For many, income inequality is a disease ravaging the fabric of capitalist societies. Therefore, curing this ailment, according to progressives, necessitates an injection of welfare benefits and higher taxes on the wealthy. Guided by a zero-sum outlook, critics believe that the success of the affluent is gained at the expense of the poor. To remind voters that he takes income inequality seriously, during his presidential campaign, Joe Biden expressed concern that the...
Read More »Quo Vadis, Eurodollar System? – Jeffrey P. Snider, Emil Kalinowski, Velina Tchakarova
Eurodollars are time deposits denominated in U.S. dollars at banks outside the United States, and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. Consequently, such deposits are subject to much less regulation than similar deposits within the U.S. The term was originally coined for U.S. dollars in European banks, but it expanded over the years to its present definition. A U.S. dollar-denominated deposit in Tokyo or Beijing would be likewise deemed a Eurodollar deposit (sometimes...
Read More »The Omnipotent Power of the Pentagon
No matter how you feel about the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex, you can’t help but be impressed at how they are able to successfully plunder and loot American taxpayers, no matter how much needless death, suffering, and destruction they wreak on people around the world. Think about it: They just exited Afghanistan after their 20-year failed war against the Taliban, a war that left thousands of American soldiers and countless Afghans dead and the...
Read More »The Way Out of the Statist Morass
Given the seemingly intractable welfare-warfare system that characterizes the United States, it might be tempting for some people to despair and simply give up and surrender to what might appear to be the inevitable — the permanent continuation of our lives as serfs on the welfare-warfare state plantation. After all, Americans have lived under a welfare state since the 1930s, when President Franklin Roosevelt used the Great Depression as an excuse to revolutionize...
Read More »Why Switzerland props up its ailing sugar industry
In less than a decade the surface area dedicated to growing sugar beets in Switzerland has dropped from 20,000 hectares to 16,500 hectares Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch Every year from October to December more than 1.5 million tonnes of sugar beets grown in Switzerland are harvested to supply the country’s sugar industry – an industry being kept alive by massive government subsidies. SWI swissinfo.ch reports from Aarberg, home to the country’s largest sugar factory....
Read More »Eurodollar Warning Confirmed(?) by USA GER JPN & CHN [Eurodollar University, Ep. 177a]
The Eurodollar futures curve inverted on December 1st - what's happened since? Also, does the American, German and Japanese sovereign bond market corroborate the Eurodollar futures warning? Lastly, does China's lowered bank Required Reserve Ratio buttress the E$ warning too? -----EP. 177a TOPICS------ 00:00 INTRO: Updating the Eurodollar futures curve inversion; also global bond market yields. 00:41 The 2021 Eurodollar futures inversion had an active first few days. 01:40 A tiny negative...
Read More »Swiss tourists stayed close to home in 2020
Hiking, and biking, were rare winners in the pandemic. Keystone / Arno Balzarini New data on Swiss travel habits during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic show fewer overnight stays, less air travel and a collapse in trips beyond the borders of Europe. In 2020 the Swiss resident population made a total of 15.1 million trips which included at least one night away from home, according to a report published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Wednesday....
Read More »Money Supply Growth Is Slowing—That Points to a Slowing Economy
According to the popular narrative, the role of the central bank is to navigate the economy along the so-called path of economic stability. By this way of thinking if various shocks cause the economy to deviate from this path, then it is the role of central bank policy makers to offset these shocks. This is done by means of suitable monetary policies. In line with this way of thinking to counter the shocks from covid-19, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve...
Read More »Episode 25: The Origins and Machinations of the Federal Reserve
This week’s episode of the Gold Exchange Podcast explores the topic of Central Banks, most notably the US Federal Reserve. Monetary Metals’ CEO Keith Weiner explores why the Fed was created and what deleterious effects it has on our economy including inflation, boom bust cycles and monetary debasement in this recorded talk given to investment bankers. In this talk Keith discusses:[embedded content] Additional Resources Episode Transcript John Flaherty: Hello, again,...
Read More »Xi’s Gambit: China at the Crossroads
If Xi’s gambit succeeds, China could become a magnet for global capital. If success is only partial or temporary, China may well struggle with the structural excesses that are piling up not just in China but in the entire global economy. As noted here last month, the Chinese characters that comprise “crisis” are famously–and incorrectly–translated as “danger” and “opportunity.” The more accurate translation is “precarious” plus “juncture” or “change point.” (Thank...
Read More »