Investment/Trends

America’s Fastest-Growing Cities Since The Recession

"An analysis of post-2007 population trends by demographer Wendell Cox in the 111 U.S. metro areas with more than 200,000 residents reveals something both very different from the conventional wisdom and at the same time very familiar. Virtually all of the 20 that have added the most residents from 2007 to 2012 are in the Old Confederacy, the Intermountain West and suburbs of larger cities, notably in California. The lone exception to this pattern is No. 15 Portland. The bottom line: growth is still fastest in the Sun Belt, in suburban cities and lower-density, spread out municipalities." Continue reading →

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The Magic of Monetary Figures

"Hitting our magic number was a fantastic milestone for us. All the 60-80 hour work weeks, tosses and turns in the middle of the night, and struggles to keep our financial house in order had finally paid off. We would never have to worry about money again. We were home free… or so we thought. Now, twenty years later, our account balance is many times higher than our original magic number. We have come to grips with the fact that our magic number was aptly named. We had forgotten what magic really is: an illusion. In reality, our magic number was nothing more than ink on a sheet of paper that made us believe something that was not true." Continue reading →

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Janet Yellen: “A Wise and Humane Policy Is Occasionally to Let Inflation Rise”

"Yellen comes out of the economic school of thought that holds the view that printing money can somehow boost the economy. In essence, she holds the thought that the economy can somehow at times get stuck, that prices at such time don't adjust to supply and demand and that thus money needs to be printed by the Fed via Wall Street cronies to distort prices via monetary and price inflation and fool the public into doing transactions they wouldn't do without the distortions. This is what is held these days as 'utterly unquestioned credentials.'" Continue reading →

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Credit Outbids Cash = Resource Wars

"Trader 1 only has cash that has been earned and saved; Trader 2 has access to leveraged credit (i.e. borrowing $100 based on $10 of cash collateral) and Trader 3 has a printing press that creates cash currency. As a result, Traders 2 and 3 could buy a lot more real-world goods at the fair than Trader 1, enabling the two traders with essentially unlimited credit/cash to reap enormous profits on carry-trades and other speculative trading. Not only can trader 2 and 3 purchase more goods than trader 1. Trader 2 and 3 have no limit on what they can bid and therefore can price trader 1 out of the market completely." Continue reading →

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Peter Schiff: The Half Full Economy

"The most recent GDP release from Washington has caused many to double down on their belief that the Federal Reserve will begin tapering Quantitative Easing sometime later this year. While I believe that is a fantasy given our economy's extreme dependence on QE, market observers should have learned long ago that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) initial GDP estimates can't be trusted. A perusal of their subsequent GDP revisions in the last five years reveals a clear trend: They are almost twice as likely to revise initial estimates down rather than up, and the downward adjustments have been much larger on average." Continue reading →

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Real Personal Income Points to Recession

"If real (that is, adjusted for loss of purchasing power a.k.a. inflation) income is declining, households have less income to spend and less income to leverage more debt. There are two noteworthy points in this chart. One is that real personal income has been negative for the past five years, with one tax-related spike in late 2012 as those who could do so reported income in 2012 rather than 2013 to take advantage of the lower tax rates that expired in 2012. The second point is that every time the black line (the 6-month annualized rate of change) of real personal income fell below 0% (that is, went negative), a recession occurred." Continue reading →

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Why “Tapering” Will Not Go Smoothly — and What That Means for Bonds and Stocks

"If you buy the party line that Wall Street and the Federal Reserve is pushing, the process of 'tapering' back on Quantitative Easing (QE) will be relatively painless. All the Fed has to do is gradually, slowly, predictably, and gently ease back on its bond purchases and, they say, it will have minimal market impact. My take? Fuhgeddaboudit … it will be anything but smooth. And this week, I’ll use the Fed’s own comments — and a shocking Fed chart — to show you why." Continue reading →

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20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get

"I started Docstoc in my 20’s, made the cover of one of those cliché '20 Under 20' lists, and today I employ an amazing group of 20-somethings. Call me a curmudgeon, but at 34, how I came up seems so different from what this millennial generation expects. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I see this generation making their own. In response, here are my 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get." Continue reading →

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