Q: Is Avatar a metaphor for "capitalism?" A: Yes, in James Cameron's populist vision of "capitalism." Q: Is the rape of another planet capitalism? A: No. Q: Is the movie left wing Hollywood schlock propaganda? A:Yes. Q: Is the movie marvelous entertainment? A: Yes. Q: Is it also something else? A: Yes.
Forget the Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Nauru, Liechtenstein, and like havens. The World Securities, Exchanges, and Financial Rules Commission is being planned by the Europeans and the Obama Administration. This is the theme of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
President Obama used his bully pulpit on Thursday to chastise banks and bankers while announcing a punitive tax on them to assuage an angry populace. Is his rage valid? Should we be angry at banks for making lots of money and then paying out big bonuses?
If it weren’t for Hugo Chávez, my favorite Latin American dictator, life would be pretty dull. The guy is a walking, talking economics lesson. He’s so easy to pick on because he has the Sadim touch (you know, instead of turning things into gold like Midas, he turns things into crap). Everything he has done has moved Venezuela backwards. The people who actually do something productive in the economy hate him. The have-nots love him because he promised them lots of free stuff. But lately his numbers are sinking: his policies don’t work.
This post demonstrates how economic ignorance and megalomania combine for a devastating result for the people of Venezuela. This is a script for Venezuela’s future.
Is it time to head for the hills, stockpile food and ammo, and wait in the bunkers? I get a number of e-mails from readers seeking advice, usually investment advice. Last year I received messages of a theme that can be described as folks who felt The Great Collapse was happening. Armageddon and that type of thing. Here's my advice. Do you agree?
2009 was a game changer, a year that will have profound long-term impacts on our future. These changes are generational. Here are the top 10 economic events of 2009. Understand them well because they will change your future and the future of your children and grandchildren. It won't be good change.
Nouriel Roubini, my favorite playboy economist, recently trashed gold. He's wrong for a lot of reasons. His arguments weren't that coherent. Spam, indeed. Instead of refuting him point by point, since others have already done that, I will just make my case for what I think will happen to gold. We'll see if my guess is better than his.
Paul Samuelson may have been a brilliant man, but he was the problem, not the solution. We can trace many of our current problems to his "scientific" econometric technocracy.
Something to think about this weekend if you are freezing your ass off, or getting soaked. Is it global warming or global cooling? What have we done to change climate? What happens if we do nothing? What happens if we do something as outlined in Copenhagen? Here's a great summary of the science from Cato. Illarionov was Putin's chief economic advisor.
At a jobs summit with President Obama, Democratic and Republican leadership gathered at the White House to discuss the Administration's job bills. Apparently it got a bit testy. Republicans pushed Mr. Obama to freeze federal spending, a plea the president answered by repeatedly challenging them to produce an economist who believed that cutting spending now would be a good idea. His query was met with silence. So, in order to rescue the inept Republicans, I have a list of 200 respected economists who would gladly support a freeze on federal spending.
Christina Romer is one of Obama's chief economic advisors. But she has absolutely no clue what to do about this crisis. Her recent letter defending the Administration's policies is just the usual hack political stuff one would expect from them. She is typical of the problems in Washington. She means well, but she is fabricating the truth in order to justify their actions. Their approach to using government power is one we should all be afraid of. She spells it out quite clearly.
Japan has been the poster child of what not to do. They are a textbook case for the failure of Keynesian stimulus. After 20 years of repeating the same mistakes with the same results, you would think they would learn. They haven't. Now they may enact a policy that will lead to depression level unemployment. Remember the definition of insanity: do the same thing over and over and expect a different result?
On the surface, the decrease in unemployment and the increase in factory orders seem encouraging. But if we dig a little deeper, the numbers tell a different story. Much of these "gains" relate to stimulus and aren't real and will dissipate once stimulus wears off.
