Yearly Archives: 2013

Mondragon Corporation (Wikipedia)

"Currently it is the seventh-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2012, it employed 83,321 people in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The determining factor in the creation of the Mondragon system was the arrival in 1941 of a young Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000. In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college that became a training ground for generations of managers, engineers and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives." Continue reading →

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Taiwanese Apple contractor probes claims of labor abuse

"The US rights groups said three Pegatron plants in China impose excessive overtime and employ minors. It also cited crowded dormitories, insufficient fire escape routes and arbitrary fines for perceived minor lapses of behaviour. Apple has also said it will investigate the claims. Pegatron produces consumer electronics like game consoles, television sets and computers for Sony, Toshiba and some other brand name vendors, as well as assembling products for Apple, an official of the Taiwanese company said. It currently has around 110,000 employees, the vast majority of them in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Suzhou and Chongqing." Continue reading →

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Ex-inmate at Chinese prison: We made airline headsets

"Major airlines including British Airways and electronics manufacturers have been accused of sourcing products from a Chinese prison where inmates are tasered if they don’t hit production targets. The Australian Financial Review was tipped off about the story by New Zealander Danny Cancian, a former inmate of Dongguan prison in southern Guangdong province. He claimed he had made in-flight headphones for Qantas, British Airways and Emirates as well as parts for local firms which supply US technology giant Emerson and home appliance maker Electrolux. All companies denied any knowledge of selling products made in Dongguan." Continue reading →

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Challenging a Long-Held Assumption about Commodities

"When it comes to oil demand, 17 years ago, China was a net exporter. Today, it is the second-largest importer, transporting 5.4 million barrels of oil into the country every day. That’s why it is widely accepted that the Asian giant spurred higher commodity prices in the past decade. And if the country was the force behind the boom, then the assumption is that China’s lower, but still healthy growth will be a drag on commodity prices. But recent research challenges this assumption. According to BCA Research’s Chen Zhao, what is initially an 'outrageous proposition' may not actually be." Continue reading →

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Bullish at the Bottom: Why Now is the Time to Buy Commodities

"At first glance, the correction seems to support naysayers who believe the supercycle in commodities has ended, such as Credit Suisse analysts who had declared that the 'era is over' in its digital magazine The Financialist. We disagree. Instead, we see severe price declines as possible buying opportunities during this ongoing commodity supercycle. Consider the extreme pessimism on gold. As one measure of how bears have ganged up against the yellow metal, take a look at the spike in the level of short positions on the precious metal since the beginning of the year. As of the beginning of July, the number of outstanding gold short contracts was close to 140,000!" Continue reading →

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Marc Faber on shadow banking, market psychology, & the global impact of American monetary policy

"Marc Faber is an economic authority on global macroeconomics, capital markets, and investment and the Editor & Publisher of 'The Gloom Boom & Doom Report'. He spoke with The Prospect Group about easy monetary policy and credit growth, asset price volatility, and the Fed." Continue reading →

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Inflation is rotten to the core: Regardless of what Fed says, prices are rising

"You might be just a trifle curious about how the use of the core rate of inflation (leaving out food and energy) came into being. The core rate of inflation was the brainstorm of Arthur F. Burns, chairman of the Federal Reserve during the early 1970s. The object of this exercise was to take people’s eyes off what was really happening to prices so that the Fed of that era could run an ultra-easy monetary policy. The professorial Burns managed to convince the Congress, the government’s statistical agencies, the press and his fellow economists that excluding food and energy was the right way to look at prices." Continue reading →

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US Rents Hit Record Highs As Homeownership Plunges To 18 Year Lows

"The raw homeownership rate of 65.0% was unchanged from last quarter and 0.4% lower than a year ago. And on a seasonally adjusted basis, the percentage of Americans who have a house declined from 65.2% to 65.1%: the lowest since 1995. Obviously the flipside to most 'children' in their mid-30s still living in their parents' basements is that those wishing to brave the New Normal world will have to spend a lot for rent. A record lot in fact: the median asking rent for US vacant housing units just hit an all time high of $735 per month. The pain is most acute for those renting in the Northeast, where the median rent soared by $65 to a record high of $961." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Rents Hit Record Highs As Homeownership Plunges To 18 Year Lows

Bill Bonner: How America’s Working Stiffs Got Stiffed

"The Party leadership is not infallible. Neither in China nor in the US. In both countries, the feds – looking out for themselves – make policy decisions that are disastrous for others. We have no idea what calamity the central planners will cause in China. But we can take a fair guess of what they will do to America. Broadly, China’s feds build too many factories, malls and apartments. America’s feds encouraged the opposite error – borrowing and spending too much for consumption purposes. China’s real wages doubled in the last 10 years… after doubling in the previous 10 years. That is why the Chinese feel so much better off. They ARE much better off." Continue reading →

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Peter Schiff: Buy Gold and Silver Now, Money Printing Until We Have A Currency Crisis & More

"Fed Chief Ben Bernanke is going to be replaced by the end of this year. CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, Peter Schiff, speculates on his replacement by saying, 'If it's solely based on which Fed Chairman is the most bullish for gold and silver, I would say that would be Janet Yellen. No matter who's put in at the Fed, they are going to keep printing because that's all they can do.' Schiff warns, 'They're going to keep printing until we have a currency crisis . . . and that is the most bullish environment for gold. Don't wait for the crisis to buy because you are not going to like the price.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: Buy Gold and Silver Now, Money Printing Until We Have A Currency Crisis & More