A good portion of reported economic growth over the last several decades can be attributed to a liquidity explosion reflected by enormous increases in debt. The graph of the money supply since the removal of the gold constraint in 1971 looks like that proverbial hockey stick. The US Federal Reserve is the greatest source of this liquidity around the world, [...]
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How To Identify Economic Zombies
Economics is not a difficult subject, unless you try to learn it from an economist. As described by John Kenneth Galbraith, who posed as an economist but was far better as a critic: Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is an American audience so practiced in turning off its ears and minds. [...]
The Fed’s Bubble
Debt is the great palliative that has enabled the US and other major economies to escape reality, at least for a time. Ayn Rand described such behavior: You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. It is possible to steal from tomorrow to improve today but only at the cost of having less of a [...]
More Evidence of the Economic Hustle — The Retail Industry
Readers of this site know what I think of the economic recovery. There ain’t one! James Quinn provides his take on retail. Let’s begin with one of his graphs: The bars go the wrong way in the two graphs above. This is not a recovery. It looks like a train wreck in progress. The country is over-malled and over-retailed compared [...]
“This Time Is Different”
A good piece of advice is to be wary when you hear the hackneyed phrase “this time is different.” Just as one should never say “never,” one should never suggest something is unique enough to suggest it never happened before. Yet that is exactly what is claimed by Gordon T. Long and John Rubino in the slide presentation below. While [...]
It Is All Coming Down
As the stock markets of the world rise on a sea of liquidity, economies become increasingly dysfunctional. Credit and money creation is no remedy for economic distortions and mis-allocations. Liquidity can drive asset and commodity prices higher but it also leads to additional distortions. Credit and money creation is not an economic tool, it is a political tool. It is [...]
Leviathan: “You Better Play Along If You Want To Survive”
Freedom is lost with every passing day. Government has become Leviathan, a ruthless master which serves only itself. It has become pure force, unanswerable to anyone. George Washington’s warning has taken on new meaning: Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. The Lord Acton vision [...]
Living Beyond Your Means Ultimately Means Living Beneath Your Means
The deterioration of this nation’s economy is truly mind-boggling. What we experience today is an outgrowth of several decades of misguided economic policies. Current economic policy is even more misguided than those that led us to this point. So, too is the regime uncertainty that surrounds facing economic actors. Productive people have targets painted on their backs. Business and investors [...]
Let’s Have A Depression Now
The United States is more than four years into its form of economic purgatory. The government pronounced the recession over in June of 2009. That announcement does not conform with reality or even subsequent government suspect data. Even the Administration-friendly New York Times knows better: Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell [...]
Ponzi Scheme Government
It is interesting to go back and look at thoughts and interpretations of events from the past. Sometimes it is embarrassing. This post from almost three years ago, seems rather accurate in light of subsequent developments. The Ponzi Scheme that government had become only continued, as expected. At that time three alternatives were reviewed with respect to how government would [...]
Monty Pelerin Interviewed
Monty Pelerin is interviewed on Financial Survival Network: http://financialsurvivalnetwork.com/2012/09/monty-pelerin-the-welfare-state-has-run-out-of-other-peoples-money/
The End Is Near
At the risk of looking/sounding like some crazed religious fanatic usually seen carrying a sign or proclaiming: “Repent, the end is near,” I shall avoid the word “repent. To me, the rest of that proclamation appears accurate and reasonable, at least with regard to our economic condition. The US and world economy are near collapse. Sovereign debt, driven by increasingly [...]