STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS Showing 8551 - 2 of 2
U.S. Jobless Rate Tops 10% for First Time Since 1983
November 07, 2009
Let the good times roll? For longer than we like to remember, and along with other free-market publications, we have been writing that massive money stimulation, additional regulation and "bail outs" were not going to bring back jobs, or not the real, long-last ...
Barack Obama Blames George Bush for America's Discontent
November 06, 2009
We're not quite sure what President Barack Obama hopes to achieve by continuing to blame his predecessor for current problems. Does he hope people will agree with him – thus paring his negatives? Or is he merely trying to deflect blame because like all humans ...
Investor Risk Appetite at New Highs – While the Markets Are Going Nowhere
November 05, 2009
In America, and most other western nations alike, withdrawing from the current mode of government bailouts and spending will be difficult. The bankruptcy of CIT should drive this point home decisively. Another USD 2.3 Billion of taxpayer money has gone into CIT ...
Economic Crisis Yields Idiocy at Wall Street Journal
November 05, 2009
Here at the Bell, we believe in civil discourse. Polity is part of civil society and civil discourse is often preferable to invective, all things being equal. And all things being equal, this article in the Wall Street Journal has got to be one of the stupidest ...
Japan Spirals Into Bankruptcy?
November 04, 2009
The UK Telegraph more than any other mainstream newspaper we read (at least on the 'Net) seems to make the occasional stab at analyzing what's really going on in the world. It's covered the desperate difficulties of Eastern Europe, the deepening troubles in Ire ...
Mother of All Carry Trades Faces an Inevitable Bust
November 03, 2009
Policy is reckless, not the system. Even when the British Financial Times – a preeminent mouthpiece of the monetary elite – tries to give us an unvarnished look at the world economy it ends up fudging it in our humble opinion. Let's try to unravel the above ...
Nine U.S. Banks Seized in Largest One-Day Haul
November 02, 2009
We just finished pointing out in the article above that the prospect of a commercial real-estate crash did not quite jibe with the idea that America and Europe were powering their way toward vibrant economic recovery. In truth, the enormous amount of money that ...
Edward J. Epstein Explains the Diamond Racket and How De Beers and Others Managed Its Trade
November 01, 2009
Edward Jay Epstein studied government at Cornell and Harvard, and received a PhD from Harvard in 1973. During this time he published two books - his master's thesis, "Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth," and his PhD thesis "News From ...
U.S. Emerges From Recession
October 31, 2009
The jobless recovery has begun. We don't think it's much of a recovery, though. We guess we're among the naysayers. We've figured that in America alone the numbers of jobless (those wanting jobs anyway) are between 20 percent and 30 percent. That's over 60 mill ...
Barack Obama Fails to Defeat Conservatism
October 30, 2009
Conservatives win? We just commented on this article as it appeared on the Gallup site, and now here comes a Telegraph follow-story that confirms pretty much everything we tried to point out. The article is in our opinion a kind of elegant gibberish, which conf ...
John Stuart Mill and the Dangers to LIberty
October 29, 2009
This year marks the 150th anniversary of John Stuart Mill's famous essay "On Liberty." Originally published in 1859, it remains one of the most enduring and powerful defenses of individual liberty ever penned. Both advocates and enemies of personal freedom have ...
Russia Will Sell No Gold?
October 29, 2009
In the 1990s, Western central banks played at selling gold to "talk" the price of gold down. One after the other they lined up to microphones with mainstream media logos brandishing their stems to announce their respective central bank sales of gold. It was of ...
U.S. Troops Hope Afghanistan Sacrifices Not in Vain
October 28, 2009
What exactly was the Afghanistan war about? We're still not sure. We believe that many others are unsure as well. We know initially, the war was about getting rid of Al Quaeda, but that was nearly eight years ago. Since then, the war seems to have morphed into ...
Gallup Poll Ignores Libertarians
October 27, 2009
Conservatives advance? This is a great article that shows just how the manipulation of labels confuses ideological and political issues. Gallup purposefully chooses to define individuals as conservative, moderate or liberal, whatever those labels mean. In our m ...
The Real Climate Change Catastrophe
October 26, 2009
Global warming - now climate change - is as good an example of a dominant social theme as we have got. It does seem, in writing about dominant social themes, that one is postulating a kind of conspiracy of the elite. But how else does one account for the kind o ...
Frank R. Suess on the Polanski Affair, the Resurgence of Free-Market Thinking and the Continual Benefits of Swiss Private Banking
October 25, 2009
Frank R. Suess, CEO & Chairman, BFI Consulting, started his career as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting in 1989. Before taking the lead at BFI Consulting in 1998, he held a senior management position with Price Waterhouse working as a strategic a ...
Break Up British Banks?
October 24, 2009
So the idea is that smaller banks will take less risk. In America this concept was codified as Glass-Steagall and investment and commercial banks were split off from each other. In Britain, this bifurcation was never fully achieved. Thus it is we wonder if the ...
China's Growth Is Huge Inflation Risk
October 23, 2009
We've been pointing out the breadth and depth of the potential China financial bubble for years, but only recently has the mainstream media, timidly (in our opinion), begun to conclude that there may be a wee bit wrong with double-digit growth rates. Now comes ...
Derivatives Don't Need Regulation?
October 22, 2009
We have pointed this out before and given this article, excerpted above, it is probably a good time to point out again that there is nothing wrong with derivatives. They are an inevitable evolution of the marketplace based on the computer power that is coming o ...
If the Banks Own All the Gold, Why Would We Want a Gold-Backed Money System?
October 21, 2009
One of the most entrenched myths of our modern day is the assumption that (1) the bankers own all the gold and (2) therefore, the concept of a gold-backed money system is a very bad idea, because it would give them even more power than they now have. This view ...
Higher Jobless Rates Could Be New Normal
October 21, 2009
This article, excerpted above, is a good example of how economic analysis can be confusing in the era of central banking. When money was asset-backed, everyone who used the stuff had a fairly good idea of what money was, actually, and how inflation worked. If t ...
Financial Regulation Must Be Tailored
October 20, 2009
They are keeping at it. In addition to forcing through the Lisbon Treaty, which is a big step toward building a United States of Europe, the EU mavens are continuing to move ahead with re-jiggered pan-European financial regulations. In this interview, excerpted ...
EU Lisbon Treaty Succeeds After Czech President Concedes Defeat
October 19, 2009
The Irish have voted against it. The British don't want it and neither do the French – who voted down just such a European United States a few years ago when the socialist leaders in Brussels still thought they had a chance of passing an actual constitution. ...
Al Korelin on the Global Depression, the Demise of Capitalism and Why He Believes in a Gold-and-Silver Bull Market
October 18, 2009
Legendary hard-money expert Alexander (Al) Korelin, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of A.B. Korelin & Associates. Al Korelin has been involved in the Financial Community since 1978 when he received his MBA in Finance and International Trade from the University of ...
Economic Recovery Is in the Air?
October 17, 2009
We think this article may be just a tad optimistic. We're not certain about a recovery of the larger economy any time soon either in the United States or Britain. But beyond this we have a question as to what Britain's economy would recover TO were it to recove ...
Trial Balloon Time?
October 16, 2009
For some reason, George Schultz has decided to reopen the books on the "drug war" – which took further wing with the Reagan administration of which he was part. It seems there is a history of drug war veterans recanting as to the effectiveness and the validit ...
Ron Paul Takes on Lindsey Graham
October 15, 2009
We ordinarily try to analyze news AFTER it happens, but in this case we can't wait. We think we know the gist of what Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) is going to say and it is not all that much different than what we have been offering on these pages. Of course a ...
Rage at Government for Doing Too Much and Not Enough
October 14, 2009
Well, it is all going remarkably as we anticipated. After the Bush years of war and paranoia, America has a peacemaker as President. Barack Obama has even been given a peace prize to ensure that Americans and the rest of the world get the message that US is no ...
Energy Crisis on Hold?
October 13, 2009
This will not slow down the energy misers one bit. The "conservation" train will chug down the track just the way global warming does in the face of an ever-broadening consensus that such fairy tales are just that. We call these "dominant social themes" – bed ...
Ellen Brown Responds
October 12, 2009
Ms. Brown has done us the courtesy of continuing the dialogue on Brownism (Brownianism?) and we find it – and her point of view – more compelling (interesting, anyway) than ever. The issue of communitarianism, as she may be expressing it, is one of the grea ...
Rick Rule on the Value of Mining Companies, the Future of Precious Metals and the Necessity for Contrarian Investing
October 11, 2009
The editors of The Daily Bell are pleased to present an exclusive interview with mining entrepreneur and free-market commentator Rick Rule, Chairman of Global Resource Investments, Ltd. Rick Rule began his career in the securities business in 1974, and has been ...
The Brownian Conundrum: Is a State Solution Possible?
October 10, 2009
Still more emails continue to flow on this topic! We didn't really want to return to Ms. Brown who has been patient all week long while we have tried as best we can to unravel her perspective - and the perspective of her influences -- on money and the state. It ...
Gold: Three Reasons why the Price Will Go Higher
October 09, 2009
People will continue to support this trend until the cycle turns and the monetary elite are able to kick start fiat once more. Of course we are on record as stating that this time round reinvigorating fiat money may prove to be nearly impossible over the long t ...
Ellen Brown Controversy Continues
October 08, 2009
As we continue to receive passionate and sophisticated emails regarding Ms. Brown and her economic thinking (see her Daily Bell interview, etc.), we are amazed by the fervency she inspires. We have been studying economics and money metals for decades and Ms. Br ...
Gold Hits Record High on 'Plan' to Ditch Dollar
October 07, 2009
Supposedly gold has moved up because the dollar is being threatened by a basket of currencies being developed by Saudi Arabia, Russia and some other countries, mainly in the Middle East. China is supposed to be one of these countries but China holds close to ...
The IMF Catapults From Shunned Agency to Global Central Bank
October 06, 2009
This article on the Huffington Post by Ellen Brown - whom we recently interviewed - is both provocative and forward-looking. We certainly can't say that Brown is a mainstream writer in the sense that she does not merely parrot various predigested elite promotio ...
China Central Bank Says Lending Heads for 'Sustainable Level'
October 05, 2009
This article by Bloomberg is a great example of why modern financial journalism (mainstream style) sounds so good and all-too-often could use more substance. Below, we will quote some more from the article, but even before we do, we want to point out that the B ...
Dr. Lawrence Parks on the Reality of Green Shoots, the Fight Against Fiat and Why Ellen Brown Is Right About Banking but Wrong About Money
October 04, 2009
The editors of the Daily Bell are pleased to present this exclusive interview with Dr. Lawrence Parks, the Executive Director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education (FAME) - and a leading proponent of the fight for honest-money. Lawrence Pa ...
Watch Out Bankers: Now the IMF Wants to Tax You Too
October 03, 2009
The IMF is being intensely active. First IMF leaders have announced the development of risk tools that will warn the world of an impending calamity. Now IMF executives are drawing up plans to levy what is basically an international banking tax. These moves come ...
Will IMF Early-Warning System for Financial Crises Be Effective?
October 02, 2009
Free-Market Analysis: Boy, this is an exciting idea. The IMF, which until recently anyway, never met a country that it couldn't squeeze, is going to unveil a system that will predict financial crises. Since the IMF uses Keynesian (statist) analysis, we can't qu ...
Greenspan Sees Growth Slowing as Stocks 'Flatten Out'
October 01, 2009
Huh? Whaaa? We must have missed this "growth." Alan Greenspan hasn't though. The man who looks and sounds exactly as a central banker is supposed to look and sound is at it again. We've charted Greenspan's course in the past, and we must admit he is being more ...
Japan Tips Ever Deeper Into Deflation
September 30, 2009
First Spain and now Japan. The Telegraph is charting deflationary trends in one industrial economy after another. The problem in Spain apparently is that EU central bank demands make it impossible for Spain to print enough money to cushion its increasingly grim ...
Volcker Claims Concern About Moral Hazard
September 29, 2009
One of the things that central banking does among other things is basically turn marketplace finance into radioactive waste. Mention hedge funds, private equity and derivatives and responsible people in Washington DC go apoplectic. Of course, in each instance, ...
Spain Tips Into Depression
September 28, 2009
We think that the problems with Spain do presage problems going on elsewhere in the world. We think, eventually, they will visit the United States as well. When we write "eventually" what we mean is that things will get considerably worse. We believe this becau ...
Ross Beaty on How to Build Mining Companies, the Value of Silver and the Future of Geothermal Energy
September 27, 2009
Ross J Beaty is a geologist and resource company entrepreneur with more than 37 years of experience in the international minerals industry. In early 2008, Mr. Beaty founded Magma Energy Corp. to focus on international geothermal energy development. Magma curren ...
Ditching the Dollar at G20 Summit?
September 26, 2009
There are plenty of calls to get rid of the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and China has been leading the way because the Chinese hold so much American paper. Japan is another country that holds a good deal of American debt, and between them these two ...
Sarah Palin – A Libertarian in Hong Kong?
September 25, 2009
Sarah Palin is apparently trying to resurrect the successful Republican – "conservative" – formulation that marked Ronald Reagan's tenure in office 20 years ago. Readers of the Bell will not be surprised. We predicted this back in early July when we wrote o ...
Double-Dip Recession Could Be Best for America?
September 24, 2009
Harsh medicine? The thrust of this analysis, which appears on NewsMax, is that a second recession will achieve two goals: It will bring Republicans back into office and it will purge the economy of bad investments by major entities including large corporations ...
Shrinking Money Supply Dampens Inflation Fears
September 23, 2009
This article, excerpted above, is yet another reason, in our humble opinion, why McGraw Hill is trying to unload BusinessWeek, reportedly at one point for a buck. With all the commentary now on the Internet and even in the mainstream press about free-market eco ...
China Faces 'Arduous Task' for Stable Growth, Society
September 22, 2009
Here are the Bell, we have made points about China for several years that are gradually trickling into the mainstream, not because of our influence (we'd like to think so) but because Chinese leaders are saying basically the same thing. We recently reported on ...
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