STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
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February 25, 2015
We've struggled with the exact nature of the organic meme because it is a shifting target. As "organic" becomes more popular, regulatory authorities continue to expand definitions of what it is and who is able to utilize the word for what purposes. As these reg ...
February 24, 2015
California's officials are mulling this idea ... and Florida has already done it. "Florida has had a similar office in a 124-year-old Victorian home on Capitol Hill since 1973," the article informs us. The move is treated merely as another news item to report o ...
February 24, 2015
In the other article in this issue, we pointed out that in the US, feelings of alienation toward the country and its federal government were a good deal more prevalent than ordinarily discussed. A Reuters analysis of a poll on the issue discovered almost a quar ...
February 23, 2015
As expected, Greece's strong words have not been matched by action. The top men of Greece spoke boldly, but when we examined their pedigrees, they matched up with those on the other side of the table. The negotiations were thus never those of Greeks versus Germ ...
February 23, 2015
For the most part, the alternative media has led the way when it comes to defining the parameters of the cannabis industry and its potential profits. As decriminalization and legalization have evolved, however, we've seen more articles like this one posted at B ...
February 21, 2015
In this article, the BBC does what it often does, which is provide a "balanced" narrative regarding semi-authoritarian rulers and their bad behavior. This article pays little attention to Kirchner's truly outrageous behavior and instead "profiles" her in a fair ...
February 21, 2015
This new Canadian bill is that the bill is exceptionally popular in Canada we learn from Canada's Globe and Mail. It calls for "tough new measures" that will further compromise Canadians' natural right to privacy, while giving the government invasive new powers ...
February 20, 2015
Predatory lending is a big meme these days. During the sub-prime postmortems it was brought up a lot. Apparently, if someone offers you money and you take it, you may have participated in a crime. You're not at fault, of course. It's the fellow who gave you the ...
February 20, 2015
In the other article in this issue, we've discussed Eric Holder's final attempt to bring accountability to Wall Street's bankers. What Holder claims he wants to accomplish on Wall Street – to clean it up – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to d ...
February 19, 2015
Just in time to join this larger debate comes the reasonable GAO alternative: Let's make the Fed more accountable but not TOO accountable. Call this the Goldilocks option. We did some research and found a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears that took the ...
February 19, 2015
This Mises article about Russia potentially returning to a "gold standard" was written earlier this month. We've also speculated on this idea, and the article pulls together a number of current events from a Russian standpoint. The article talks about a remonet ...
February 18, 2015
This is one of those articles that in our humble opinion starts with a false premise, one that is enunciated at the very bottom of the article: In any event, financial regulators shouldn't be afraid of cost-benefit analysis. If it's done well, it serves the cau ...
February 18, 2015
This anti-extremism summit is likely laying the groundwork for further repression of US freedoms. It is using the fear of "terrorism" to do so. The legal remedies created as a result will eventually be aimed at domestic critics of US fedgov's increasingly repre ...
February 17, 2015
The ingredients are being assembled for another Greater Recession. Methodically, they are placed in the pot. And eventually the pot will be stirred ... and the result will not be pretty. Central banks are printing money as never before. The BIS guides them and ...
February 17, 2015
There are no nation-states, only cultures. Yemen is a good example of this. Western forces are trying to put back together a "nation" that never worked in the first place. And the reason given is (basically) Western security. But we would argue along with Ron P ...
February 16, 2015
Here is yet another article arguing that making money worth less increases prosperity. Black is white, up is down, etc. We truly live in an age where most of the world's received wisdom is at least questionable. And it is not hard to tell why. There are conside ...
February 16, 2015
Republicans are worried about getting blamed for a Department of Homeland Security shutdown. The idea, as always, is that government needs to function effectively. If it doesn't then somebody is at risk of losing his job. And that's usually – according to com ...
February 13, 2015
The comments being made by Richard Fisher are probably a result of a recent Fed scandal involving the New York Fed and Goldman Sachs. Carmen Segarra worked at the Federal Reserve in New York and started secretly recording conversations in 2012 involving Goldman ...
February 13, 2015
Here is Bloomberg yet again postulating that business cycles are not predictable and that – by default – central bank money printing has nothing to do with it. Of course, one of the big breakthroughs of the 20th century was, in our view, the discovery by Lu ...
February 12, 2015
We begin to see a pattern here. As always, we are led to believe the crisis is unavoidable and the horror is about to descend. And then at the last minute, or even after the last minute, the bureaucrats somehow manage to resolve their differences. Some governme ...
February 12, 2015
This article proposes that the US ought to get involved in European affairs as it has "twice before" in the past century. When the article talks about "involvement," what is considered necessary is apparently a large sum of US cash that will allow Greece in par ...
February 11, 2015
This Bloomberg editorial begins with an elaborate apology regarding a mis-statement that Rand Paul referred to US$57 trillion in Fed assets in a recent speech when he actually said US$57 billion. But the article doesn't back down any further regarding Rand Paul ...
February 11, 2015
Even now, many look on entrepreneurs in the cannabis space with mild derision. The industry has boomed so soon and multiplied into such a variety of opportunities that most people cannot foresee just how far or fast a cannabis venture can travel. Forbes, on the ...
February 10, 2015
There are two free trade pacts being negotiated currently, one in the "Pacific" and the other in the "Atlantic." The Pacific one seems to get most of the attention and there is good news for those who want the treaty cancelled or radically reconfigured. The goo ...
February 10, 2015
This is partially one of those "backlash" editorials, designed to take a countervailing position in order to stimulate our sense of inquiry. That's what we read editorials for, editors like to believe. In a sense, it harkens back to 20th century memes having to ...
February 09, 2015
We've been writing about this race to the bottom for months now. From our point of view, it seems like a kind of directed history. First, central bankers announce the specter of deflation and then they gradually take steps to combat it. They also announce that ...
February 09, 2015
This article from Martin Armstrong is a timely reminder that cross-border protections are getting stronger not weaker. We've estimated in the past that within two years time it will be significantly more difficult to get funds in and out of the US. Armstrong ha ...
February 06, 2015
Is this a dance between the EU and Greece, designed to yield tension, headlines and ultimately resolution? Or is it a legitimate unraveling of the EU's program? Once again, the world waits and watches while powerful government officials bargain over national an ...
February 06, 2015
In the other article in this issue, we've analyzed the dialectic now taking hold between Greece and the EU. We pointed out that the EU may be trying to control negotiations as best it can but that these negotiations are disruptive nonetheless and presumably the ...
February 05, 2015
The suit is settled and presumably it's back to business as normal for S&P. The ratings agency stood accused of providing too-rosy ratings in order to gain clients. Of course, S&P was not the only agency to provide ratings that looked overly optimistic after th ...
February 05, 2015
Not long ago, cannabis was generally illegal and you could go to jail for a long time by smoking it. But now with legalization and decriminalization taking place in the US and elsewhere, cannabis is being touted as a government money spinner. In the case of Col ...
February 04, 2015
The US economy is making a comeback but not for individuals. This article in Al Jazeera, a quasi-mainstream publication, provides us with these insights. The article is written by David Cay Johnston, an award-winning investigative reporter who recently produced ...
February 04, 2015
We recently pointed out in an article – "Grexit: The Footsteps Grow Louder ... Could the EU Blow Apart?" – that Germans might be very unhappy with a rescheduling of Greek debt. But that looks like what is happening. The proximate mechanism is a proposal by ...
February 03, 2015
This article is in line with what we've forecast in the past regarding regulation and asset expansions. When markets crash, it is easy to create regulations to "address" the perceived problem. In fact, legislators often don't know or understand the problem, but ...
February 03, 2015
Despite both a US and global movement toward legalizing cannabis, or at least decriminalizing medical cannabis, there hasn't been a lot of personalized political conversation. Yet it is often such anecdotal conversations that help create a dialectic to begin wi ...
February 02, 2015
There are no easy answers here now that the Greek Syriza government has been elected and made it clear (at least so far) that it will not continue down the road that Greece is supposedly – lawfully – bound to travel. A previous administration signed on to a ...
February 02, 2015
The recent verbal confrontation between McCain and members (in particular) of the activist group Code Pink illustrates how the Internet works. We are reminded again why isolation and ridicule of target groups is often counter-productive in the 21st century. McC ...
January 30, 2015
One way to look at this move is to see it as a benefit for both publications. That's because there is not a lot of difference between Bloomberg and The Economist when it comes to editorial direction. Bloomberg is in a sense relentlessly authoritarian and so is ...
January 30, 2015
Indian tribes are taking swift steps to involve themselves in cannabis cultivation and marketing. This takes place following regulatory and business advances that have made the Native American entrée increasingly feasible. The Daily Bell previously reported on ...
January 29, 2015
Here is a good example of how top financial execs try to make sure "no crisis goes to waste." In the recent past, especially, we've been explaining how the EU's foundering – along with the euro – was actually part of a larger, hush-hush strategic plan. Carn ...
January 29, 2015
So now there is peak food. From the standpoint of farming and food production, peak food is probably good news. Prices will go up; demand will rise. It will surely become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But is it true? We tend to think at a fundamental level peak f ...
January 28, 2015
We find this analysis questionable, indeed. Our favorite Bloomberg columnist, Noah Smith, has decided that the first 10 years of the century were hell, but apparently the five thereafter registered significant improvements. In other words, things are getting be ...
January 28, 2015
This article at CNN makes the point that organic foods are increasingly preferable because of the amount of herbicides the EPA is allowing in and on food-crops. We are beginning to see a dialectic here between "organic" and "Big Ag" crops. Big Ag uses herbicide ...
January 27, 2015
Is the campaign for a North American Union officially underway with this editorial appearing in CNN? Certainly conspiracy theorists might be justified in thinking so. For years, more than a decade, some have suspected that powerful bureaucracies in North Americ ...
January 27, 2015
Over a year ago, we reported that the cannabis industry was poised for a powerful industrial takeoff, and now this article – and others like it – confirm what we believed. This is no aberration. Over the next months and years there will be considerable addi ...
January 26, 2015
Every mainstream endorsement can be followed by an alternative point of view, carefully crafted. We call this the dialectic, and sometimes the points of view surprise us with their accuracy. Economics writer Liam Halligan provides us, above, with a counterpoint ...
January 26, 2015
Is this for real? India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, as well as one of the most populous. If India is the second most trusted nation in the world, then God help the others. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about India: A study conducted by ...
January 23, 2015
The "big brains" gathered in Davos are mostly successful in material terms and powerful from the standpoint of our modern economic system. But in the early 21st century, these attributes may prove ephemeral. And that's probably the reason for the gloom that is ...
January 23, 2015
The drumbeat advocating additional sanctions against Putin and Russia is evident in this Bloomberg "editors" editorial. It is this attitude that will support a continuance of the Ukraine standoff. From what we can tell, the episode was initiated by the West to ...
January 22, 2015
We never believed the Fed would tighten. And we don't. Not really. We've regularly made statements to that effect. If Fed officials do "tighten" – we figure they'll find some other way to loosen. The money printing goes on. And now here come reports to the ef ...
