From the category archives:

Economy

The Rubber Hits the Road – Hussman article

March 9, 2010

I am a big fan of John Hussman. His recent article, “The Rubber Hits the Road”, hits my thoughts exactly. The Fed and our government through a massive amount of stimulus at the economic downturn. However, this only provides a short term fix. The underlying structural problems still exist and will manifest itself at some [...]

Read the full article →

State Helps Pay Mortgages for Citizens

March 8, 2010

Here is an interesting article about a program in Pennsylvania that loans up to $60,000 to homeowners who can’t pay their mortgage due to a layoff or other financial strain.
The program, which has distributed $450 million on behalf of 43,000 homeowners since its inception, has an 80% success rate in helping borrowers avoid foreclosure. And [...]

Read the full article →

The Wrong Lessons from Japan’s Defunct Economy

March 8, 2010

Interesting article from Andy Xie, a former analyst at Morgan Stanley who now follows China and the Asian economies. I completely agree with him that our economists are heading down the wrong path. They assume that more stimulus is needed. The reality is the opposite. We have over-indebted our economy and need to deleverage.
The biggest [...]

Read the full article →

The Multiplication of Money – John Mauldin article

February 28, 2010

The economy grew in the fourth quarter by 5.9%, the most in years. The adjusted monetary base is exploding. Bank reserves are literally through the roof. The Fed is flooding money into the system in an effort to get banks to lend. An historically normal response by banks (to increase lending) would have been massively [...]

Read the full article →

GDP Actually 5.9% – Very Small Considering the Stimulus

February 27, 2010

Turns out the U.S. GDP grew 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the  initial 2.7%. However, the actual sales to consumers was lower than originally reported while inventory replenishment was larger.
Nearly two thirds of the growth in GDP in the fourth quarter was accounted for by changes in inventories, not by final [...]

Read the full article →

Stocks and Government Interference

February 25, 2010

Interesting exchange on Tech Ticker with Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak.

The interesting part isn’t so much the debate about deflation or inflation – although that is a huge factor in where the markets head from here (I suspect deflation for longer than most anticipate) – but about how government intervention makes it [...]

Read the full article →

Rogoff Sees Sovereign Debt Defaults

February 24, 2010

A good article by Ken Rogoff, the author of This Time is Different, about the impending sovereign debt defaults.
Following banking crises, “we usually see a bunch of sovereign defaults, say in a few years,” Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said at a forum in Tokyo yesterday. “I predict we will [...]

Read the full article →

The Pain in Spain

February 22, 2010

Thoughts from the Frontline Weekly Newsletter
The Pain in Spain
by John Mauldin
February 19, 2010
In this issue:
Germany, Greece, and Spain
Two Views on the Euro
The Pain in Spain
How Much Is Too Much?
Tampa, Austin, and California
Last week we talked about Greece. But the problems are more than just Greece. We look at two very different views of the euro, [...]

Read the full article →

Nobel Prize Winner Calls for Reform

February 19, 2010

An interesting segment at Tech Ticker with Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize Winning economist, where he calls for banking reform now…or face another crisis in the future.

Stiglitz is a Keynesian economist. He may be more Keynesian then Keynes himself, but I, along with most Austrian economists, agree with him. To date, nothing has been done [...]

Read the full article →

There go the Keynesians Again

February 14, 2010

Interesting article from Paul Samuleson, a Nobel Prize winning economist, who is as big of a Keynesian as there is. He has some good points, but I don’t agree with his overall philosophy. Keynes is dead, and I wish his ideas were too. What gets me the most about Keynesians is they are so Democratic. [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries