Land Of The Flea

Bill Bonner: Is Ms Yellen making history?

"See how easy investment analysis is. Even a Fed chairman can do it. 'Get out of social media and biotech,' she practically urged investors. 'Buy blue chips and the broad market.' In this, Ms. Yellen is not just making headlines; she's making history. As far as we know, no other Fed chairman has ever offered sector analysis. We'd like to see her portfolio. Here is a woman who not only observes markets; she moves them. In the event, investors sold the sectors she warned against, and bought the broad market...sending the Dow back to record territory. What a fortune you could make if you knew what she'd say next! And what a dope you'd be if you believed her." Continue reading →

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What’s It Like to Work for the New York FED?

"Not bad, if you like perks, 8-hour days, and bureaucratic security. This is the opinion of two-thirds of its employees who responded to the GlassDoor inquiry. It’s fat city in Fat City. And why not? Working for the Federal Reserve is a license to print money . . . literally. Click the link to see what the good life is like for America’s legal counterfeiting operation." Continue reading →

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U.S. Economy Shrank in First Quarter by Most in Five Years

"The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter by the most since the depths of the last recession as consumer spending cooled. Gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annualized rate, more than forecast and the worst reading since the same three months in 2009, after a previously reported 1 percent drop. It marked the biggest downward revision from the agency’s second GDP estimate since records began in 1976. Business investment fell at a 1.2 percent annualized rate, compared with a previously reported 1.6 percent annualized drop. Companies reduced their spending on structures at a 7.7 percent pace, and spending for equipment fell 2.8 percent, today’s report showed." Continue reading →

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Fed fears risks posed by exit tools; plan almost done

"The sheer magnitude of the amounts of money used to combat the crisis - $2.6 trillion sitting at the Fed as bank reserves and $4.2 trillion held by the Fed in various securities - may complicate the U.S. central bank's ability to control its target interest rate once the decision is made that it should be raised. The Fed has neared consensus that its workhorse tool will be the interest it pays banks on excess reserves on deposit at the Fed. Another tool would have a similar impact but apply more broadly, using overnight repurchase agreements that would let money market funds and other institutions as well as banks essentially make short-term deposits at the Fed." Continue reading →

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Hospitals profiling patients using their credit card purchase data

If this story didn’t have a Bloomberg byline, I would swear it was from last night’s edition of The Daily Show. Hospitals are now buying consumer purchasing data to figure out who smokes, who has a car, and who shops at Walmart or Whole Foods. The idea is to identify high-risk patients and help them choose a different path before it’s too late. Does anyone remember Snowden? Does anyone still think big institutions can manage enormous sets of data carefully and ethically? What are the chances that the bottom line will win out over individuals? Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Jailhouse humour

"We’re not going to let a little thing like forced labour spoil our Freedom Fest holiday. Anyway, it is only poor people who get caught up in the prisons’ slave market. So, we have nothing to worry about. We can hire a shyster lawyer when we need one. Besides, we like the Land of the Free. Which is to say, we appreciate hypocrisy. After all, it is the 'homage that vice pays to virtue'. Without it, virtue wouldn’t get any strokes at all. Free minds and free markets are virtues too. Nobody cares about them either. Not in America. We have the schools to shackle minds. And we have the feds to lock up, beat up, and tie up the markets." Continue reading →

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The World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme Exposed

"The poor saps in this Ponzi scheme are on the hook for a whopping $222 TRILLION! Just like Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff, paying off promises with other people’s money is exactly how the United States Government operates. For decades, the US government has been racking up debt in your name and the names of your loved ones. Your personal stake in this Ponzi scheme is $714,000 and growing. Even newborn babies are immediately stuck with this bill! And it’s not like the United States Government is doing all of this for our own good. Ponzi and Madoff stole to live a life of luxury. What the American government is doing with your money is much, much worse…" Continue reading →

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Ron Paul on the Evolution of Freedom in the 21st Century

"Fewer people depend on regular TV and you see more programs being deleted from TV. So the Internet is the wave of the future and that's one of the reasons the freedom movement is growing, because it's not dependent on the establishment. When I got interested in these ideas in the '50s and '60s it was very, very difficult to get any information but today it's so easy and it spreads like a wildfire. It is worldwide. I've said it so many times – this is not a Republican deal. If the ideas are correct they will be pervasive. Interventionist foreign policy and Keynesian economics was endorsed by the Republicans and Democrats; they just argued over who got to be the managers." Continue reading →

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Is War Part of a Wall Street Party?

"The consistent raising of nuclear tensions justifies continued economic reactions in order to keep Western economies stable and on track, which may include further justifications for continued monetary easing. International tensions also provide a rationale for a 'flight to safety' that reinforces the primacy of Western markets, in particular US bonds and equities. The up and down security posture of the West versus Russia (and China) can create alternatively a depression of 'animal spirits' and waves of euphoria that can lift markets. Finally, a fluid period of inter-state animosity can provide justifications for an eventual stock market crash that can usher the next phase of economic internationalism." Continue reading →

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Central Planning by Central Bankers

"The agency that controls monetary policy for the United States has an unlimited amount of money to buy support, compliance, or least silence within that segment of professionally trained economists that specializes in money and banking. The Federal Reserve gets to keep all the money that it wants for operations. It has to turn back over to the Treasury Department any money that is not used for operations, but it does not answer to Congress or the Treasury with respect to how it spends its money. This means that the Federal Reserve has essentially unlimited funds available to buy off those critics who might challenge Federal Reserve policy." Continue reading →

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