Yearly Archives: 2013

The Case Against Government Bans on Feeding the Homeless

"Cities like New York City, Philadelphia, and Houston have banned residents from sharing food with the homeless and less fortunate. In Chicago, for example, at least one politician, Ald. James Cappleman, recently tried to banish a Salvation Army food truck from feeding the homeless in his neighborhood. I called such laws 'unconstitutional, discriminatory, and wrongheaded' in a column I wrote over the summer. They remain so. But since I wrote that widely read column in June, I’ve noticed a welcome pattern emerging. These unjust laws are under attack." Continue reading →

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Police Cited Homeless Veteran For Dumpster Diving In Search For Food

"They’ve traveled many different roads with all of them leading to the same destination – a place called homelessness. James Kelly, 44, is no exception. 'James Kelly is a nine-year veteran of the Navy, who has fallen on hard times,' said Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney. Those hard times recently got even harder, when Kelly was issued a citation as he foraged for food in a trash bin on Bagby Street. 'The mayor is shutting down feeding the homeless,' said Deborah Girton, who is also homeless. Critics point to a city ordinance passed last summer that places restrictions on good Samaritans and how many people they can feed." Continue reading →

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Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them

"Ultra-secret national security letters that come with a gag order on the recipient are an unconstitutional impingement on free speech, a federal judge in California ruled in a decision released Friday. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the government to stop issuing so-called NSLs across the board, in a stunning defeat for the Obama administration’s surveillance practices. She also ordered the government to cease enforcing the gag provision in any other cases. However, she stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals." Continue reading →

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Libor Scandal to Reveal Metals Manipulation?

"Gold is being sucked directly into the Libor scandal. Of course, we are on record as pointing out that it can hardly be much of a scandal when central banks set the price and volume of money every day. But nonetheless, the mainstream press has been buzzing about the idea that commercial banks were setting LIBOR rates in ways that accommodated their business practices. It is ultimately all about control. Gold and silver prices are apparently not subject to open marketplace competition for a reason. And now the Libor scandal threatens to unearth the seamy side of metals manipulation from the standpoint of the world's biggest banks." Continue reading →

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Not Your Father’s Stock Market Anymore

"Unfortunately, we live in a world where the majority of investors are granting far too much credit to the market data they are being fed. They are making decisions based on faulty premises. They often do not even understand the basics of monetary expansion and how that affects purchasing power. The most important issue, however, is that the powerful artificial forces affecting stock markets cannot hold free-market adjustments at bay forever. That is why it is important to select stocks based not just on 'mainstream' indicators of performance and industry leadership but also on the business cycle, apparent monetary stimulation and other outside forces." Continue reading →

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Fraud in the Financial Markets: Are You Vulnerable?

"It can be hard for investors to defend themselves, especially because we judge other professions similarly. You go to a doctor with a good reputation for helping patients; you don't assume that he was lucky. But in finance, someone with a good reputation might – believe or not – just be lucky, or worse yet, fraudulent. My advice for avoiding many problems is simple: don't focus on someone's net worth for your investment decisions. Instead, consider their ideas and pretend that you heard them from the intern just starting his first day on the job. Does the idea still sound like a logical and reasonable investment plan?" Continue reading →

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Has the bull market in stocks become ‘too big to fail’?

"Officially, the Federal Reserve isn't supposed to worry about keeping stock prices flying high. But when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was asked about the market's outlook last week on Capitol Hill, he sounded like a lot of bullish Wall Street investment strategists. 'I don't see much evidence of an equity bubble,' he told the Senate Banking Committee in his semiannual testimony on Fed policy. Stocks 'don't appear overvalued given earnings and interest rates.' More important for the markets, Bernanke pledged to continue the Fed's policy of pumping colossal sums into the financial system to support the economic recovery." Continue reading →

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Treasury chief Jacob Lew not worried about financial bubble

"US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday that he was not worried about a potential financial bubble forming as Wall Street stocks racked up record highs. 'The analysis that I’ve seen doesn’t give me reason to be worried right now,' Lew said in an interview on US business news channel CNBC. Lew nevertheless called for monitoring of the situation in order to avoid another crisis like the 2008 Wall Street crash that led to the Great Recession. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday closed at a record high for the eighth day in a row, though the US economy remains sluggish and massive government spending cuts kicked in on March 1." Continue reading →

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