[do_widget id=nav_menu-4]
The instant the Fed announced QE3, an unlimited program of bond buying with fake money until the end of time, the speculation about what it would mean went viral. Does this mean that recovery is around the corner? Or does it signal a coming hyperinflation? Or perhaps more deflation stemming from liquidation? The reaction of …
Some pretty big names in the financial prognostication business are recommending that investors start buying houses. Jim Grant has devoted lots of space in Grant’s Interest Rate Observer to the idea. Marc Faber, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett and our own Chris Mayer all like sticks and bricks. Five years ago, the unthinkable began to happen. …
“All the profits of drug trafficking and none of the risk.” That’s how the prosecutor in a federal criminal case described Carlos Garcia’s smuggling operation that has landed him in the federal pen for 13 months. Before wearing leg irons and striped pajamas, Garcia was a top executive in Marcone Inc., a leading supplier of …
The movie Inception (2010) directed by Christopher Nolan, is one of the few films I’ve seen that takes the idea of ideas themselves seriously. It’s about a team of experts that specializes in corporate espionage by extracting information from dreams. This time, their job is much harder: They are asked to implant a new idea …
There is reality and there is Ben Bernanke. The two are ever more disconnected. Speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Fed Chair Ben Bernanke claimed his money printing has created 2 million jobs and pushed stock prices higher. “The odds are strong that the Fed’s asset purchases will make money for the taxpayers, reducing the federal …
Oceans of taxpayer money and patience have been devoted to propping up the banking system. Why? So that when we go to retrieve our money from an ATM our money will actually come out. At least that’s what then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told us when the big banks were on the verge of hitting the …
While Ron Paul lost the battle for the presidency, he may yet win the war for sound money. At least the intellectual battle might be won, and that’s the crucial one. The GOP platform effectively calls for a new gold standard commission to consider returning gold backing to the dollar. It is vaguely stated. It …
In Mao’s Great Leap forward of 1958, and then the Cultural Revolution of 1966 and following, millions suffered persecution and death. Collectivized land led to an extreme livestock shortage. Those who survived faced famine. Living things in general were disappearing. All forms of oil had vanished. If there was food to be had, it had …
In the United States, the free (as in government is not involved) part of free enterprise has been forgotten. So it is the highest pleasure to travel to places where you can see with your own eyes how commerce is supposed to work. Here in Istanbul, Turkey, where commerce has been ongoing for centuries, business …
Google’s new Motorola unit had great ambitions to serve customers and keep dazzling us with ever more spectacular things that enhance our lives. After all, the smartphone is easily the greatest consumer innovation of our time, and maybe of all time. It accomplishes amazing feats in a tiny package and represents a greater achievement of …