Archive - Jun 2013

Tyler Durden's picture

Peak Gold





We are rapidly approaching the end of cheap resources. The wealth of most Americans could get wiped out during the next decade due to commodity inflation. Focusing on your real purchasing power is critical. As this brief documentary discusses, what is it that makes gold so special? Merely a "tradition" as Bernanke would have us believe, or sound 'money'?

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Guest Post: Central Bankers Still Don't Get It





In the wake of the financial collapse of 2007, central banks around the world run by Keynesian zealots religiously applied the formulas they had been taught would boost aggregate demand and rescue the economy from the brink of total catastrophe. Easy money, going under the euphemistic moniker of “quantitative easing” was supposed to stimulate borrowing, spending and growth through the mechanism of historically low interest rates. Predictably, this approach failed miserably, as these kind of policy decisions largely miss the point of how the economy really works. As long as central banks continue to meddle with the money supply, investments will not be made efficiently and the economy as a whole will suffer.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Marc Faber: "People With Financial Assets Are All Doomed"





As Barron's notes in this recent interview, Marc Faber view the world with a skeptical eye, and never hesitates to speak his mind when things don't look quite right. In other words, he would be the first in a crowd to tell you the emperor has no clothes, and has done so early, often, and aptly in the case of numerous investment bubbles. With even the world's bankers now concerned at 'unsustainable bubbles', it is therefore unsurprising that in the discussion below, Faber explains, among other things, the fallacy of the Fed's help "the problem is the money doesn't flow into the system evenly, how with money-printing "the majority loses, and the minority wins," and how, thanks to the further misallocation of capital, "people with assets are all doomed, because prices are grossly inflated globally for stocks and bonds." Faber says he buys gold every month, adding that "I want to have some assets that aren't in the banking system. When the asset bubble bursts, financial assets will be particularly vulnerable."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

What's Wrong With This Picture?





There is something very wrong with this Bloomberg article screengrab.

 

testosteronepit's picture

Lobbying And GMO Giant Monsanto Buckles In Europe





“It’s counterproductive to fight against windmills,” it explained

 

Tyler Durden's picture

From Reinhart-Rogoff Witch Hunts To Krugman’s Contradictions





We discussed the new skirmishes this weekend in the very public debate about Carmen Reinhart’s and Kenneth Rogoff’s (RR) government debt research as they fought back against Paul Krugman's smear campaign. Krugman, of course, is one of the pundits who last month published “incomplete, exaggerated, erroneous and misleading” reports about RR’s research, as we explained at the time. We still haven’t found an RR critic who’s made a genuine effort to estimate how much debt is too much and in an effort to, we read Krugman's book (cover-to-cover) to see if there was anything more to Krugman’s positions than über-Keynesianism and boasts that his adversaries were proven wrong. Krugman's logic is full of holes. Near-term inflation and interest rate predictions have little to do with one’s beliefs about the mostly long-term risks of excessive debt. Krugman’s use of decidedly non-Keynesian episodes of debt reduction to justify his Keynesian beliefs reminds me of the many times (too many) that I’ve encountered 'circular reference' errors in Excel. His logic is no less flawed or 'circular.' But since there’s no spreadsheet involved, we’ll call it an error of induction. We think it’s time to change focus and consider the questionable thresholds, selective data use and induction error in Krugman’s work.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Italy Labor Union Predicts Return To Pre-Crisis Employment By 2076





By now it is conventional wisdom that the Italian economy is foundering alongside all other peripheral European nations as a result of a failed artificial currency leading to an inability for external rebalancing, a flawed monetary system leading to a collapse in credit demand, and the lack of any structural reform (and sorry, but when your budget deficit is soaring alongside your debt it's anything but "austerity's fault"). However, there is hope. According to Italy's trade union CGIL, good news may be just around the corner as Italy looks set to recover its pre-crisis unemployment level... In 2076, or a brief 63 years from now. "So, you're telling me there's a chance."

 

Pivotfarm's picture

It’s Not The Dollar that’s Dead, It’s the USA!





“When the going gets tough, the tough get going” is a wonderful piece of linguistic wizardry. It can be read in two different ways. Either the 'tough' become fully engaged in combat and fight it out till the bitter end or the ‘tough’ up sticks and move out. It was supposedly Joseph P. Kennedy (father of US President John F. Kennedy) that gets the praise for having said it first.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Photo Gallery And Live Webcast From A Violent Turkey





As violent protests persist across Turkey, and spread from Istanbul to the capital Ankara, and Izmir, here is a visual summary of what is going on courtesy of Reuters.

 

Phoenix Capital Research's picture

Will Bernanke Bow Out Before or AFTER Stocks Collapse?





 

This confluence of indicators tells us point blank that stocks are in a bubble. If I know this, I can assure you that Ben Bernanke and the Fed know it. And this is why the Fed is in deep trouble. I guarantee you Bernanke is hoping he can get to the exit as Fed Chairman before the stuff hits the fan.

 
 

Tyler Durden's picture

Stephen Roach: "The American Consumer Is Not Okay"





The spin-doctors are hard at work talking up America’s subpar economic recovery. All eyes are on households. Thanks to falling unemployment, rising home values, and record stock prices, an emerging consensus of forecasters, market participants, and policymakers has now concluded that the American consumer is finally back. Don’t believe it. In short, the American consumer’s nightmare is far from over. Spin and frothy markets aside, the healing has only just begun.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Saturday Humor: What Happens When Batman Shows Up On An Earnings Call





What is the only thing better than a possible Einhorn (impersonator) sighting at a Herbalife conference call? Why Bruce Wayne from Wayne Enterprises, exhausted from recent skirmishes with Bane and the Joker, asking the CEO of Archer Ltd if he can invest in "some technology he is developing." We can only hope Batman were to show up on an earnings call of one of the companies, all of them financial of course, that truly need his attention.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

In "Secret" Meeting, Eric Holder Tells Media He Will Stop Spying On It





The US Attorney General's New Normal Watergate fiasco gets more surreal by the day. Eric Holder, currently being investigated for lying under oath, has been in hot water ever since the break of the AP scandal. But it has been his "handling" of the spillover that has raised eyebrows. The latest update is sure to raise them even more. Because it turns out that during Thursday's "off the record" meeting which the majority of the press boycotted for the simple reason that the reporting press probably can't go off the record when the topic is the US government's precedence over the first amendment or it will lose what little credibility it has left, Holder's message was simple: "trust me, I am the government, and I will stop spying on you." The farce just goes downhill from there.

 

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