John Williams of ShadowStats concisely summarizes all you need to know in his reaction to the recently revised GDP data: Economic Data Will Get Much Worse. The kindest thing I can say about a stock market that rallies on the “stronger than expected” news that annualized growth in second-quarter GDP [...]

Below is a guest post I wrote for 20smoney.com. It discusses why the government will have to default on many of its promises/obligations. It is simply not mathematically possible to service what has been promised. Investing In A Difficult World Investing and life are both wonderful challenges. Often they are [...]

Finally, so-called respected financial houses are admitting what many bloggers have been warning about for a very long time. Morgan Stanley admits that governments are insolvent and must default on their promises: “Governments will impose a loss on some of their stakeholders,” Arnaud Mares, an executive director at Morgan Stanley [...]

The issue of inflation-deflation will not go away. Michael Panzner has written an article as to why we will have hyperinflation. His key sentence is Hyperinflation is a fiscal phenomenon borne out of a bankrupt state that can’t service its debts. In one simple sentence, Mr. Panzner has described the [...]

The financial crisis is much worse than government is willing to admit. At every level, financial reporting gimmicks are used to hide the true state of insolvency. The Federal Government plays their own games to hide the inevitable defaults. States do the same. From the WSJ comes the following: … [...]

From Consent of the Governed: I have two articles of interest to share with you – especially if you have some sort of nest egg. First off - Congress and Obama want your 401 (k)s and IRAs It’s in the works kids…. you’ve been saving and investing for years and now [...]

It is coming! We just don’t know in what form or when. I am talking, of course, about the economic catastrophe that lies ahead. Gordon T. Long aptly describes the road ahead: We can never be sure of the sequence and time frame of any particular Tipping Point. Like a [...]

Must Watch Kyle Bass Interview: “I Don’t Know How I Can Be Long Stocks” Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/17/2010 12:21 -0500 The one must watch interview of the week (if not of the year) features Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass. Bass, who correctly called the subprime implosion (and profited handsomely from [...]

Robert Ringer describes American’s alternatives as “fight or flight:” Contrary to the “summer of recovery” blather we are being fed on a daily basis, the truth is that the economy is getting worse by the day – and the worst, by far, is yet to come. Economic judgment day may [...]

History is a great teacher. It often provides clues that enable us to understand the present and future. The ancient regime’s concept of divine right of kings seems pertinent to today. According to Wikipedia: The Divine Right of Kings is a political and religious doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a monarch is subject [...]

Paul Craig Roberts describes what may happen to the economy and his solution to preventing it. In recent years, it seems to me that Mr. Roberts has become a bit extreme, if not eccentric. Nevertheless, I believe his scenario for how the downturn plays out is plausible. For those wrestling [...]

A very interesting post from Matterhorn Asset Management. The bracketed insert, I assume, comes from Tyler Durden of Zerohedge from where I obtained the post. The graphs in my previous post might be useful in this article. MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010 The Worst Case Scenario by Egon von Greyerz – [...]

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a picture that is worth TRILLIONS of words. The chart shows the incremental GDP related to an additional dollar of debt.  Back in 1966, for example, a new dollar of debt was accompanied by an increase in [...]

Recent articles on socialism and central planning have dealt with the unworkability of either a pure socialist or a “mixed” system. Mises and Hayek provided the theoretical framework as to why neither could work. Virtually all real-world experiments provided the empirical evidence along with human suffering and atrocities. Despite the [...]

Many have warned about the impossible mathematical situation the Federal Government has maneuvered its way into. This problem existed before President Obama, although he surely has accelerated the date with bankruptcy more than anyone else. I have laid out the absurd condition and shown why it is impossible to escape [...]

Never mind what you believed at the beginning. Most never believed Paulson anyway. Now even the believers, unless they are working for this Administration in some fashion or another, no longer believe. How can they? It is pretty simple and laid out nicely by Eric Fry: The Aftermath of Paulson’s [...]

The economic condition of the country continues to decline toward its rendezvous with an, as yet, unknowable catastrophe. Speculation regarding this outcome is natural because self-interest, if not self-preservation, is at stake. Here is but one possibility. It is not a prediction, but a look at a series of not [...]

I have always been an admirer of the work of John Williams of shadowstat.com. He has been ahead of the curve consistently in terms of what was going to happen. His statistical analysis is first-rate and has exposed a lot of tomfoolery in government-issued numbers. When he speaks, it is [...]

The black hole of government marches on. Both Fannie and Freddie, now effectively owned by the government, continue to struggle.  Alan Zibel reports on their recent performance: Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both lost tens of billions of dollars during the past two years and both are asking [...]

A “kick the can” policy is defined as avoiding a problem by deferring its effects to a later time period. That sounds like a perfect description of political behavior, always, but especially in crises. Politicians love this tactic. Generally it is accompanied by a proclaimed “fix” and hearty self-congratulations. Despite [...]

‘I Want Your Money’; New Film Skewers Obamanomics Film is coming out in the Fall. Why do I think that means before Election Day? The Failure of Obamnomics

People in general are optimistic. Successful people in any occupation usually exhibit this characteristic. It is one of the attributes that lead to their success. One must be careful, however. Noble people assume that promises and commitments will be met. Unfortunately, that is likely to be untrue, at least in [...]

Inflation is neither strategy nor solution; it is the last gasp of a desperate ruling class. Inflation is the inevitable ending of this awful economic crisis. The only questions are how much and when. Rising support champions inflation as a salvation strategy. Richard Russell in a recent newsletter provides the [...]

To those still foolish enough (or delusionally optimistic) to believe that our economy has turned the corner and is headed back to pre-2008 days, turn off your TVs and cancel whatever newspapers you are reading. It just ain’t happening and it isn’t about to begin! The post below describes the [...]