sound money

Would A Higher Minimum Wage Help McDonald’s Workers?

"It’s tempting to think that the higher wages for workers is worth it, but it isn’t. The minimum wage shifts the margins on which people compete with one another from wages to wasteful competitive endeavors like waiting or investing in too many quality signals. Competition in a price-controlled market can erode the entire value of the difference between the minimum workers are willing to accept and the minimum they are allowed to accept. The cruel irony is that a policy designed to pick the pockets of employers for the benefit of workers ultimately leaves everyone worse off." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWould A Higher Minimum Wage Help McDonald’s Workers?

Judge: Merchants owed millions in credit card fees ‘inappropriately’ inflated by Fed

"The 2010 Dodd-Frank law called for the Fed to cap such fees, which banks charge to retailers when their customers use debit cards to make purchases. Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with retailers, who argued the Fed’s 21 cent cap was higher than Congress intended. The so-called Durbin amendment to Dodd-Frank, named for its sponsor, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, was intended to reduce burdens on retailers and hopefully trickle down to consumers in the form of lower prices." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge: Merchants owed millions in credit card fees ‘inappropriately’ inflated by Fed

Company pensions in peril as shortfalls hit record

"Young workers may want to start counting on something other than company pensions to fund their retirements. It turns out that the plans of S&P 500 companies are underfunded to the tune of $451.7 billion, a number that has grown some 27 percent in just the last year alone. Though many workers have switched to 401(k) plans over the years, pensions still have far more workers—91 million to 51 million. This year actually was supposed to be better for pensions under an accounting trick Congress approved in 2012. The move would allow corporations to use a 15-year average of bond yields, rather than the current level, to calculate their obligations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompany pensions in peril as shortfalls hit record

Chart Of The Day: Foreigners Are Quietly Getting Out Of Dodge

"While the Fed is posturing daily whether it will or it won't monetize an ever greater portion of gross US issuance (and considering the drop in US funding needs, unless the Fed tapers it will soon very soon buy more than 100% of all 10 Year equivalent issuance going forward), foreigners have made their position vis-a-vis US paper loud and clear. What is their position? The following chart from today's TBAC presentation to the Treasury makes it very clear. With an ever declining, and recently the smallest on file, notional amount of Treasurys at auction going to foreigners since 2009 (and certainly much further back), they are not sticking around to see what happens." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChart Of The Day: Foreigners Are Quietly Getting Out Of Dodge

Four Charts Showing How Obama’s Statist Agenda Is Hurting Jobs and Growth

"Let’s look at the Minneapolis Fed’s data for every business cycle since the end of World War II. As you can see, we’re currently mired in the most anemic recovery on record. The employment data is even worse than the GDP data. The comparison of Reaganomics with BushObamanomics is startling. There was a jobs boom in the 1980s, while today we haven’t even recovered all the jobs lost during the downturn. And if we look at the current 'recovery' compared to all other business cycles, it becomes even more apparent that big government is generating very bad results for the American people." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFour Charts Showing How Obama’s Statist Agenda Is Hurting Jobs and Growth

Obama quietly pushes forward with anti-suburban campaign

"Plan Bay Area attempts to block the development of any new suburbs, forcing all population growth over the next three decades into the existing 'urban footprint' of the region. The plan presses 70-80 percent of all new housing and 66 percent of all business expansion into 150 or so 'priority development areas' (PDAs), select neighborhoods near subway stations and other public transportation facilities. This scheme will turn up to a quarter of the region’s existing neighborhoods–many now dotted with San Francisco’s famously picturesque, Victorian-style single-family homes–into mini-Manhattans jammed with high-rises and tiny apartments." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama quietly pushes forward with anti-suburban campaign

Obama set to sign bill to lower student loan interest rates

"The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would reverse a recent hike in federal student loan interest rates, lowering them to 3.86 percent for undergraduates in the new school year. The bill pegs interest rates on student loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus 2.05 percentage points for undergraduates, and plus 3.6 percentage points for graduate loans. The bill, a result of extensive negotiations in mid-July among a coalition of U.S. senators composed of Democrats, Republicans and an independent, now waits to be signed into law by President Barack Obama." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama set to sign bill to lower student loan interest rates

Obama delivers ‘full-throated defense’ of Larry Summers to House Democrats

"President Barack Obama defended Larry Summers’ credentials during a meeting with House Democrats on Wednesday. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told The Hill that Obama had given a 'full-throated defense' of Summers during the meet at the Capitol. Obama is rumored to be considering nominating Summers to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Obama described Summers as a loyal and important adviser during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Summers had served as director of the U.S. National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. He resigned in 2010." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama delivers ‘full-throated defense’ of Larry Summers to House Democrats

Bill Bonner: Why do we have this credit-based money?

"Because governments are essentially a way for the insiders (who control the police power of the state) to take power and money from the outsiders. Cicero once described the two groups as the 'Optimates' on one side and the 'Populares' on the other. You might also think of them as the elite and the hoi polloi...or the privileged classes and the riff-raff. The critical difference between the two is that the elites...the optimates...the insiders...have the government in their pocket. The others do not. Bullion-based money is a natural limitation on the ability of the elite to rob the rest of the population." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Why do we have this credit-based money?

TD Waterhouse Bank begins FATCA Hunt and embraces role as IRS deputy

"Its compliance department seized upon my Canadian Passport showing a US place of Birth…That it turn triggered them to FREEZE my accounts until I signed a 'W9' and a 'Limitations of Benefits' form. I immediately told them I had no SSN and wasn’t a US Citizen and they had no right to provide any information on my accounts to the US as this would be a breach of the client confidentiality act…(besides it would include my CANADIAN born wife’s affairs as well). They explained to me that the TD Waterhouse was required to do this as they were REGISTERED in the US and were subject to substantial US penalties under FATCA." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTD Waterhouse Bank begins FATCA Hunt and embraces role as IRS deputy