Archives
Is Anybody Okay Out There?
November 20th, 2015
In normal times, the world’s major economies are a mixed bag. Some are up, some are down, some are placid, some are in crisis. It’s only at the boom/bust extremes that everyone finds themselves in more-or-less the same boat. ...
Ominous Parallels: The Roman Empire, The European Union, And Mass Migration
November 18th, 2015
This weekend’s Paris attacks, occurring in the middle of one of history’s largest mass-migrations, has the feel of uncharted territory. But it’s actually an eerie echo of something that happened nearly two thousand years ago in more-or-less the same ...
Even Small, Well-Run Countries Can’t Escape The Currency War
November 13th, 2015
The old saying “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled” captures perfectly the dilemma of the world’s non-superpowers. From Brazil to Thailand to non-eurozone Europe, the currency war raging between the leading economies is creating collateral damage. ...
Portugal Is Potentially A Very Big Deal
November 11th, 2015
Portugal has entered a phase change, with potentially huge ramifications. After handing a parliamentary majority to a coalition of leftist (i.e., anti-austerity, anti-euro, anti-NATO) parties, and then trying to prevent them forming a government, the country now looks likely ...
Precious Metals Starting To Produce Some Winners
October 27th, 2015
Everybody who’s owned gold and silver mining shares through a couple of cycles has their favorite story of the stock that took off and ran away. There was Glamis Gold, which rose from $1 to $40 in the space ...
Why We’re Ungovernable, Part 11: Portugal Stages A Coup
October 26th, 2015
Wow. Portugal just did something extraordinary. In its most recent election, parties of the left — anti-austerity, anti-business, mistrustful of the euro and other extra-national institutions — gained a parliamentary majority, which gives them the right to form a ...
Europe Admits QE Has Failed, Promises More Of It
October 23rd, 2015
New Age monetary policy has begun to resemble the form of insanity in which a patient repeats the same behavior while expecting a different outcome. Throughout the developed world, interest rates are at record lows and central banks continue ...
Negative Interest Rates Are Here
October 20th, 2015
Not so long ago, a bank was by definition a business that took deposits from customers, paid them for the use of their money, and lent the cash to other customers at a profit. But that’s not how it ...
Big Banks, Serious Trouble
October 12th, 2015
It turns out that the world of ZIRP/NIRP isn’t the banking paradise that some thought it would be. See Why The Big Banks Want Higher Interest Rates. Whether the problem is with low interest rates themselves or the fact ...
We Aren’t Nearly As Worried About The Middle East As We should Be
October 7th, 2015
What’s the opposite of a gift that keeps on giving? A mistake that keeps metastasizing. Which pretty much sums up the US role in the Middle East. Beginning with the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected president and ...
