Marc Faber spoke with Bloomberg Television about his bearish views on markets yesterday, and they remain as bearish as always.
"The banks are gone," according to Marc Faber, and are only being kept alive by European Central Bank and government aid programs.
Faber, though, feels in the near term that things are oversold, and that there will be a summer rally. The bottom won't get here until October and November, when more stimulus should come in... (more)
When all of Europe rushed into its rescue package two weeks ago (first half a trillion, market red, then a full trillion, market green), the one thing that struck us as odd was the conflicting data on the conditionality of the package, with various sources both confirming and denying that the "package" was revocable. It did seem somewhat shortsighted of the Germans, whose political leadership would soon be on the verge of a series of electoral routs, to tie its fate without even one exit hatch, ... (more)
Eighty percent (80%) of Americans now agree with Congress that auditing the Federal Reserve Board is a good idea, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just nine percent (9%) oppose an audit of the Fed, and 12% more are not sure.
This marks little change from December. But it's up five points fro... (more)
Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans oppose more government regulation of the U.S. financial system as Congress pushes through such legislation in hopes of having it for President Obama to sign into law by July 4.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 37% favor such regulation, while another 17% are undecided.
These findings are comparable to June of last year when the president first proposed more government oversight to avoid a repeat of... (more)
The errors of classical liberalism and the idea of a private law societ... (more)
If monopolies cause prices to rise and services to diminish, why should our government be a monopoly? Hans-Hermann Hoppe makes the case for a private law society.
You don’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool “denialist” to be alarmed by the global warming regulations being proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Just ask Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Or Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
They are all firm believers in man-made global warming. Yet they are all co-sponsoring a resolution aimed at blocking the EPA’s bid to regulate CO2.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a rare foray into domestic politics today, offering her view that — given America's high unemployment — wealthy Americans don't pay enough taxes.
"The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [America currently does] — whether it's individual, corporate or whatever [form of] taxation forms," Clinton told an audience at the Brookings Institution, where she was discussing the Administratio... (more)
"Trust me, me and Timmy Geithner pay almost nothing!!"
This is the best explanation of banking I've ever seen. He talks about so-called 'free banking' etc. and explains why fractional reserve banking is inherently fraudulent, even if done on a free market by competing banks. He also explains why a commodity based currency would be best.
Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to co... (more)
All government jobs are funded through theft from taxpayers through either taxation (extortion) or inflation (printing money and devaluing everyone's wages and savings). The fact of the matter is if they shut down the entire government (including the fed) tomorrow the economy would be back and booming in no time and every government worker could get a productive job in the free market. - Chris
In a recent article at the Huffington Post, Lynn Parramore assembled a team of economists to refute nine "myths" about the deficit. On the one hand, it was refreshing to see these economists discuss with such candor the fact that our financial system is backed up by nothing but green pieces of paper. On the other hand, it was shocking to see these economists laud the fact.
Even as Congress puts the finishing touches on legislation asserting more government control over the U.S. financial industry, most U.S. voters continue to believe the legislators have little idea what they're doing when it comes to the economy.
The latest national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds that just 27% are at least somewhat confident that Congress knows what it's doing when it comes to addressing current economic problems. An overwhelming majority (72%) are not c... (more)
"Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If the government provides the funds required by taxing the citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on the one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other." - Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos
I assume that you know how the banking system developed and how the banks could improve the services rendered by gold, by transferring assets from one individual to another individual in the books... (more)
The correction, soon to be crash, is here: the market had a bigger relative open to close move today than it did on May 6. We closed at the day’s lows on massive volume, despite definitive central bank intervention, regardless whether it was the SNB, the ECB, or the Fed. The central planners have lost control of the market, and all thanks to the inevitable collapse of hyper capitalist Keynesianism coming out of the formerly most communist country in the world. A day of ironies. And it’s n... (more)
A specter is haunting the world, and especially Europe: the specter of a sovereign insolvency. The acute sovereign-debt crisis is largely the result of government interventions in response to the financial crisis.
As Austrian business-cycle theory explains, the credit expansion of the fractional-reserve-banking system had caused an unsustainable boom. At artificially low interest rates, additional investment projects were undertaken even though there was no corresponding increase... (more)
Montgomery County residents and businesses will pay an equal share of an energy tax increase expected to take effect Thursday.
Two council committees agreed Monday on a 50-50 split for the increase, but will keep the base rate the same — which charges businesses about three times more than residential customers.
County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has proposed the increase to raise $21.4 million for fiscal 2010, which ends June 30, and $133 million for the next fisca... (more)
This is a hostile takeover of our economy. We literally just had the worst winter of my lifetime with everyone snowed in for days, the whole climategate emails and the 20 or so other climate scandals (that's just a partial list) showing it's all a total fraud, they don't care they need to suck us dry to fill their coffers. - Chris, IL
"Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun."- Prof Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University, Co-author of 'Ecoscience' with White House Science Czar John P. Holdren
"Complex technology of any sort is an assault on human dignity. It would be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy, because of what we might do with it." - Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
"The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet." - Jeremy Rifkin, Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
"The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil." – Sir James Lovelock, BBC Interview
"No matter if the science of global warming is all phony... climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world." - Christine Stewart, fmr Canadian Minister of the Environment
"Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control." - Professor Maurice King
Montgomery County residents will pay on average $150 more in energy taxes next year, the County Council decided Wednesday.
Homeowners will pay $251 a year in energy taxes on average, 150 percent more than what they pay now -- and roughly $50 more than County Executive Ike Leggett proposed.
Council members voted to raise the amount of revenue brought in through energy taxes by 85 percent, slightly scaling back Leggett's proposal to double the funding. But by reducing... (more)
Montgomery County Council members voted Wednesday to pass the nation’s first locally based carbon tax on its largest greenhouse gas emitter, as well as an 85 percent hike in the county’s tax for homeowners and businesses on their energy consumption.
In its preliminary vote Wednesday on budget actions, the council supported a measure that would charge $5 per ton for any entity that emits more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide in a given calendar year. Under those terms, the bil... (more)
A proposed carbon tax, which would affect only the Mirant power plant in Dickerson, received preliminary approval from a joint County Council committee Tuesday, but not before a showdown with people who believe global warming is a myth.
The debate drew more than one outburst, along with boos and hisses during a public hearing on the tax.
"I would like to thank Mirant for finding the climate change deniers who are here in the audience today," said Councilman George L... (more)
In 1954, after a lifetime of serious theoretical work in economic science, Mises turned his attention to one of the great puzzles of all time: discovering why the intellectuals hate capitalism. The result is this socio-psycho-cultural analysis informed by economic theory.
Mises explores answers from a wide variety of angles, and discusses the nature of academic institutions, popular culture, and how vices like jealousy and envy affect theory. All ... (more)
I'm reading this book as we speak, it's very deep and very insightful. Unlike some of Mises' other books, it's a very easy read (and only 80 pages). - Chris
Operating a nonprofit medical marijuana cooperative or dispensary in Long Beach is about to get expensive.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the council will be asked to approve fees and charges as part of the Medical Marijuana Collective Implementation Plan, managed through the Department of Financial Management. While the plan itself likely will be discussed as well, the fees are what the council must formally approve.
Some of us like to gamble. Americans bet a hundred million dollars every day, and that's just at legal places like Las Vegas and Indian reservations. Much more is bet illegally.
So authorities crack down. They raided a VFW branch that ran a poker game for charity. They ban lotteries, political futures markets, and sports betting. They raid truck stops to confiscate video poker machines. Why?
... (more)
Interviewed by Emrah Akkurt, Turkey-Association for Liberal Thinking. To be published in a forthcoming special issue of the economic journal Piyasa on socialism.
Akkurt: How did you come to be a libertarian and which thinkers were most important in shaping your ideas?
Hoppe: As a young man, a 'Gymnasiast' in Germany, I was a Marxist. Then, as a student at the University of Frankfurt, I e... (more)
