning out in their parents' basements and attics. Despair for the future has become a theme of American public life.
The question we must ask is: why is unemployment stuck at 10% in the narrowest measure and as high as 30% for some demographi... (more)
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies,"... (more)
It’s no accident that Austrian economics is newly popular. It provides the best explanation for the business cycle we just lived through.
But the resurgent popularity of Austrian economics may actually be hampering the ability of the Federal Reserve to reflate the economy with low interest rate policies. Businesses, now aware of the dangers of a low inflation- sparked economic bubble, may simply be refusing to fall for the age-old boom-bust trap.
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Well, folks, it's official - mark November 22, 2010 in your calendars - today is the day the Ponzi starts in earnest. With today's $8.3 billion POMO monetization, the Fed's official holdings of US Treasury securities now amount to $891.3 billion, which is higher ... (more)
For years, I’ve received emails from people who want to move to New Zealand. Some young, some old. Some well off, some not so well off.
Over the last month or so, three millionaires have emailed me about moving to New Zealand.
The three people who emailed me were all going to invest their way into New Zealand. In case you don’t know, millionaires can make “investments” in New Zealand to, in effect, buy different types of residence visas. New Zealand Immigration call... (more)
No question, capital flows where it can best be put to use. The US is a socialist hellhole, it's more communist than so-called "communist" China.
There is a reason all the money is flowing into these previously third world nations, they've liberalized their economic policies, largely embraced private property, and they have little to no regulations (state interference with voluntary trade).
The US could turn this whole shebang around in a day if they just shut down the government and let markets correct. Instead they're expanding government on all fronts and running the printing press full-bore.
Capital is already fleeing the country, no one wants to do business here, capital will continue to flee at an accelerated rate in the coming years until the country has totally collapsed. The government will institute capital controls and price controls to try to fight it to no avail. The big losers will be the poor and middle class who cannot afford to move their money offshore and will be forced to go down with the ship. - Chris
Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar may fall below 75 yen next year as it becomes the world’s “weakest currency” due to the Federal Reserve’s monetary-easing program, according to JPMorgan & Chase Co.
The U.S. central bank, along with those in Japan and Europe, will keep interest rates at record lows in 2011 as they seek to boost economic growth, said Tohru Sasaki, head of Japanese rates and foreign-exchange research at the second-largest U.S. bank by assets. U.S. policy makers may ... (more)
RT talks to author, financial commentator and investor Jim Rogers... (more)
Defaulting is always the best choice. The government is not a trusted institution and lending to it or "investing" in it is always a horrible decision. The people who lent to the government deserve to lose everything.
Uh oh, Mr. Bernanke, the natives are getting restless. Now it's not just Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, or foreign central bankers, but more and more American economists who are starting to openly challenge the second round of "quantitative easing."
It's tough to rule the world, and sometimes the benighted masses get uppity. The first surprising pushback came in the summer of 2009, during the... (more)
California treasury officials are finding it's a "cold, cold world" these days for municipal bond sellers.
The state is paying higher than average rates to raise money to pay its bills and has had to cancel part of a multi-billion bond sale viewed as a test of government bond markets.
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China may impose temporary price controls to counter the fastest inflation in two years, the cabinet said.
Price caps on “important daily necessities” and production materials will be used if necessary, the State Council said on its website today after a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.
China’s accelerating inflation has sent stocks and commodities sliding on speculation that efforts to curb prices will cool the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The State... (more)
Their inflation rate is so high because the US exports all its inflation to China. They'd be better off depegging their currency from the dollar so their people can afford to buy their own products. Instituting price controls and turning everyone into criminals is not going to fix anything. - Chris
TORONTO - Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros may be cutting back on his gold bets, but he says the precious metal still has some kick to it, as long as conditions like low interest rates prevail.
“The conditions for (high) gold are pretty perfect,” he said during a speech in Toronto Monday evening to accept the Globalist of the Year award from the Canadian International Council.
“The big negative is that too many people know this and a lot of hedge... (more)
A remarkable confluence of recent events has brought unprecedented but very welcome attention to both U.S. monetary policy and the global political economy in general.
First, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke recently announced that the Fed would embark upon another round of monetary easing by purchasing $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury debt. This amounts to an admission that markets have run out of patience with our profligacy, and therefore our own ... (more)
Jim Cramer recommending buying something is the kiss of death. Gold has fallen $70-$80 since his buy recommendation! Granted, that's rather insignificant in the bigger picture, I sure as hell am not selling any of my gold, but his sheep viewers are probably scared sh*tless.
Why does it seem like major establishment news outlets come out with the exact same talking points so often? This time, the mainstream media in both the United States and in the UK are placing blame for an economic collapse that hasn't even happened yet on the Tea Party movement and on opponents of the Federal Reserve. Of course it is completely and totally ridiculous to even think for a moment that the Tea Party could be responsible for our current financial problems. The Tea Party is still ... (more)
First the warning: If you have a Web site, and you ever put Google ads on it, and you ever made a penny off those ads, congratulations! The Internal Revenue Service owns you.
According to the IRS you are a private contractor employed by Google; you are a business; and you will have to pay business taxes and the rates that go along with them. Doesn't matter how big you are, how long ago you put those ads there, or whether you made $20 or $20,000 off them.
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I was aware of this personally, you have to file as self-employed and pay a huge tax, doesn't matter how little you make. It's all part of that whole "helping small businesses" our government talks so much about! - Chris
