Category Archives: Economy

‘Monetary Rigor Mortis’

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

Intrinsically, libertarians of the Austrian School of Economics know all too well what’s afoot across global financial markets. As of Friday, the Dow was at 16,450, down 1,018 points for the week. Yet, search libertarian websites high-and-low and you’ll be hard pressed to find decent commentary on the state of financial markets. Doug Casey and Jeff Berwick agree that financial collapse is imminent, writing that “we are now exiting the eye of the hurricane and rapidly heading towards what he terms the Greater Depression, and Jeff Berwick believes a collapse is being planned for September, moving the world closer to a one world government.”

Monetary rigor mortis is David Stockman’s term for what’s underway. Doug Noland fleshes things out at Stockman’s Contra Corner:

… Global financial tumult has now attained sufficient momentum so that even U.S. markets can no longer remain comfortably oblivious. Yet, for most in the U.S. there remains little worry: the economy is sound, housing is booming, Silicon Valley is heroic, the banking system is rock solid, and the corporate sector is awash in cash. The U.S. economy is viewed as insignificantly exposed to China’s economic slowdown – and to global issues for the most part. Analysts speak of a “normal” stock market pullback – yet another buying opportunity. There is, however, little normal about current global financial, economic and geopolitical backdrops.

The last seven years have witnessed unprecedented EM debt expansion, led by what should be a frightening ballooning of Chinese Credit. In particular, Chinese and EM banks have coalesced into historic lending growth and balance sheet (assets and liabilities) expansion. This week saw indications of what has the potential to erupt into an Asian and EM banking system crisis of confidence. Faith that Chinese and EM government officials have the situation under control is surely being shaken. This is a game-changer for global finance and for the world economy. Financial conditions are tightening around the world – and this has zero to do with a possible September Fed (“baby step”) rate increase. …

… there’s a recurring theme that is especially pertinent these days. Financial and economic Bubbles invariably prove much more resilient than Bubble analysts presume. And, at the end of the day, the excesses and consequences go beyond what even the hardcore “bears” could anticipate. The adage around our office became: “It’s Always Worse Than You Think.”

They’d Like You To Think Trump’s Immigration Paper Is INSANE

Economy, Free Markets, IMMIGRATION, Trade

READ IT. Before reality was raped with the aid of brain-addling, reality flouting, idiotic, academic theory; before common sense was replaced by the lemming’s lunacy that is political correctness; and in the days when political position papers were expected to be written in plain English and consist of a few—not hundreds of—pages; the Trump position paper might have been considered common sense:

The three core principles of Donald J Trump’s immigration plan:

… When politicians talk about “immigration reform” they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders. The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties. Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first, not wealthy globetrotting donors.

We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own. That must change.Here are the three core principles of real immigration reform:

1. A nation without borders is not a nation.
2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.
3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all American …

READ THE REST.

Yeah, I’m a free trader. However, there is no such thing as free trade, not in the US and not globally; not de facto, and not de jure. We labor under managed, highly regulated trade.

Trump Should Triangulate

Business, Economy, Elections, Free Markets, Government, Politics

“Trump Should Triangulate” is the current column, now on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine. An excerpt:

Working people warm to Donald Trump. He appeals to a good segment of real Americans. The circle jerk of power brokers that is American media, however, lacks the depth and understanding to grasp the fellow-feeling Trump engenders in his fans.

THE MEDIA STRUMPETS

Amid sneers about Trump’s “crazy, entertaining, simplistic talk,” the none-too bright Joan Walsh, Salon editor-in-chief, proclaimed (MSNBC): “I look at those people and I feel sad. That is really such a low common denominator. They’re all Republicans … they really don’t have a firm grasp on reality.”

For failing to foresee Trump’s staying power, smarmy Michael Smerconish (CNN) scolded himself adoringly. He was what “Mr. Trump would call ‘a loser.’” Smerconish’s admission was a way of copping to his superiority. From such vertiginous intellectual heights, Smerconish was incapable of fathoming the atavistic instincts elicited by the candidate. Nevertheless, the broadcaster “quadrupled down.” The country would be delivered from Donald by Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who’d scare Trump away.

Campbell Brown, another banal bloviator, ventured that Trump resonates with a fringe and was fast approaching a time when he would, like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, “max-out the craziness” quotient.

Trump supporters were simply enamored of his vibe, said a dismissive Ellis Henican.

As derisive, another Fox News commentator spoke about the “meat and potatoes” for which Trump cheerleaders hanker. I suspect he meant “red meat.”

National Journal’s Ronald Brownstein divined his own taxonomy of the Republican Beast: the “upscale Republicans and the blue-collar Republicans.” The group of toothless rube-hicks Brownstein places in Trump’s camp.

Pollster Frank Luntz provides his own brand of asphyxiating agitprop: The little people want to elect someone they’d have a beer with.

A British late night anchor—a CNN hire!—offered this non sequitur: Trump painting himself as anti-establishment and, at the same time, owning hotels: this was a contradiction. In the mind of this asinine liberal, only a Smelly Rally like “Occupy Wall Street” instantiates the stuff of rebellion and individualism. (Never mind that the Occupy Crowds were walking ads for the bounty business provides. The clothes they wore, the devices they used to transmit their sub-intelligent message; the food they bought cheaply at the corner stand to sustain their efforts—these were all produced, or brought to market by the invisible hand of the despised John Galts and the derided working people.)

I know not what exactly the oracular Krauthammer said to anger Trump, but it was worth it: “Charles Krauthammer is a totally overrated person … I’ve never met him … He’s a totally overrated guy, doesn’t know what he’s doing. He was totally in favor of the war in Iraq. He wanted to go into Iraq and he wanted to stay there forever. These are totally overrated people.”

Even media mogul Rupert Murdoch moved in on Trump, calling him an embarrassment to his friends and to the country.

Inadvertently, one media strumpet came close to coming clean about the serial failures of analysis among her kind. Wonkette, or Wonkette Emerita, aka Ana Marie Cox, spoke of “the superfluousness of the media’s predictions and its inability to perform the service of making sense of events.” Like Smerconish, Cox is hoping against hope that the little people are having fun at her expense and “are in some way in on the joke” that is Trump. …

… Read the rest. “Trump Should Triangulate” is now on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine.

Greek Economic Crisis A Crisis Of GOVERNMENT Debt

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe

Here’s the thing about the situation in Greece: Among those who’ve had their assets frozen, and are prohibited from accessing their bank deposits, are solvent people like you and me. So you know: Once the US gets to Greece’s situation—you and I will have a hard time accessing our own property.

The Greek economic crisis is a crisis of government-debt, euphemized as a “sovereign debt crisis. During the rule of the “right-wing military junta,” Greece was in the black; it ran surpluses. When successive, socialist Greek governments came to power, in 1974, they strove mightily “to bring disenfranchised left-leaning portions of the population into the economic mainstream and so ran large deficits to finance enormous military expenditure, public sector jobs, pensions and other social benefits.”

Give us your votes, and we’ll give you the keys to the treasury. This ought to sound familiar to Americans.

The latest via Investor’s Business Daily:

Eurozone leaders struck a conditional deal with Greece early Monday that would keep the country in the currency union, but at a steep price for a government that just days ago won a mandate from Greek citizens to stand firm.

Greece’s third bailout, worth 86 billion euros ($95 billion), will require that it enact tough measures, including reforms of the pension and tax systems, budget cuts, and privatization of many of its assets. It must also be approved by the Greek parliament and some of its measures written into law by Wednesday. …