Land Of The Flea

Hidden Erosion of Corporate Worth Since U.S. Abandoned Money

"For 173 years, the United States used money as a medium of exchange. In 1965, it switched to using a floating accounting unit. This change coincided with a dramatic yet hidden reversal in the net trend of worth for U.S. corporations. The shift to fake money in 1965 just happens to coincide with the year that divides the long term trend of corporate worth in the United States from mostly up to mostly down. This chart reveals the breathtaking rise in total U.S. corporate worth during the money period and exposes the stunning net destruction of U.S. corporate worth since the start of the non-money period." Continue reading →

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Wholesale Prices in U.S. Climb by Most in a Year; Food Prices Surge

"The 0.6 percent increase in the producer price index was the biggest since September 2012 and exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, figures from the Labor Department showed today. Over the past 12 months, costs climbed 2.1 percent. Food prices surged by the most in three years. Wholesale food expenses increased 2.7 percent in April, the biggest jump since February 2011, led by an 8.4 percent surge in the costs of meats that was the biggest since 2003. A confluence of events ranging from drought in the West to porcine epidemic diarrhea is pushing up prices for beef, pork and other foods." Continue reading →

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Fed Warns Of Crackdown On Leveraged-Buyout Deals

"The Federal Reserve warned it may need to take additional action to rein in banks' funding of corporate takeovers after observing continued deterioration of lending standards this year. The statements were the latest warning that U.S. regulators want banks to end practices they see as risky in so-called leveraged lending markets. The Fed and the Office of the Comptroller told banks in March 2013 to avoid funding takeover deals that would leave companies with high levels of debt. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that some bank-underwriting standards had loosened as a response to investor appetite for additional risk, a byproduct of low interest rates." Continue reading →

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Oligarchy in the 21st Century … Get Used to It?

"Alan Greenspan no doubt would have answered in a way that allowed for multiple interpretations. But Yellen took the question with little equivocation. We can see that Yellen is being cautious, even as she is granting the possibility that the US is an oligarchy. Sanders has an agenda, but Yellen is certainly not about to discount it outright. That this question came up at all is the result of a Princeton study on the subject. A TalkingPoints post back in April reported on the study, which asks 'who really rules the US.' The study concludes that in the past few decades America's political system has evolved from democracy to oligarchy." Continue reading →

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DOJ’s ‘Operation Choke Point’ Closing Legal Websites’ Bank Accounts

"Under 'Operation Choke Point,' the DOJ and its allies are going after legal but subjectively undesirable business ventures by pressuring banks to terminate their bank accounts or refuse their business. The very premise is clearly chilling—the DOJ is coercing private businesses in an attempt to centrally engineer the American marketplace based on it's own politically biased moral judgements. Targeted business categories so far have included payday lenders, ammunition sales, dating services, purveyors of drug paraphernalia, and online gambling sites." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: What You NEED to Know about Wealth Inequality

"After the 1970s, real capital played a smaller and smaller role. It was replaced by credit and its sinister twin: debt. The r in Piketty’s now famous annotation r > g is supposed to represent the return on capital investment. But where did the wad come from? Savings rates went down. Real earnings went down. Growth rates went down. So how could there be more capital available and how could it produce higher rates of return (compared to economic growth)? The whole thing is a headache for a thoughtful man. Capital investments with no real capital behind them. Profits that outstrip the economic growth from which they must come. What to make of it?" Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Don’t Be Fooled By the Wealth Inequality Debate

"QE is supposed to be the weapon in the Fed’s fight against unemployment. The Fed is still buying $45 billion of bonds via QE every month… in addition to holding short-term interest rates to the floor. Where does that $45 billion go? The insurance companies and pension funds that sell bonds to the Fed use this newly created money to buy the real assets of America – houses, companies, commercial property, resources, farmland… everything. And that drives up the prices of everything for everyone else. The Fed says QE is meant to help create jobs… and 'stimulate' the economy. It does nothing of the sort. Instead, it lines the pockets of those at the top of the heap." Continue reading →

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Millennials Mired in Wealth Gap as Older Americans Recoup Wealth

"The damage inflicted on U.S. households by the collapse of the housing market and recession wasn’t evenly distributed. For households headed by someone 40 years old or younger, wealth adjusted for inflation remains 30 percent below 2007 levels on average. Net worth for older Americans has already recouped the losses. With fewer young people owning homes, not as many are benefiting from the rebound in home prices. What’s more, heads of households under age 40 aren’t benefiting as much from a boom in equity prices, which have hit record highs this year. About 27 percent of 18 to 29 year olds owned stocks as of April 2013, compared to 61 percent of 50 to 64 year olds." Continue reading →

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Loan Program For Investors With More Than 4 Properties Financed

"In 2009, Fannie Mae rolled back a mortgage rule that prevented real estate investors from financing more than 4 properties at once. At the time, investors were limited to 4 properties financed, which included their primary residence. Today, the maximum number of allowable, simultaneously financed properties is 10. You wouldn't know it, though -- few banks actually offer the program. This article describes how to get a mortgage if you have 5-to-10 homes in your portfolio. So, why don't all banks participate in the 5-10 Properties Financed program? The probable answer is that underwriting a 5-property-owning investor's mortgage application can be very hard work." Continue reading →

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Housing in U.S. Cools as Rate Rise Hits Sales: Mortgages

"After a roller-coaster decade of boom-bust-boom, the U.S. housing market is going downhill just when many economists thought annual sales would be heading up. Sales of previously owned properties in March tumbled 7.5 percent from a year earlier to the slowest pace in 20 months, while purchases of new houses sank 14.5 percent from February, according to reports this week. Mortgage applications to buy homes plunged 19 percent from a year earlier, indicating slowing demand during what is typically the busiest season for deals. Mortgage interest rates are rising from record lows as the central bank withdraws its stimulus, and investors are now retreating." Continue reading →

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