Economics

Argentina Bans All Advertising

"Supermarkets and electronics retailers say Argentina's government has ordered them to stop advertising in the country's top newspapers, in a bid to weaken independent media companies as President Cristina Kirchner turns to increasingly unorthodox policies to prevent inflation from derailing an ailing economy. The order, confirmed by retailers and newspapers but denied by government officials, comes after retail executives say price-control czar Guillermo Moreno pressured them earlier this week to agree to freeze prices for two months. Executives say Moreno then told them to pull all newspaper sales ads in hopes this would somehow curb inflation." Continue reading →

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Bereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

"The bill for $780.85 stems from Ford’s call to DC Fire & EMS (DCFEMS) on New Year’s Eve when his father, 71-year-old Durand Ford Sr., began having problems breathing. Records show the younger Ford called 911 at 1:25 a.m. that night. But while the fire department dispatched a vehicle to his house nine minutes later, no ambulances were available. DCFEMS officials called for assistance from Prince George County, more than seven miles away, 22 minutes later. A medical unit from Prince George County arrived at Ford’s home at 1:58 a.m., by which point the elder Ford had died." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

Bereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

"The bill for $780.85 stems from Ford’s call to DC Fire & EMS (DCFEMS) on New Year’s Eve when his father, 71-year-old Durand Ford Sr., began having problems breathing. Records show the younger Ford called 911 at 1:25 a.m. that night. But while the fire department dispatched a vehicle to his house nine minutes later, no ambulances were available. DCFEMS officials called for assistance from Prince George County, more than seven miles away, 22 minutes later. A medical unit from Prince George County arrived at Ford’s home at 1:58 a.m., by which point the elder Ford had died." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBereaved son billed $800 for late city ambulance that failed to save his father

America’s Baby Bust

"For more than three decades, Chinese women have been subjected to their country's brutal one-child policy. Those who try to have more children have been subjected to fines and forced abortions. Their houses have been razed and their husbands fired from their jobs. As a result, Chinese women have a fertility rate of 1.54. Here in America, white, college-educated women—a good proxy for the middle class—have a fertility rate of 1.6. America has its very own one-child policy. And we have chosen it for ourselves. Forget the fiscal cliff, the sequestration cliff and the entitlement cliff. Those are all just symptoms. What America really faces is a demographic cliff." Continue reading →

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Oil and Water: An Armed Citizenry and a Police State

"So, it is the worst of times and it is the best of times. It is the worst of times in terms of the expansion of federal administrative law. It is the best of times in terms of the inability of central governments to impose their plans on their populations apart from a vast expansion of the money supply, which is going to lead to the undermining of the welfare state and the destruction of federal legitimacy in the eyes of the people. It is more of a train wreck than it is a tipping point. It is more of a collision between assertions on paper in Washington versus the expansion of monetary digits, which is also taking place in Washington." Continue reading →

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Peter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

"In retaliation for the unpardonable sin of questioning the U.S. Treasury's credit worthiness, the Obama Administration is sending a loud and clear message to Wall Street: mess with the bull and get the horns. Shockingly, the blatant selectivity of the prosecution, however, has failed to ignite a backlash. But as the move violates both the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law in so many ways, I can't help but look at it as a sea change in the nature of our governance. Call it Lincoln with a heavy dose of Putin." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

Peter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

"In retaliation for the unpardonable sin of questioning the U.S. Treasury's credit worthiness, the Obama Administration is sending a loud and clear message to Wall Street: mess with the bull and get the horns. Shockingly, the blatant selectivity of the prosecution, however, has failed to ignite a backlash. But as the move violates both the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law in so many ways, I can't help but look at it as a sea change in the nature of our governance. Call it Lincoln with a heavy dose of Putin." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: Messing with the Bull

Depreciating Dollar Not Good For People, But Good for ‘the Economy’?

"All the nations are inflating, so that their exporters will not suffer from an appreciating currency. Central bankers regard appreciating currency as a disaster. They are mercantilists. Yet we know that, as individuals, to hold on to an appreciating currency is a great thing. Why is it a great thing for individuals to hold an appreciating currency, yet it is also a good policy for a central bank to expand the money supply, so as to decrease the international value of the currency? There seems to be something wrong here. There seems to be cognitive dissonance." Continue reading →

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Hollande warns on euro strength, denounces markets for currencies

"Francois Hollande has issued a clear warning that the current strength of the euro could damage the fragile economic recovery in Europe, calling for international action to stem currency distortions. 'The euro should not fluctuate according to the mood of the markets,' the French president told the European parliament in Strasbourg. 'A monetary zone must have an exchange rate policy. If not, it will be subjected to an exchange rate that does not reflect the real state of the economy.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHollande warns on euro strength, denounces markets for currencies

The Fed’s Asset-Inflation Machine

"Winners on stocks or land holdings should happily accept their gains as the best to be expected in a very unsettled financial environment. But they should also remember the 2000s, when so many people thought their newfound riches were real and cashed them in for yet more debt, such as home-equity loans. They later had a rude awakening. The 'wealth illusion' of asset inflation is seductive, which is why central banks in charge of a fiat currency and subject to no external disciplines so often drift in that direction. Politicians smile in satisfaction and powerful Washington lobbies cry for more. But an economy built on an illusion is hardly a sound structure." Continue reading →

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