Resistance

Bill Bonner: Promises Will Be Broken

"Growth rates began to decline at least 40 years ago. Today's rates are not extraordinarily low. And nobody really knows why this is happening. A steadily declining GDP growth rate seems to defy our assumptions about the way the world works. This discussion might be merely inconsequential; instead, the future of the United States of America, Europe, Japan and the entire world economy hangs on it. Growth − more GDP... more jobs... more revenue... more people − is also what every government in the developed world desperately needs. Without it, their deficit spending (all are running in the red) leads to growing debt and eventual disaster." Continue reading →

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Doug Casey on the Fiscal Cliff

"Stimulated, or let's say 'simulated' – signs of recovery aren't needed if people have savings, accumulated capital, that can be deployed. Instead, today they mostly have debt. Government stimulation won't work if capital doesn't exist or is punished for being used. If you've destroyed people's jobs, taxed them more for investing wisely, piled on so many regulations that you can't sell lemonade without decades of permitting and clinical trials, all the stimulus in the world won't create a vibrant economy." Continue reading →

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Fitch expects ‘Bond Bubble’ carnage when rate cycle turns

"Yields on 10-year US corporate bonds have fallen to the lowest levels in history as a result of central bank liquidity, halving from 4pc to well under 2pc since early 2011. Fitch said a 'sudden rise' would devastate the portofolios of life insurers, pension funds, and other fixed-income institutions. 'If interest rates were to revert rapidly, a typical BBB-rated US corporate bond could lose 15pc of its market value, with longer duration bonds suffering a 26pc loss,' it said. Fitch said the authorities face an ugly dilemma. If they persist with ultra-loose policies, they will push investors deeper into 'low-coupon securities' that are most vulnerable to rising yields." Continue reading →

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Central bankers rethink their devotion to slaying inflation

"A subtle shift in monetary policymaking is afoot with a new generation of central bankers, striving to secure global economic recovery, prepared to challenge the old doctrine of inflation-fighting at all costs. Policymakers from the U.S. Federal Reserve to the Bank of Japan have reconsidered or relaxed their inflation targets and have given more emphasis to economic growth. With the financial crisis having starkly exposed central banks' failure to stave off danger, and policymakers having responded by flooding world markets with trillions of dollars in cheap funding, a small run-up in inflation may no longer be the anathema it once was." Continue reading →

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Going for gold? Don’t forget the vault

"Investors in Asia are increasingly dealing with a seemingly anachronistic problem: finding a place to stash their bars of gold. Gold is a popular choice for those seeking to diversify their holdings and spread risk but it isn't the most mobile of assets. Still, gold has been moving east, and that has created opportunities for security companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai -- financial hubs where the metal's popularity is soaring. Security companies are busy ordering two-ton steel doors and sophisticated monitoring systems, and hiring more armed guards as they expand their high-security vault capacity in Asia." Continue reading →

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Why Milk Prices Could More Than Double After January 1

"Come Jan. 1, there is a threat that milk prices could rise to $6 to $8 a gallon if Congress does not pass a new farm bill that amends farm policy dating back to the Truman presidency. Without last-minute Congressional action, the government would have to follow an antiquated 1949 farm law that would force the government to buy milk at wildly inflated prices, creating higher prices in the dairy case. Milk now costs an average of $3.65 a gallon. Higher prices would be based on what dairy farm production costs were in 1949, when milk production was almost all done by hand." Continue reading →

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China’s state-run TV broadcast of ‘V for Vendetta’ shocks viewers

"China’s state-run television network shocked viewers by broadcasting 'V for Vendetta', an anarchist-themed film showing an uprising against an authoritarian government. Chinese Internet users expressed surprise after watching the broadcast, circulating subversive lines from the movie including: 'The people should not be afraid of the government, the government should be afraid of the people.' The film was once banned in mainland China, the state-run China Youth Daily reported, and was not shown in Chinese cinemas." Continue reading →

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China arrests nearly 1,000 doomsday ‘cult’ members of ‘Almighty God’

"The Christian-inspired group 'Almighty God' has been accused of spreading doomsday rumours apparently linked to the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar and urging followers to slay the 'red dragon' of communism, state media reports said. Close to 1,000 followers of the sect, which state-run media labels an 'evil cult' – the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong group – have been held in a nationwide crackdown that began last week, state-run CCTV reported." Continue reading →

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Greece: Crony Capitalists Will Squeeze You and Freeze You

"The household price for heating oil in Greece reached 1,266 euros per 1,000 liters (264 gallons) in the second quarter of 2012, surging 48 percent from a year earlier, according to the International Energy Agency. Greeks pay both excise and value-added taxes on heating oil that can make up 42 percent of the total cost. Greece’s oil prices are high because of laws that protect the country’s two refining companies and prevent competition, said Pavlos Eleftheriadis, a lecturer in law at the University of Oxford in England, who studies monopolies. 'The Greek political system works for the insiders,' said Eleftheriadis, a native of Greece." Continue reading →

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Ecuador Central Bank President Resigns After Admitting Fake Degree

"The president of Ecuador’s central bank, Pedro Delgado, resigned late Wednesday after admitting he faked having a university degree. Mr. Delgado, a cousin of President Rafael Correa, also resigned from his administrative posts with other state agencies. 'I committed an error, a serious error 22 years ago. I made a mistaken decision in order to reach an academic goal. I made mistake and I am paying the price now,' he said." Continue reading →

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