Tag Archives: Debt and the Fallacies of Paper Money

Photo credit: Peter Klaunzer Will the Swiss Guarantee CHF 75,000 for Every Family? In early June the Swiss will be called upon to make a historic decision. Switzerland is the first country worldwide to put the idea of an Unconditional Basic Income to a vote and the outcome of this referendum will set a strong precedent and establish a landmark in the evolution of this debate. The Swiss Basic Income Initiative in a demonstration in front of parliament. As we have previously reported (see...

Ye olde tattered Crash Alert flag… should it be unfurled again? Image by fmh Black-and-Blue Crash Alert Flag Let us  begin the week “on message.” The Diary is about money. Today, we’ll stick to the subject.  Old friend Mark Hulbert has done some research on the likelihood of a crash in the stock market. Writing in Barron’s, he points out that the risk – or, more properly, the incidence – of crashes, historically, has been very small: “[…] consider that the 1987 and 1929 crashes were...

  Photo credit: Georges Schneider / APA Trapped in the EU Austria is a small European nation that has made the grievous mistake of needlessly joining the EU in 1995, together with Finland and Sweden. Austria’s neighbor Switzerland, which is of roughly similar size and likewise militarily neutral, proved to have far better instincts. The Swedes subsequently at least had the good sense to stay out of the euro zone. It seems if there is a mistake to be made, Austrian governments will...

  Originarios on the march… Photo credit: cta.org.ar  Alarming News BALTIMORE, Maryland – An alarming email came on Tuesday from our ranch in Argentina: “Bad things going on… We thought we had the originarios problem settled. Not at all. They just invaded the ranch.” To bring new readers fully into the picture, Northwest Argentina, where we have our ranch, has a revolution going on. Some of the indigenous people – that is, people with Native American blood – believe they have a claim on...

  Scratching the Surface Problems, as people commonly perceive them, require solutions. Broken shoelaces must get fixed.  Regrettably, in today’s democracy this means the candidate who offers the most fixes – in the form of goodies – to the most people wins the election. The Gallup poll reported earlier this week that 18 percent of U.S. adults believe the “economy in general” is the most important problem facing the country.  This was followed by 13 percent who believe “dissatisfaction...

Expanding in Ireland DUNMORE EAST, Ireland – We came down the coast from Dublin to check on our new office building. For this visit, we wanted to stay somewhere different than we normally do. So we chose a small hotel on the coast, called the Strand Inn. Irish landscape with alien landing pads. Even the guys from Rigel II have heard about Ireland’s corporate tax rate. Photo credit: Tourism Ireland It is an excellent place for seafood and soda bread on a rainy day. Later, you can go to the...

Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda, professional yen assassins Photo credit: Toru Hanai / Reuters Policy-Induced Contrition in Japan As we keep saying, there really is no point in trying to make people richer by making them poorer – which is what Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda have been trying to do for the past several years. Not surprisingly, they have so to speak only succeeded in achieving the second part of the equation: they have certainly managed to impoverish their fellow Japanese...

  Smart Money Fleeing Stocks DUBLIN – The Dow dropped 180 points on Tuesday – or about 1%. And another clever billionaire says he is looking elsewhere for profits. Reuters: “Activist investor Carl Icahn on Monday said there was a chance the stock market could suffer a big decline, saying valuations are rich and earnings at many companies are fueled more by low borrowing costs than management’s efforts to boost results. “I am very cautious on equities today. This market could easily have...

  Yes, these two gentlemen are actually watering a tree in the middle of a downpour… Photo via president.gov.by Presidential Duties Our editor recently stumbled upon an image in one of the more obscure corners of the intertubes which we felt we had to share with our readers. It provides us with a nice metaphor for the meaningfulness of government activity. First, here is a look at the picture – just quietly contemplate it for while and let it work its magic on you: You may have noticed...

  Family Secrets DUBLIN – The smart money is getting out while the gettin’ is still good. That’s the message we get from reading the recent headlines. Here’s the Financial Times: Redemptions from stock funds have hit nearly $90 billion this year as portfolio managers and hedge funds struggle to navigate a market that no longer seems driven by radical central bank policy. S&P 500 Large Cap Index INDX S&P 500 Index: causing navigational problems. S&P 500 Large Cap Index...