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Control What You Can
Control What You Can Our society does not make it easy to control what you can control. One of the aphorisms to live by here at Of Two Minds is control what you can.We don’t control the erosion of our money from inflation, the state’s vast criminalization machinery, the nation’s foreign policies or the central bank’s free money for […]
The High Cost of Honesty in a Sea of Low-Cost BS
The High Cost of Honesty in a Sea of Low-Cost BS As the cost of propagating BS drops to near-zero, the value of honestly achieved analyses and conclusions rises proportionately. Longtime correspondent Michael M. recently recommended this long-form article The Market For Lemons, The Market For Bullshit, And The Great Cascading Credence Crash Of 2016. The […]
The Mainstream Has Failed
The Mainstream Has Failed The good news is there is a way to avoid failure and stagnation: avoid the mainstream like the plague. The mainstream became mainstream because it worked: the mainstream advice to “go to college and you’ll get a good job” worked, the mainstream financial plan of buying a house to build equity to […]
“Helicopter Money” Won’t Fix What’s Broken
“Helicopter Money” Won’t Fix What’s Broken Creating “free money” to support bloated bureaucracies and corrupt cartels only makes the underlying problems worse. The mere mention of helicopter money has intoxicated global stock markets, which have soared on the rumor of Japanese helicopter money. But as I explained in Why Helicopter Money Won’t Push Stocks Higher, central banks funding fiscal spending […]
Risk On/Risk Off: What Schizophrenic Markets Are Telling Us
Risk On/Risk Off: What Schizophrenic Markets Are Telling Us These trends cannot be reversed with yet another rate cut or another “whatever it takes” announcement. In the conventional investment perspective, risk-on assets (i.e. investments with higher risks and higher potential returns) such as stocks are on a see-saw with risk-off assets (investments with lower returns and lower risk, such as […]
Governments Change, the Corporatocracy Endures
Governments Change, the Corporatocracy Endures Ultimately, the dominance of global capital (the Corporatocracy) is not financial– it’s political. One little-remarked consequence of the central banks’ policies of near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing is the unrivaled dominance of mobile global capital, i.e. the Corporatocracy. The source of corporate political power is the ability to borrow essentially […]
Please Don’t Pop My Bubble!
Please Don’t Pop My Bubble! So ride your bubble of choice up–stocks, bonds, housing, bat guano, take your pick–but it’s best to keep your thumb on the sell button. One person’s bubble is another person’s “fair market value.” What is clearly an outrageously overvalued asset perched at nosebleed levels of central-bank fueled speculative euphoria is to […]
Japan: A Future of Stagnation
Japan: A Future of Stagnation Take a declining population with declining rates of productivity growth and load it up with debt, and you get a triple-whammy recipe for permanent stagnation. One of our longtime friends in Japan just sold the family business. The writing was on the wall, and had been for the past decade: fewer […]
The Structure of Collapse: 2016-2019
The Structure of Collapse: 2016-2019 Leaders face a no-win dilemma: any change of course will crash the system, but maintaining the current course will also crash the system. The end-state of unsustainable systems is collapse. Though collapse may appear to be sudden and chaotic, we can discern key structures that guide the processes of collapse. Though […]
The Source of Failure: We Optimize What We Measure
The Source of Failure: We Optimize What We Measure Rather than measure consumption and metrics that incentivize debt, what if we measure well-being and opportunities offered in our communities? The problems we face cannot be fixed with policy tweaks and minor reforms.Yet policy tweaks and minor reforms are all we can manage when the pie […]
If Geography and Demographics Are Destiny, Who Will Be the Winners and Losers in 2025?
If Geography and Demographics Are Destiny, Who Will Be the Winners and Losers in 2025? Owning any asset in poorly positioned nations is an inherently risky bet going forward. The dictum “demographics is destiny” proposes that all the complexities of finance, society and politics are ultimately guided by demographics: the relative size of each generation, birth […]
The Destabilizing Consequences of Globalization
The Destabilizing Consequences of Globalization Gordon T. Long and I discuss the failure of the status quo’s “New Normal” in a new 34-minute YouTube program. It is not possible to coherently discuss the “New Normal” economy without discussing financialization–the substitution of credit expansion and speculation for productive investments in the real economy–and its sibling: globalization. Globalization is […]
No Wonder We’re Poorer: Wages’ Share of GDP Has Fallen for 46 Years
No Wonder We’re Poorer: Wages’ Share of GDP Has Fallen for 46 Years The problem is that limiting financialization will implode the system. The majority of American households feel poorer because they are poorer. Real (i.e. adjusted for inflation) median household income has declined for decades, and income gains are concentrated in the top 5%: Even […]
One Chart Says It All
One Chart Says It All People sense the ‘recovery” is bogus, and their rational response is to save more money rather than squander it. Sometimes one chart captures the fundamental reality of the economy: for example, this chart of money velocity and the civilian-population ratio. (thank you, Joseph Y. for posting it on my Facebook feed.) […]
Eight “New Normal” Charts That Are Insanely Abnormal–and Dangerous
Eight “New Normal” Charts That Are Insanely Abnormal–and Dangerous Is there anyone on the planet who’s actually stupid enough to believe these New Normal charts are healthy and sustainable? Anyone questioning the sustainability and rightness of The New Normal is immediately attacked by the mainstream-media defenders of the crumbling status quo. Not only is everything that […]
