Archive - Apr 2015 - Story

Although rarely cast as such this is a “War of the Worldviews” in the political and policy sector. This war is about the nature of reality. This war, not mere partisanship, is an underlying cause of political gridlock, at least for economic policy. Paul Krugman long ago left the twilight zone of Neo-Keynesianism to boldly go where no man has gone before. There isn’t a better “sciencefictionomist” than Prof. Krugman. That said, a coin has two sides. Sciencefictionomics has far from won its war on common sense.

"The worst economic system - except for all the rest." But is Capitalism really that bad? The BBC's Colm O'Regan casts his comic lens upon the complexities of the economic system that's used across much of the globe...

2015 Global growth expectations - after a brief excited but dead-cat-bounce - have tumbled back to their lowest ever... as global stocks have un-tumbled back to almost record highs...

Reports suggest the Yemeni rebels are battling Saudi forces near Najran, with some contending the rebels may have overtaken a Saudi post which, if true, would appear to mark an escalation in the conflict as it would indicate that the Houthis are willing to take the fight to the Saudis on their own turf.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to officially announce her candidacy for the 2016 presidential election on Sunday, putting an end to months of speculation about her plans. Here are some key things to know about the first Democrat to declare her candidacy...

These are your euro money markets on central planning. The ECB is attempting to help correct the distortions created by its QE program by lending out its holdings in order to grease the wheels of European repo markets, but as JPM notes, the central bank's program will likely not be sufficient.

Moments ago NBC and various news wires reported that the US Capitol was on lockdown following reports of a suicide on the west front of the building. Related to this incident, the U.S. Capitol Police are continuing to investigate the suspicious package on the lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol Building. AP quotes Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police says in a statement that the suspected shooter has been "neutralized," but there is no immediate explanation what that means.

Water is perhaps the world’s most important resource, and one of the most common resources. For decades water was regarded as a common good, and it was plentiful enough that in most parts of the world there was little money to be made off of it. Now as the world’s population continues to grow, all of that is changing...

China’s world-beating, margin debt-fueled, equity mania has now made its way to Hong Kong much to the delight of local housewives and security guards who have recently decided to become day traders. Deutsche Bank sees big upside for shares of "Don't worry, don't panic" HKEx amid the madness.

What a wonderful and perfectly representative dichotomy of where monetarism stands. We have Bernanke - the former, massive practitioner of QE - telling the world how it does nothing much; while at the exact same time Draghi - the latest - tells the world its super-healing and supporting properties. What’s reconcilable about those two positions is simply asset bubbles, as they are what stand against the former and remain the only, dim hope of the latter.

In a move that, if confirmed, is certain to escalate the Yemen conflict which as a reminder is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, overnight local media first, and Reuters subsequently, reported that local militiamen in the southern Yemeni city of Aden said they captured two Iranian military officers advising Houthi rebels, during fighting on Friday evening.

GE Capital's 2014 loan portfolio was marked at $363 billion. It will take a lot of maneuvering to bring it down to the $90 billion target. With the market at all-time highs and with valuations stretched beyond all conceivable rationality, GE CEO Jeff Immelt said now is a "perfect time to be a seller. People are lining up at the starting line."

The implosion of America serves a very particular purpose. It is not a product of blind coincidence, fate, political stupidity or corporate greed. It is an engineered event meant to clear the way for an even more sinister economic environment designed to establish a final economic empire with the purpose of permanently enslaving us all.

It has been a bad year for California whose drought is rapidly approaching historic proportions: according to the LA Times, which cites climatologist Michael Anderson, "you’re looking on numbers that are right on par with what was the Dust Bowl." And it is about to get even worse. According to the USDA, the west-wide snowpack is melting earlier than usual, according to data from the fourth 2015 forecast by the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). "Almost all of the West Coast continues to have record low snowpack," NRCS Hydrologist David Garen said. "March was warm and dry in most of the West; as a result, snow is melting earlier than usual."