Author: The Freedom Watch Staff

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Francois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

"French president François Hollande has bowed to massive pressure for business tax cuts to pull France’s economy out of slump and stave off industrial decline, ditching a core element of his socialist platform. Company taxes will fall by €20bn a year equal to 1pc of GDP, to be phased in gradually by 2015 under a convoluted system of rebates. Spending cuts will plug the revenue gap in order to meet the EU’s 3pc deficit target. Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of 'Socialism in one country' under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrancois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

Francois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

"French president François Hollande has bowed to massive pressure for business tax cuts to pull France’s economy out of slump and stave off industrial decline, ditching a core element of his socialist platform. Company taxes will fall by €20bn a year equal to 1pc of GDP, to be phased in gradually by 2015 under a convoluted system of rebates. Spending cuts will plug the revenue gap in order to meet the EU’s 3pc deficit target. Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of 'Socialism in one country' under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrancois Hollande lurches Right in historic U-Turn to save French economy

Traders Getting Replaced By Machines

"Wall Street’s credit-derivatives traders, who before the financial crisis commanded $2 million of annual pay, are being replaced by machines as banks cut costs and heed new regulations. UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, fired its head of credit-default swaps index trading, David Gallers, last week, with no plan to fill the position, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, the bank replaced Gallers with computer algorithms that trade using mathematical models." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTraders Getting Replaced By Machines

Fed’s Williams Says Bond Buying May Exceed $600 Billion

"Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said the central bank may buy more than $600 billion in bonds by extending its third round of quantitative easing well into next year. The Federal Open Market Committee last month affirmed its decision in September to buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month without specifying the total size or duration of the purchases. Williams, who holds a vote on policy this year, was among the first Fed officials to advocate open- ended bond buying." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed’s Williams Says Bond Buying May Exceed $600 Billion

Montana Voters Nullify Obamacare Mandates

"The 'Montana Health Care Freedom Act' otherwise known as Referendum 122, prohibits the state and federal governments from requiring the purchase of health insurance or imposing any penalty, tax, fee or fine on those who do not purchase health insurance. The prohibition does have some restrictions, but the good thing about this…these rules are being set by the state of Montana, not the the Federal Government . Referendum 122 Passed 66% YES to 34% NO. This makes Montana the 3rd state to nullify Obamacare after the SCOTUS decision that called it 'constitutional' this summer." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMontana Voters Nullify Obamacare Mandates

Lew Rockwell: The First 30 Years of the Mises Institute, and the Future

"Mises Institutes have been formed – spontaneously, without any direction from us – in countries all over the world, including Brazil, Poland, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Russia, Italy, Estonia, Ecuador, Finland, Israel, Portugal, Ukraine, Romania, Sweden, Belgium, Colombia, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Slovakia. We have accomplished all these things without a billionaire, and without an obsessive eye to mainstream respectability. We have achieved them thanks to you, and thanks to a faculty and staff dedicated to the cause of truth." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLew Rockwell: The First 30 Years of the Mises Institute, and the Future

Karl Denninger: Watch for Market Dislocations

"The big picture is this: We have all lived for the last 30 years in a world where we believe that the price of certain things will always go up – houses being one of them, stocks being another. We have also lived in a time when an insane amount of monetary inflation has taken place. Most people look at the Consumer Price Index or some other government-provided thing, or they look at M1 OR M2, the growth of the money supply, for example. But what you really ought to be looking at for the growth of the monetary base is the total amount of money and credit that is in the system, and add those two together. When you do that, you find a very ugly picture." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKarl Denninger: Watch for Market Dislocations

How Going Over the ”Fiscal Cliff” Will Affect You

"Kahn projects that a kick the can deal will increase taxes by $530 billion. Specifically, he sees strong support for an end to the payroll tax cut, an end to Bush tax cuts, and broad support for short-term 'tax extenders.' On the spending side, no further extensions of unemployment and a cut in Medicare payments (the doc fix). Total spending cuts $170 billion. Got that? Tax increases of $530 billion and cuts of only $170 billion. In other words, the 'kick the can deal' is a huge tax increase. They are set to scare the public and then take more money out of their pockets." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Going Over the ”Fiscal Cliff” Will Affect You

61.2% Voted For Nobody

"That’s my tentative estimate (based on Google election result and population statistics) of the percentage of Americans who voted for nobody for President of the United States on Tuesday. About 38.8% of the population supported one of the candidates; about 19.5% of the population supported the alleged 'winner.' 61.2% of the population did not consent to be ruled at all, and fewer than one in five Americans consented to be ruled by Barack Obama. The figures are likely similar for most or all of the 435 US Representatives and 33 US Senators 'elected' on Tuesday." Continue reading →

Continue Reading61.2% Voted For Nobody