Category: Economic Theory
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, October 20, 2011
Nouriel Roubini's Global Research Brand vs. His Prescription for the Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
Nouriel Roubini has called the economic crisis rather well. He gas gone on to turn success at RGE into an "economic brand". The Institutional Investor has an 8-page article on How Nouriel Roubini Became a Research Brand.
The article also notes that Roubini has been in the inner economic circles at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the U.S. Congress.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Pitfall Of Rock Star Economists / Economics / Economic Theory
The whole idea of going to University and studying Economics, replete with a thorough understanding of the importance of analyzing economic data points seems to be lost on these Rock Star Economists who dominate the financial media landscape these days. The only barometer these so called economists utilize is: “Oh, the stock market has been selling off hard for two weeks we must be in a recession”!
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Wednesday, October 12, 2011
How Economic Collapse Will Happen / Economics / Economic Theory
Discussion about how the coming economic collapse will happen, and how to prepare yourself.
First - Imports to the Country increase drastically and exports decrease.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Folly of Economic Forecasting / Economics / Economic Theory
President Obama's mostly forgotten jobs package would reportedly create 1.9 million new jobs, a one-percentage-point drop in the unemployment rate, and goose GDP by two percentage points. That was the prediction of Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. You see, he has a model. He did a simulation, and presto — 1.9 million jobs!
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Thursday, October 06, 2011
Steve Jobs and the Beautification of Capitalism / Politics / Economic Theory
The day that Steve Jobs resigned from Apple, hosannas for his life's work and accomplishments erupted (and rightly) from every corner of the earth (or the blogosphere, in any case). He was universally hailed as a genius. He was praised for changing and upgrading our lives in so many ways. He was treated as an innovator who dedicated himself to the well-being of society, and accomplished miracles none of us mere mortals could have imagined. He did more than dream; he acted and created one of the great companies on the planet, a company that has enabled us to live out our own dreams.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
Posner Gets It Wrong on Macroeconomics / Economics / Economic Theory
Clifford F. Thies writes: Recession is the falling-down part. Depression is staying down. Normally, the recuperative powers of a market-oriented economy are sufficient that the falling-down part is immediately followed by a rising-back-up part. But, that's not happening now, and that didn't happen during the 1930s.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Cutting Government Spending Will Increase the Budget Deficit / Politics / Economic Theory
The US consumer's decade-long spending spree has ended, but there's still an ocean of red ink left to mop up. And with housing prices falling and unemployment tipping 9 percent, it will take longer to clear the family balance sheet than many had anticipated.
Traditionally, the government has helped to ease the pain of deleveraging by providing fiscal stimulus to boost economic activity and lower the real cost of debt. But Capital Hill is now in the grips of deficit hawks who frown on such Keynesian remedies, so households and consumers will have to fend for themselves and pay-down debts as best as they can or default when repayment is no longer possible . That's bad news for the economy that depends on consumers for 71 percent of GDP. Without a healthy consumer, the economy will face years of sluggishness and stagnation.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Keynesian Economic Solutions - After Total Failure –Try, Try Again / Economics / Economic Theory
“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.” – John Maynard Keynes – The Economic Consequences of the Peace
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Great Recession and Dynamic Economic Decision Making / Economics / Economic Theory
This week’s Outside the Box is from my good friend John Silvia, the Chief Economist at Wells Fargo and fishing buddy in Maine. He has written a powerhouse book called Dynamic Economic Decision Making: Strategies for Financial Risk, Capital Markets, and Monetary Policy.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Roubini Says We Ran Out Of Rabbits But Don’t Despair!! He Can Save The World / Politics / Economic Theory
Running out of rabbits to pull out of hats in the Year of the Rabbit sounds a bit far-fetched, but apparently that’s the situation right now. At least that’s what Nouriel Roubini says in a recent post “Marx was right: Capitalism may be on brink of doom”.
He should know; because, as we keep hearing, he predicted everything in sight from as early as 2003 and if only anyone had listened to him disaster might have been averted. Oh well, perhaps someone will listen to him now, and perhaps if they do another disaster can be averted?
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Saturday, August 20, 2011
Localize Our Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
Two centuries and a decade ago (in 1802), the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, stated:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property — until their children wake-up.”
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Simple Device that has Spontaneously Revolutionized Life the World Over / Economics / Economic Theory
Devin Leary-Hanebrink writes: A few days ago I was sitting in the break room at work enjoying my lunch when I realized just how incredible the simple, everyday, run-of-the-mill vending machine truly is. For days I have watched people pour money into these simple machines without ever really paying much attention. Heck, I have used these things for the majority of my life and never even given them a second thought. What is truly impressive — no, utterly astonishing — is how such a simple device has spontaneously revolutionized life the world over without the direction of a single bureaucrat, academic, statute, or judicial opinion.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Krugman's New Extraterrestrial Economic Plan For America / Politics / Economic Theory
The collapse of the US Government and US dollar is really turning into some of the best entertainment you can find. We've been enjoying it for the profit alone with our large position in gold and hard asset related investments. Just the humor, however, is worth the price of admission. We've stopped watching comedy movies. Will Ferrell can't beat this.
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Monday, August 15, 2011
Is Debt Deleveraging Bad for the Economy? / Economics / Economic Theory
The economic pundits have stressed more and more that this crisis is special because it involves "deleveraging," and for that reason isn't a run-of-the-mill recession. Because households and corporations are collectively trying to reduce their net indebtedness, it is allegedly up to the government to run massive budget deficits in order to prop up aggregate spending.
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Saturday, August 13, 2011
Rethinking Depression Economics / Economics / Economic Theory
One criticism of Austrian business-cycle theory is that it gives little insight as to what should be done to push an economy out of recession. Even accepting the premise that monetary overexpansion leads to a misallocation of capital goods, detractors claim that this says little in regards to the nature of the depression period. Leland Yeager, for example, argues that "Austrian economists can explain the continuing depression only lamely."[1] Lord Robert Skidelsky once made a similar comment in a live debate with George Selgin and Jamie Whyte.
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Monday, August 01, 2011
The Source of Profits in the Business of Financial Speculation / Economics / Economic Theory
There is scarcely an endeavor awash with more debate, allure, dogma and contempt than the business of financial speculation. The entire investment community is often derided as ‘just a bunch of gamblers’, the most successful speculators are often dismissed as ‘lucky’ and the very pursuit has even been likened to prancing around a fire with two horns on one’s temples. Naturally, we beg to differ. Here, I refute some of these commonly held misconceptions and outline our perception of the rudimentary source of consistent speculative gains.
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Monday, August 01, 2011
The Vices of the Modern Monetary Theory / Economics / Economic Theory
A few months back, I wrote about a virtue of the MMT; namely, the way it focuses on sectoral balances. I think that this view is both interesting and useful for the contrarian investor. However, I do have some misgivings with the convictions of the typical Modern Monetary theorist. Here, I discuss some of the problems with the MMT frame of mind.
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Friday, July 29, 2011
Why Capitalism Is Worth Defending / Politics / Economic Theory
Anthony Gregory writes: As Obama demonizes the wealthy and pitches a dozen plans to restructure the economy, opponents of this program need a reminder of what exactly we’re fighting for. We are resisting bureaucracy, central planning, and encroachments on our freedom and communities. Yet this does not get to the heart of the matter. We are not only an opposition movement, countering the president and his partisans’ agenda. More fundamentally, we stand in defense of the greatest engine of material prosperity in human history, the fount of civilization, peace, and modernity: Capitalism.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Society Lacks Purchasing Power, Robots Don’t Buy Cars / Economics / Economic Theory
Our world lurches from financial crisis to financial crisis yet very few academics, reporters or commentators point out the fatal flaw in current orthodox economic theory which is the central force behind these crises. The flaw relates to the general LACK OF PURCHASING POWER in contemporary society. This weakness in classical economic theory is not new and many scholars have explained the problem however, increasingly, the issue is being conditioned out of people’s consciousness. The collapse of the international banking system, as a result of the Sub-Prime; “Originate to Distribute” catastrophe, has brought this Achilles heel of Keynesian economics into sharp focus.
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Monday, July 18, 2011
The Critical Flaw in Keynes's Economic System / Economics / Economic Theory
As part of my Mises Academy class Keynes, Krugman, and the Crisis, I have reread large portions of The General Theory. In his masterpiece, Keynes erects an impressive framework on one crucial assumption: left to its own devices, the free market can get stuck in an equilibrium with very high unemployment.
Although Keynes's whole edifice and critique of the "classical economists" rests on this belief, he devotes surprisingly little time to supporting it. In the present article I'll point out the weakness in his view. If it turns out that the free market does naturally move toward full employment in the labor market, then the entire Keynesian "general theory" falls apart.
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