A few weeks ago, everyone began to agree that the US was headed for a decade of Japan-style deflation. The banks weren't lending, consumers weren't borrowing, the Fed's desperate attempts to create inflation weren't working, the country was awash in excess manufacturing and labor capacity, and so on.
And most of those things are true. In the United States.
But the world's not just about the United States anymore.
Arguably the most useful report to come out each quarter out of the Federal Reserve is the Z.1, or the Flow of Funds report, which was released minutes ago. And it's a doozy: household net worth (assets less liabilities) in Q2 2010 plunged by $1.5 trillion, almost exclusively due to a plunge in Corporate Equities ($0.9 trillion) and Pension Fund holdings ($0.7 trillion). In other words, the net wealth of the US household cont... (more)
Government borrowing means less money for any possible economic recovery.
The City of Emeryville, California, is looking for individuals to serve on its new “Food Truck Taskforce” -- a bureaucratic reaction to the increased competition local “brick and mortar” restaurants face from mobile kitchens. Local worker Catherine Hicks tweeted, “restaurants are whining that trucks are more popular at lunch!” But the city sees this shift in lunching habits as a political problem requiring a political solution:<... (more)
If all the advocates of a world fiat currency (a currency not backed by a precious commodity like gold) were to scream at once, workers in world capitals, business centers, colleges, and news media may be deafened. And if global financial elites have their way, America will move quickly toward accepting a planetary fiat currency issued by a world central bank.
Calls for a new global monetary regime are nothing new. After World War II left the world’s financial system in disarray, ... (more)
An extensive study into the effect of digitalization on the music industry in Norway has shed an interesting light on the position of artists today, compared to 1999. While the music industry often talks about artists being on the brink of bankruptcy due to illicit file-sharing, the study found that the number of artists as well as their average income has seen a major increase in the last decade.
Every other month a new study addressing the link between music piracy and music re... (more)
N.H. Sen. Judd Gregg tells CNBC’s Larry Kudlow leaders are ‘trying to run the government into the ditch’ to institute European social welfare model.
We've heard from various elements that President Barack Obama was a socialist trying to "fundamentally change" the United States of America in a covert manner, but maybe it isn't as covert as it seems.
... (more)
A majority (51%) of U.S. voters now support extending the so-called Bush tax cuts for all Americans including the wealthy, even as the House Republican leader indicates he is willing to compromise with President Obama and not include wealthy taxpayers in the tax cut extension.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of Likely Voters believe the tax cuts should be extended for everyone but the wealthy. The question does not define "wealthy," but the preside... (more)
John F. Sturm, the president of the Newspaper Association of America, thinks it’s high time Congress intervene to protect the free flow of information -- that is, the flow of information from confidential government “sources” to “professional” journalists. In an op-ed, Sturm said the republic cannot endure the type of unprofessional muckraking provided by websites like Wikileaks.org:
I think we got an interesting insight into the Union member's mindset about competition and how they view themselves. If there is one thing that one can take away from this show is this: "Collusion of Unions with the Government" or "Collusion of any business with the Government" spells death to a free market idea tha... (more)
Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama said that his healthcare reform plan “would bring down premiums by $2500 for the typical family.” In February of this year he urged Congress to pass healthcare reform or else Americans would “see exploding... (more)
Today the Sunlight Foundation launched analysis that reveals more than $1.3 trillion in federal reporting data from 2009 is broken. These data inaccuracies account for 70 percent of the total $1.9 trillion in government spending data reported last year. Clearspending offers a critique on the reliability of data from USASpending.gov, across three metrics--consistency, completeness and timeliness--and covers spending from 2007, 2008 and
AN ABRUPT command from Beijing to follow through with ”iron-fisted” energy and carbon emission cuts has thrown China’s industrial heartland into chaos.
[...]
”We had no water to flush the toilet, we couldn’t use the fridge and of course production stopped,” said an office manager at Wanxing wire mesh factory in Anping, Hebei province.
He said he had struggled through 10 days of randomly imposed blackouts – some as long as 22 hours – and the water supply and electrica... (more)
