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Crazy days for money
Crazy days for money This article anticipates the end of the fiat currency regime and argues why its replacement can only be gold and silver, most likely in the form of fiat money turned into gold substitutes. It explains why the current fashion for cryptocurrencies, led by bitcoin, are unsuited as future mediums of exchange, […]
The Foundation for Potential Price Hyperinflation is Being Laid
The Foundation for Potential Price Hyperinflation is Being Laid The Federal Reserve sure seems to have a tough time finding and reporting signs of rising inflation — especially when it’s hidden in other sectors like a lack of demand for energy. A recent example of the Fed’s “inflation blindness” comes from a speech Chairman Jerome Powell gave […]
Rabobank: You Only See How Stable A System Really Is By Pushing It To Its Limits
Rabobank: You Only See How Stable A System Really Is By Pushing It To Its Limits “Stonks” and “Burneds” We are, it is now being widely decried, in the middle of a “stonk” bubble. The Financial Times(!) is carrying an article calling on the Federal Reserve to stop its easy money; and Bloomberg(!) has strategy […]
Fed’s Near-Zero Rates Might Sound Good (Until This Happens)
Fed’s Near-Zero Rates Might Sound Good (Until This Happens) In some cases, the idea of a “near-zero interest rate” is a good thing. For example, if you qualify for 0% interest when you buy a car, you save money. But it’s much different when your retirement savings depends on getting a return on investment (ROI). In that case, near-zero […]
The Dystopian Bubble: George Orwell Meets Charles Mackay
The Dystopian Bubble: George Orwell Meets Charles Mackay “Threats to freedom of speech, writing, and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.” ~ George Orwell In early December I asked Jim Grant how to reconcile exuberant financial […]
Dollar’s Purchasing Power Drops to Record Low, Despite Aggressive “Hedonic Quality Adjustments”
Dollar’s Purchasing Power Drops to Record Low, Despite Aggressive “Hedonic Quality Adjustments” Spiking prices for new and used vehicles under the microscope. The “Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar” – part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index data released today – is the politically incorrect mirror image of inflation in consumer prices, as […]
The Only Way Out of the Death Trap
The Only Way Out of the Death Trap I’ve said the U.S. is caught in a debt death trap. Monetary policy won’t get us out because the velocity of money, the rate at which money changes hands, is dropping. Printing more money alone will not change that. Fiscal policy won’t work either because of high […]
The Degrowth platform of the CUP for Catalonia
The Degrowth platform of the CUP for Catalonia (Adapted from a previous version in Galician published at El Salto. Translated and adapted by Mark Burton and Salvador Lladó.)“By speaking of degrowth, you don’t win elections”, said Juan Carlos Monedero, one of the most charismatic members of the Spanish political party Podemos, a few years ago. But […]
Rabobank: The Everything Bubble Has Become More Everything And More Bubble
Rabobank: The Everything Bubble Has Become More Everything And More Bubble Oh-No-Bi-Wan Kenobi For those who haven’t seen it –and I accept there are now probably many readers who haven’t– there is a classic scene in the first Star Wars film (Episode IV) in which Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi tells his villainous duelling opponent, his […]
Opinion v Fact
Opinion v Fact COMMENT: Marty, Each day I read reports from so called reputable people expressing what they think might happen given the backdrop today. It is laughable. Most do this based on superficial analysis or cursory comparisons with things that appear to line up, appear to rhythm, to paraphrase M Twain. What a joke. I say […]
Yellen’s LaLa Land Prediction Of Full Employment
Yellen’s LaLa Land Prediction Of Full Employment Biden And Yellen Serve Destructive Recursion While the trend of automating jobs is moving along full speed U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen recently said that the U.S. could achieve full employment recovery if President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus package is passed. “I would expect that if this package is passed, we […]
Exclusive: Whistleblower Accuses Exxon of ‘Fraudulent’ Behavior for Overvaluing Fracking Assets For Years
Exclusive: Whistleblower Accuses Exxon of ‘Fraudulent’ Behavior for Overvaluing Fracking Assets For Years ExxonMobil announced a $19.3 billion write-down on Tuesday, a big hit to a company reeling from depressed oil and gas prices and a rapidly changing global energy market. The write-down reduces the value of the assets on Exxon’s books. The announcement comes as part […]
The awkward class
The awkward class Time to talk about peasants, who I claim in Chapter 3 of my book A Small Farm Future will soon be returning to tend (or create) a small farm near you. Or may in fact include you or your descendants. This claim is at odds with most of what’s been written about rural trends […]
Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong
Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong There are a huge number of people doing energy modeling. In my opinion, nearly all of them are going astray in their modeling because they don’t understand how the economy really operates. The modeling that comes closest to being correct is that which underlies the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth by […]
