Media

External Sources

Bill Bonner: This Hugely Popular Investment Is About to Blow Up

"In a normal world, savers have the choice of staying in cash or quasi-cash and receiving a fair rate of interest. No more. The interest they receive on a 10-year Treasury note is barely over 2.5%. But the real rate of consumer price inflation – according to the most exhaustive survey, done by the MIT, the Billion Prices Project – is 3.91%. What kind of world is it where an honest householder loses nearly 1.5% a year on his savings? It is an odd, rigged-up and dangerously windy one. Investors are stretching out their sails to get higher yields. As a result, bond prices have gone up, reducing yields on bonds rated CCC – below investment grade – to the lowest levels ever recorded." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: This Hugely Popular Investment Is About to Blow Up

Bailout Banks Made Riskier Loans: Study [2011]

"The government bailout made banks appear safer but actually caused them to take on more credit risk, according to a University of Michigan study released Wednesday. According to a working paper by finance professors Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura of the university of Michigan's Ross School of Business entitled Safer Ratios, Riskier Portfolios: Banks' Response to Government Aid, banks participating in the government's Capital Purchase Program as part of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, 'significantly increased their investments in risky securities,' by 10%, 'displacing safer assets, such as Treasury bonds, short-term paper, and cash equivalents.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBailout Banks Made Riskier Loans: Study [2011]

U.S. Gov. Gets $2.6 Billion In Credit Suisse ‘Money Laundering’ Case

"Credit Suisse is the largest financial company to plead guilty to the non-crime of 'money laundering' in 20 years. The plea marks the end of an era. One of the shell entities implicated, according to the government, dated back a century – or just after the creation of the federal tax code and the income tax. Of the $2.6 billion fine, The Department of Justice will receive $1.8 billion and New York State's top financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, will receive $715 million of the stolen loot. With the FATCA coming into full effect on January 1, 2016, and the US government actively prosecuting banks, only savvy Americans will be able to find financial institutions abroad to service them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Gov. Gets $2.6 Billion In Credit Suisse ‘Money Laundering’ Case

10 of the Best ETF Trades of All Time

"Timing the market has fascinated, frustrated, and confused the heck out of countless investors. Whether you’re a self-directed trader or a professional money manager, it’s very likely you’ve found yourself looking through charts, thinking: if only I could’ve had a piece of that trend! While it’s true that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, there is still a great deal of insights to be extracted from analyzing past booms and busts on Wall Street [see A Brief History of ETF Bubbles]. Below we take a stroll down memory lane with perfect hindsight and look at some of the best ETF trades of all time, highlighting their performance as well as any noteworthy lessons from each case." Continue reading →

Continue Reading10 of the Best ETF Trades of All Time

India easing gold import restrictions: Curb your enthusiasm

"Last week gold was boosted by news that the Reserve Bank of India is relaxing the much-maligned 80-20 import-export measure. Hopes that the measure could be fully phased out by October, ahead of the Diwali festival in October and the crucial gold-buying wedding season, has already seen the rupee price of gold drop to nine-month lows. Last month Rajesh Khosla, managing director of the country’s biggest refiner which is expanding capacity to 200 tonnes of gold per year, predicted the relaxation of the 80-20 rule, but added that 'while the form of restrictions may change, the government will continue to restrain buying.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia easing gold import restrictions: Curb your enthusiasm

Yes, people are really like this.

From the “you’re glad you’re not in my line of work” files: Sometimes when you send out a press release to 500-700 national reporters and alternative media contacts, you get no responses. Sometimes, you get a handful. And sometimes you get a lot of them. And sometimes, you get a phone call on a Friday…

Continue ReadingYes, people are really like this.

China reverts to credit as property slump threatens economy

"New housing starts fell by 15pc in April from a year earlier, with effects rippling through the steel and cement industries. Land sales fell by 20pc, eating into government income. The Chinese central bank has ordered 15 commercial banks to boost loans to first-time buyers and 'expedite the approval and disbursement of mortgage loans', the latest sign that it is backing away from monetary tightening. The authorities are now in an analogous position to Western central banks following years of stimulus: reliant on an asset boom to keep growth going. Each attempt to rein in China’s $25 trillion credit bubble seems to trigger wider tremors, and soon has to be reversed." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChina reverts to credit as property slump threatens economy

Lessons from the Great Austrian Inflation

"One of these tragic episodes that is worth recalling and learning from was the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the accompanying Great Austrian Inflation in the immediate postwar period in the early 1920s. For those who say that such things as a hyperinflation, economic chaos, capital consumption and political tyranny 'can't happen here,' it is worth remembering that a hundred years ago, in 1914, few in prewar Vienna could have imagined that it would happen there." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLessons from the Great Austrian Inflation

Peak Real Median Income In USA = 1999; Washington DC = 2012

"Real Median household income peaked way back in 1999 at $56,000 and by 2012 it was down 9%—an unprecedented decline. It goes without saying that Washington’s Keynesian ministrations on the money printing and national debt front didn’t much help. In fact, the Fed’s balance sheet has expanded from $450 billion to $4.4 trillion during that period or by nearly 10X. Likewise, the national debt has nearly quadrupled to $17 trillion during the same period. Well, all this monetary and fiscal profligacy did apparently help in one precinct: Namely, the Washington beltway where median household income reached its all-time high in 2012 and undoubtedly continues to rise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeak Real Median Income In USA = 1999; Washington DC = 2012

Former Fed Employee Charged With Felony For Threatening To Kill Boss

"After reading an article about the psychotic behavior of a former Federal Reserve employee, I would be reluctant to criticize the Fed in the presence of an employee of the world’s most powerful banking cartel. Zero Hedge has some stellar coverage about a former San Francisco Fed employee, and current employee at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), that threatened to kill his boss and then take his own life. Richard Hornsby, Chief Operating Officer of the FHFA, was arrested and charged with a felony for threatening to kill Edward J. DeMarco. Mr. DeMarco was Hornsby’s superior at FHFA. The death threat was supposedly the result of a poor job performance rating." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer Fed Employee Charged With Felony For Threatening To Kill Boss