Remember the euro-zone crisis? Front page news for weeks, and then…nothing. Could they have found the secret formula for eliminating an overwhelming debt load without hyperinflation or depression? Nah. They were just taking a break, and now they’re back. Greece’s economy is contracting and Spain’s regional governments are being shut out of the debt markets. […]
A Sign of Things to Come?
This isn’t how it normally goes. For the past couple of decades — that is, during the parabolic phase of the global credit bubble — the financial markets have responded to US Fed announcements of easier money like kids whose daddy has promised them a trip to Disneyland. The euphoria doesn’t always last, but the […]
China and Germany: The Perils of Vendor Financing
In response to Why Would Anyone Buy a Spanish Bond?, reader RAID 3000 pointed out that the U.S. has far more serious problems than Europe (no argument there!) and included a link to LEAP2020, a European site doing great work on this subject. One of its articles contained the following chart: This got me to […]
Irony: Andrew Jackson On a Federal Reserve Note
Karl Golovin, a retired customs agent and security director for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, just forwarded a transcript of Andrew Jackson’s farewell address. It’s pretty amazing. Here’s Karl’s intro, followed by an excerpt: “During his presidency, Andrew Jackson viewed as his crowning achievement that he “Killed the Bank,” the 2nd Bank of the U.S. Our […]
The Difference a Printing Press Makes
Contrast how the best-run U.S. states are responding to the recession — cutting services, laying off workers, raising taxes, and generally making hard choices — with how the Federal government simply writes checks to any and all (while being praised for its “flexibility” and “creativity”) and you begin to understand the power of a printing […]
“A Tremendous Secret”
Last week FOFOA posted a long article on the coming devaluation of the dollar and how it might play out. He thinks it will be sprung on us without warning — sooner rather than later: The point is that during times of transition, surprises are always the order of the day. We have a crazy-out-of-control […]
The Illusion of Safety
Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article that (assuming it wasn’t a clever satire) perfectly illustrates the train wreck that’s in store for clients of mainstream money managers. In the first-person-confessional style that’s becoming popular in the financial press, the reporter laments his diminished 401(K): My company retirement accounts, despite what I thought […]
Death Spiral Revisited
Back in mid-2007 I posted a column titled “Death Spiral” that made some (for that time) extreme predictions. Here are the last few paragraphs: Anyone who thinks the Eurozone welfare states will maintain their composure with the euro at, say, $1.50, simply doesn’t understand how democracy works in this late, decadent stage of its evolution. […]
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