"Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as 'black boxes' that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms." Continue reading →
"Less than 1% of the world’s gold is mined in India. The rest comes from somewhere else. Still, India can’t get enough. It is the largest consumer of gold in the world, buying nearly a third of production in recent years. Some estimates say that 10% of all gold is held in India. Indians save roughly 30% of their income, as opposed Americans, who save 5%. Plus, Indians are getting richer all the time. Once a very poor country, the rich and middle classes now outnumber the poor in this nation of 1.2 billion. The country has the sixth-largest economy in the world." Continue reading →
"Google has pushed out an update that blocks an intermediate digital certificate for *.google.com after discovering that a Turkish certificate authority had mistakenly issued intermediate certificates to two organizations that should only have gotten normal SSL certificates. That error gave those two organizations the power to issue certificates that carried the same authority as the CA itself. One of the groups that obtained the intermediate certificate is a Turkish government agency and at least one of the major browser vendors said there was evidence the ceritificates had been used in an active attack." Continue reading →
"The Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says no law empowers any judge to stop it from conducting illegal scientific experiments on seniors, children and the sick. That astounding assertion will be tested Friday, when a federal district court in Alexandria decides whether it has jurisdiction to hear claims made by the American Tradition Institute that EPA researchers are exposing unwary and genetically susceptible senior citizens to air pollutants the agency says can cause a variety of serious cardiac and respiratory problems, including sudden death." Continue reading →
"Portugal has taken its medicine with stoicism until now, winning praise from the EU leaders for sticking to its bail-out terms. But Troika officials fear that 'social cohesion' is fraying as the slump deepens. The country saw the biggest street protest this autumn since the end of the Salazar dictatorship. Portugal’s jobless rate has risen from 13.7pc to 16.3pc over the past year, reaching 39pc for youth, even before the full impact of austerity hits." Continue reading →
"What really has me worried, and this may go beyond 2013, but I think the one thing that is going to change is we’ve been through a period, since 2008, of interest rates being virtually zero. During that period of time, governments have racked up vast, vast amounts of debt, and are continuing to run huge budget deficits. And I think we are going to be heading into a world of rising interest rates. That is when our governments, who are continuing to run these deficits, are going to be in real, real trouble...." Continue reading →
"Greece is going to ban most cash transactions. As of last year, cash transactions over 1500 euros were banned. This moves the ban down by 1,000 euros. In fact, the Greek Parliament is voting today on a new tax bill that broadens the tax base to raise another 2.5 billion euros, and also introduces new annual income thresholds for salaried taxpayers. It does away with tax breaks for the self-employed. Entrepreneurs have emerged as the latest 'bandits' in Greece's ongoing efforts to bleed the wretched Greek carcass of its last available drop of revenue. Government benefits have been slashed, taxes raised and Greeks are being pursued with maniacal determination." Continue reading →
"Schiff looked at Bureau of Labor Statistics price changes for 20 goods and services between 1970 to 1980 and again between 2002 and 2012, decades that Schiff says were both periods of large deficits and loose monetary policy. Schiff found that his basket of goods increased 61% faster than CPI for the period between 2002 and 2012. In contrast, his basket rose just 5% faster than CPI from 1970 to 1980. 'How can you believe these statistics when the numbers are so flawed?' Schiff asks in response to his research on CPI." Continue reading →
"The Obama administration issued a direct challenge to David Cameron over Europe, on Wednesday when it warned of the dangers of holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. A senior US official questioned the merits of holding a referendum as the prime minister's campaign to reset the terms of Britain's EU membership also came under assault from Brussels and Dublin. With just weeks to go until Cameron delivers a landmark speech in which he is expected to promise to hold a referendum on a 'new settlement' for Britain in the EU, the US assistant secretary for European affairs warned that 'referendums have often turned countries inwards'." Continue reading →