Economics

All-Time High Unemployment: Depression In Europe Getting Deeper

"This week we learned that eurozone unemployment came in at an all-time high of 12.2 percent for September. Back in January 2012, it was sitting at just 10.4 percent. The funny thing is that the mainstream media will barely call what is going on in Europe a 'recession' even though the unemployment rates in both Spain and Greece are now much higher than anything that the United States ever experienced during the 'Great Depression' of the 1930s. A 25-year-old Spanish man with three college degrees that moved to London in a desperate search for a job is now cleaning up poop for a living. The economic collapse of Europe continues to march on, and there is no end in sight." Continue reading →

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Paul Krugman Is Wrong: Bitcoin Isn’t Evil, But Monetary ‘Stimulus’ Is

"Krugman asserts that bitcoin is evil because it is a 'weapon intended to damage central banking' and makes it harder for states to tax and monitor people. He gets it exactly backwards. A weapon is a tool used to attack someone. But bitcoin users aren’t attacking anyone; they are avoiding an attack. As the tax burden grows heavier, and surveillance intrudes more deeply, it’s reasonable for people to seek shelter. They just want to protect themselves." Continue reading →

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Nobel Winner: “No Reason To Fear Deflation”

"'Historically, there is no reason to fear deflation,' Nobel Laureate Thomas Sargent explains to Germany's Wiwo.de, 'we all benefit from lower prices.' That central banks pursue an inflation rate of around 2%, Sargent blasts, is because they consider it their job to 'make bad debt good debt,' adding that inflation is 'a major redistribution machine - reducing the real debt burden for the benefit of creditors and devaluing the assets of the creditors.' A return to a gold standard,he concludes, to prevent governments and central banks from limitless money-printing 'would not be foolish.'" Continue reading →

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Australian Bank Publishes Report ‘Bitcoin to replace AUD?’

"The National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia’s ‘Big Four’ banking groups, published a three-page research paper on 19th December titled 'Bitcoin to replace AUD?' (Australian dollars). Despite the provocative title, the paper does not suggest replacing the national currency with bitcoin, nor say it could happen in the near future. Rather, it is an explanation of bitcoin and a comparison of the nature of digital currencies with existing sovereign currencies, and how they fit into the current international financial system. Bitcoin could well become a widely accepted medium of exchange, the paper said, but it would take many more years to achieve mainstream acceptance." Continue reading →

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Overstock CEO: money ’too important to leave to government officials’

"Overstock.com Inc., an online discount retailer, is preparing to accept the virtual currency bitcoin as payment in the second half of 2014, according to Chief Executive and Chairman Patrick Byrne. The news was first reported by the website newsBTC, and confirmed in a Thursday morning phone interview with Byrne. The project is in an early stage, with no decision yet on whether Overstock.com would work with bitcoin companies to allow bitcoin payments or create its own system. A team of six to 12 people is expected to work on bitcoin payments at the company, said Byrne." Continue reading →

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Punk Economics: The Kidnapper wears Prada

"The Kidnapper wears Prada: Why the rich are getting much, much richer, why the Fed is in a corner and what it means for you! As the Federal Reserve gets a new chair and decides what to do next, whether to print $85 billion a month more or not, we examine the heist, who gets all the loot, why today's kidnappers wear Prada. Wake up. See what happens when financial kidnappers dress up as loyal patriots and extort money in the name of the common good." Continue reading →

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Fed to America: ‘QE Scam Will Continue’

"Yesterday, the Fed announced that the scam would continue. In a typical sleight of hand, it took its monthly asset buying down from $85 billion to $75 billion… but also told us that zero-bound interest would keep flowing for even longer than expected. As a card-carrying, asset-owning and secret-handshake-giving member of the 1%, we’re delighted to know that the filthy lucre will continue coming our way. But as a financial philosopher we find the whole show rather shabby and tawdry. Not only does the program shift income from the public to the insiders, it also masks the real problems in the economy and stifles real corrections." Continue reading →

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When We Will Celebrate the End of QE, and Why

"Central bank money is disseminated through the banking system. And the banking system over years funnels it into investable facilities like the stock market. It is a criminal system, predicated on rigorous control of money stock. If bankers really wanted to benefit the middle class, they'd pump it directly into bank accounts. But they won't, for that would reveal the essential phoniness of the system and it would also generate vast price inflation. But price inflation they will have nonetheless. By the time bubbles are visible, as they are, it is way too late for the economy to contain the damage. And thus they pretend to cut. Or trim the advance. But markets, especially stock markets, will continue to rise." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: The Fed’s Big Lie

"Whatever may be said about today’s cockeyed economies, there is nothing 'normal' about them. What’s normal about a government that runs up as much debt as it had in World War II – with no war… no national emergency… and no way to pay the money back? What’s normal about an economy that depends on the lowest interest rates in three generations… and a central bank that holds them down like a crooked butcher with his finger on the meat scale? And what’s normal about an advanced capitalist country where the typical man earns less than he did 43 years ago?" Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: The Real Numbers Behind America’s Phony Recovery

"What kind of economy is it that reduces a man’s wages over a 43-year period? We don’t know. But it’s not likely to win any prizes. But why, with so many strikes against it, does the US economy still have the bat in its hands? It’s partly because the Fed has pumped up stock, bond and house prices – not to mention net corporate profit margins and consumer spending . So, the averages look pretty good… and they mask the ugliness beneath them. The bottom 90% of the population – people in 9 houses out of 10 – have 10% less income than they had 10 years ago. This is not a success story. It’s a disaster. And not one that tempts us into an overvalued US stock market." Continue reading →

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