Archive - Nov 13, 2015

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The Obama administration officially rolled out its MyRA program. MyRA is a special form of IRA that ‘helps’ Americans save for retirement by making it easy for you to loan your money to the federal government. Despite misleading promises that these MyRA accounts are for “people who aren’t saving and who have a fear of losing their principal," the big catch here is that there’s only one investment: US government bonds... So with these MyRA accounts, when adjusted for inflation, you’re guaranteed to lose money.

Personally handing out money to each "deserving" citizen...

“We’re potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn’t fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job,” this strategist said. “It’s not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?”

The Ultimatum Game is a unique window into how humans actually make economic decisions and it is a distinctly opaque aperture.  The best we can probably do is to accept that context plays a far larger role in economics than classical models would suggest.  And don’t stare at someone or make angry faces if you want them to work with you. 

"It is already too late. Having delayed way beyond the point when it might typically have raised rates in previous cycles, it has allowed an Orc-like monster to incubate, hatch and emerge into the sunlight, snarling and ready to do battle."

Fin...

In the latest from Europe's border battles, Austria has responded to Slovenia by building its own version of an anti-migrant fence while Sweden has began checking trains coming from Denmark and removing anyone without the proper papers. Saving Schengen truly is a "race against time."

The US Oil Rig Count rose 2 to 574 last week. This is the first rise in rig count since mid August, continuing to track the lagged crude price. On top of rising production, surging inventories, and massive excess supply at sea, Crude is fading modestly on the news, hovering around $40.50.

Centrally issued money optimizes inequality, monopoly, cronyism, stagnation, low social mobility and systemic instability.

There's been no shortage of discussion about the weather among economists this year as "snow in the winter" took the blame for a bevy of bad data in H1 while summer is Citi's new scapgoat for any weakness in August and September payrolls. Meanwhile, unseasonably mild temps took the fall for poor October retail sales and now, going into the winter, it's all about El Nino.

In the next financial crisis, physical gold held outside the banking system in safe vaults in safe jurisdictions will prove to be a “financial cushion” to individuals, companies, pension funds, family offices,  and indeed nations.