United States President Barack Obama delivered just his final State of the Union address – but unfortunately the facts don’t serve his fictional narrative.
Stefan Molyneux and Peter Schiff go through Obama’s address and discuss the state of the economy, the stock market crash, misleading unemployment numbers, the illusion of job creation, Federa... (more)
Amid stock market panic in China, many of the country's most prominent billionaires are disappearing without a trace. This week, Zhou Chengjian, the chairman of the clothing company Metersbonwe became the most recent wealthy Chinese businessperson to go missing. Metersbonwe said in a statement on Thursday that it would be suspending its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and that the... (more)
With more financing in place, the world’s tallest skyscraper is moving forward.
Recent media reports indicate that the final segment of financing has been obtained for the $1.2 billion Jeddah Tower project in Saudi Arabia. This is the financing that would be necessary to bring the project to record heights. Media reports also show that the structure has risen to more than seventy-five meters (246 feet) and construction is proceeding at an uninterrupted pace.
Over the past year, Puerto Rico's financial problems have received national attention. Not only is the territory mired in high unemployment, but their government is also buried under a mountain of debt. Officials have desperately tried to keep the situation under control, and have pleaded with Congress to let them restructure their debt, but to no avail.
Now Puerto Rico is going to ring in the New Year by defaulting on a portion of $1 billion in bonds that are due next Monday.... (more)
Apple CEO Tim Cook told CBS's Charlie Rose on this week's 60 Minutes the U.S. tax code is "awful" and was "made for the industrial age, not the digital age."
Cook said while he'd "love to" repatriate the billions Apple has overseas he won't because it would cost him "40 percent" in taxes.
The government in Baltimore is quietly relocating poor minorities from the inner city to rich white neighborhoods in the suburbs. They say explicitly they're doing it "under the radar" because it gets people angry, lol. - Chris
While Washington seems obsessed with trying to humiliate China's President Xi Jinping and make him lose face, sending warships into Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea just days after Obama's White House meeting with President XI, and other provocative acts, Britain's government is taking advantage of the growing cleft between Washington and Beijing. They are cleverly moving to develop a prominent role in what they see as emergence of the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (RMB), as a ... (more)
According to popular thinking, not every increase in the supply of money will have an effect on economic activity. For instance, if an increase in supply is matched by a corresponding increase in the demand for money, we are told, then there won’t be any effect on the economy. The increase in the supply of money is neutralized, so to speak, by an increase in the demand for money, or the willingness to hold a greater amount of money than before.
Over the past year, while the U.S. economy has continually missed expectations, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has assured all who could stay awake during her press conferences that it was strong enough to withstand tighter monetary policy. In delivering months of mildly tough talk (with nothing in the way of action), Yellen began stressing that WHEN the Fed would finally raise rates (for the first time in almost a decade) was not nearly as important as how fast and how high the increa... (more)
India’s newest gold monetization scheme has been a colossal failure. After one month, it has netted only one kilogram (2.2 pounds avoirdupois) out of an estimated 20,000 tonnes (44 million pounds avdp) of privately-held gold. Why is that? Well, let’s look at how the program works.
Gold-holders turn their gold over to a bank. The banks melt the metal dow
A little-noticed provision in the highway funding bill Congress passed this week threatens a right most Americans take for granted: the right to travel abroad. The provision in question gives the Internal Revenue Service the authority to revoke the passport of anyone the IRS claims owes more than $50,000 in back taxes.
Congress is giving the IRS this new power because a decline in gas tax receipts has bankrupted the federal highway trust fund. Of course, Congress would rather sque... (more)
