Investors warn liquidation of assets and deflation is temporary calm before the storm
Economic experts have predicted that rampant inflation caused by government stimulus packages will soon take hold of the economy and force precious commodity prices to all time highs.
Johann Santer, MD at Superfund Financial Hong Kong told CNBC that he expects to see gold climb from its current position at $710 to a whopping $1500-$2000 an ounce within the next three months. Continue reading
It wasn’t long ago that the world watched the collapse of the Soviet Empire. At the time, the USSR had a mighty military force that was overextended throughout the world and was bogged down in Afghanistan. Within a flash in 1989, the Soviet Union came tumbling down, not because it could not produce tanks and nuclear warheads, but because it couldn’t produce bread. The collapse happened so rapidly it even surprised the U.S. intelligence community.
The United States is now inexplicably suffering the same fate. The country can produce a stealth bomber, but it can’t produce a pair of shoes. Ronald Reagan must be turning in his grave. Continue reading
November 13, 2008 – By most accounts the US economy is in serious trouble. Robert Reich, an adviser to President-elect Obama, calls it a “mini-depression,” and that designation might be optimistic. The Russian economist, Mikhail Khazin says that the “U.S. will soon face a second ‘Great Depression.’” It is possible that even Khazin is optimistic.
I cannot predict the future. However, I can explain what the problems are, how they differ from past times of troubles, and why traditional remedies, such as the public works programs that Reich proposes, are unlikely to succeed in reviving the U.S. economy. Continue reading
Purge your mind for a moment about everything you’ve heard and read in the last decade about investing on Wall Street and think about the following business model:
Until Congress holds serious investigations and hearings, the U.S. taxpayer may be funding little more than Ponzi schemes while companies that provide real products and services, legitimate jobs and contributions to the economy are left to fail.
You take your hard earned retirement savings to a Wall Street firm and they tell you that as long as you “stay invested for the long haul” you can expect double digit annual returns. You never really know what your money is invested in because it’s pooled with other investors and comes with incomprehensible but legal looking prospectuses. The heads of these Wall Street firms have been taking massive payouts for themselves, ranging from $160 million to $1 billion per CEO over a number of years. As long as new money keeps flooding in from newfangled accounts called 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, 529 plans for education savings, and hedge funds (each carrying ever greater restrictions for withdrawing your money and ever greater opacity) everything appears fine on the surface. And then, suddenly, you learn that many of these Wall Street firms don’t have any assets that anybody wants to buy. Because these firms are both managing your money as well as having their own shares constitute a large percentage of your pooled investments, your funds begin to plummet as confidence drains from the scheme. Continue reading
The jobs crisis is hitting the age group with big mortgages and young families the hardest, figures showed yesterday.
Workers in their 30s and 40s are losing their jobs at a rate faster than any other age group.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare system got a big boost on Wednesday as a powerful Democratic senator unveiled a plan similar to President-elect Barack Obama’s and an analysis said the financial crisis could accelerate any efforts, not hinder them.
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