Archives
When Authorities “Own” the Market, The System Breaks Down: Here’s Why
July 28th, 2015
Central planning asset purchases aimed at propping up prices destroy the essential price discovery needed by private investors. Panicked by the possibility of declines that undermine the official narrative that all is well, authorities the world over are purchasing ...
Will the Oil Patch Bust Trigger Recession?
July 23rd, 2015
This seemingly inexhaustible credit line is now drying up, with severely negative consequences for oil producers with debt that’s coming due. Could the oil patch bust triggered by oil plummeting from $100/barrel to $50/barrel kick the U.S. into recession? Longtime ...
Greece and the Problem of Correcting Trade/Productivity Imbalances
July 17th, 2015
Piling on more debt is the worst possible way to correct structural trade and productivity imbalances. In Greece and the End of the Euroland Fantasy, I suggested the trade imbalances at the heart of Greece’s debt crisis could only ...
Ragin’ Contagion: When Debtors Go Broke, So Do Mercantilist Exporters
July 7th, 2015
Papering over the structural imbalances in the Eurozone with bailouts or bail-ins will not resolve the fundamental asymmetries in trade. Beneath the endless twists and turns of Greece‘s debt crisis lie fundamental asymmetries that doom the euro, the joint currency that ...
The Financial Markets Now Control Everything
April 29th, 2015
The entire economic and political structure is now dependent in one way or another on the continued expansion of financial markets. The financial markets don’t just dominate the economy–they now control everything. In 1999, the BBC broadcast a 4-part ...
The Inevitable Failure of Mechanistic Monetary Policy
April 3rd, 2015
Our current faith in central banks’ ability to “make the economy all better, all the time” is horrendously misplaced. We are living in the Cargo Cult Era of Central Bankers. The era began in earnest on December 5, 1996, ...
