Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, October 27, 2009
How the Free Market Works / Economics / Economic Theory
In the great book Man, Economy, and State, Rothbard's vast compendium of economic wisdom, we read much that has not yet been properly popularized. Rothbard's production theory, for example, is quite different from the standard account. I have tried to distill this theory into the following synopsis, although it is by no means the only part of the book that warrants exposition.
Economics is about using our available means to achieve the best possible ends. Achieving an end is called consumption and applying a means towards an end is called production.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Twelve Reasons For A Job Loss Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Recovery
I have been talking about the Job Loss Recovery for quite some time. Here are a few recent examples.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bonds Under Pressure / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
US treasuries were under pressure most of yesterday, ahead of heavy issuance this week. There was some follow-through to higher UK swap rates, but these fell back after market sentiment for equities turned negative towards the close of play. Ahead today, the CBI distributive trades survey will provide an early indicator of UK retail activity in October.
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Consequences of Deficit Spending Debt Build up in Our Lifetime / Economics / US Debt
I am in Argentina today, but still have found time to read a rather provocative speech by David Einhorn, who is President of Greenlight Capital, a "long-short value-oriented hedge fund", which he began in 1996. Einhorn has long been a critic of the current investment banking business, and today he discusses the problems with not only the proposed new government regulations (or lack thereof), but also the problems with the US debt and our currency valuations. It is a most thought-provoking and fun speech.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
The Secret Truth About Karl Marx and His Disciples Part 3 / Economics / Economic Theory
Karl Marx: Apocalyptic Reabsorptionist Communist
Karl Marx was born in Trier, a venerable city in Rhineland Prussia, in 1818, son of a distinguished jurist, and grandson of a rabbi. Indeed, both of Marx's parents were descended from rabbis. Marx's father Heinrich was a liberal rationalist who felt no great qualms about his forced conversion to official Lutheranism in 1816. What is little known is that, in his early years, the baptized Karl was a dedicated Christian.[43]
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Secret Truth About Karl Marx and His Disciples Part 2 / Economics / Economic Theory
Communism as the Kingdom of God on Earth: The Takeover of Münster
Thomas Müntzer and his Sign may have gotten short shrift, and his body be a-mouldrin' in the grave, but his soul kept marching on. His cause was soon picked up by a Müntzer disciple, the bookbinder Hans Hut.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Secret Truth About Karl Marx and His Disciples / Economics / Economic Theory
The key to the intricate and massive system of thought created by Karl Marx is at bottom a simple one: Karl Marx was a communist.
A seemingly trite and banal statement set alongside Marxism's myriad of jargon-ridden concepts in philosophy, economics, and culture, yet Marx's devotion to communism was his crucial focus, far more central than the class struggle, the dialectic, the theory of surplus value, and all the rest.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Macro Economics for Dummies / Economics / Economic Theory
“He who goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing.”
The quote comes from Ben Franklin. But it was recalled to us neither by America’s president, nor Britain’s Prime Minister. Instead, the
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Monday, October 26, 2009
America's Jobs Disaster / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Is the Great Recession about to end? This has been the dominant meme at least since June, when my local paper, the Anniston Star, ran a front page story by McClatchy's Kevin Hall with the headline, "Economists: Recession Nearing End as Unemployment Dips."
Sad to say, though, that if such news is the basis for optimism, in June or today, then we are in trouble.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Abolishing Risk Destroys America and Your Wealth / Economics / Economic Theory
Our willingness to engage in risks drives our prosperity. We urgently need a public debate on risk, one driven by reason, not emotion. Without risk, individuals are bound to lose the purchasing power of their savings; corporations that don’t take risk will fade into oblivion; and governments that regulate away risks destroy the growth engine of their nation.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Civilisation Sweeping Towards Destruction, Economics Needs Moral Courage / Economics / Economic Theory
It must be really painful to be an economist of the mainstream today, or, at least, it should smart to some extent. In a financial and economic calamity of the current scale, people naturally want to know who issued the warnings about the real estate bubble and its likely aftermath.
When private sector jobs have grown none at all in ten years, and when ten years of domestic investment is systematically undone in the course of 18 months, when housing prices in some sections of the country collapse 80%, and when formerly prestigious banks go belly-up or receive many billions in rescue aid, people want to know which economists saw this coming.
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Sunday, October 25, 2009
Less Than Good Economic News from Germany / Economics / Euro-Zone
The elections are over in Germany and the new finance minister is making sobering statements about recovery. Germany is a major part of the European economy. With Italy limping and Spain bleeding, Germany’s statement is hardly welcome.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Global Debt Crisis is Destroying the Economic Structure / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Last week Federal Reserve credit declined $12.9 billion, up 21% yoy. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury/Agency debt rose $4.1 billion to a record $2.865 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks expanded at a 17.5% rate ytd, and yoy 15.2%.
M-2 narrow money supply fell $23.3 billion to $8.341 trillion, that is 5.9% yoy.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
What Is Money?, Monetary Reform / Economics / Money Supply
An obvious response to the information that I have presented in the first eight parts of this series is this: "What should we do to reform the system?" This is a nice sentiment. It ignores the obvious: "we" have nothing to say about monetary reform.
Central banking is the most brilliant device of profit-seeking monopolists and oligopolists in human history. Nothing else comes close. Hardly anyone understands it, so there is no organized opposition.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Elements of Deflation and Surviving Today's Economic Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
It's The Best of Times
The Elements of Deflation
It's More Than Half Full
What's a Fed to do? We get talk about tightening and taking away the easy credit, but we got the fourth largest monetization on record last week. This week we examine the elements of deflation, look at some banking statistics that are not optimistic, and then I write a reply to my great friend Bill Bonner about why it's the best of times to be young. I think you will get a few thought-provoking ideas here and there.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Pig Farmers and China Monetary Inflation Are Making Brent Nervous / Economics / China Economy
Before getting into to the relationship between copper and pork products, I want to draw your attention to one paragraph from a commentary by Paul van Eeden that offers a contrarian, and undoubtedly unpopular view amongst the Kitco readership, of the gold market:
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Friday, October 23, 2009
Exorcising Economic Deflation Delusions Is Essential To Wealth Enhancement / Economics / Great Depression II
“Economic reporting has shown no meaningful signs of business recovery, with the current depression likely to evolve into a great depression, in conjunction with the collapse of the value in the U.S. dollar and a hyperinflation. Risks are high for these crises to explode in the year ahead. The general outlook is not changed…
The reported monthly decline in retail sales followed a downward revision to the previously reported clunkers-related sales gains in August…
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Friday, October 23, 2009
When Will Inflation Really Hit Us? / Economics / Inflation
Most of us are gathered at the station, watching for the Inflation Express to come rumbling in. But we've been waiting for a while now. Just when should we expect the big locomotive to arrive and start pushing the prices of most things uphill?
We’d all like to know the exact date, of course, but no one can know for sure. Not even a careful reading of the Mayan calendar will help.
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Friday, October 23, 2009
U.S. Faces Second Lost Economic Decade Because of Misguided Stimulus / Economics / Great Depression II
Japan has gone through two lost decades, in and out of deflation, with nothing to show for it but increasing debt to GDP and a stock market still 70% below its peak.
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Friday, October 23, 2009
Sterling Pulls back on Weak Retail and Sales Ahead of UK GDP Data / Economics / UK Economy
Sterling pulled back from highs following disappointing UK retail sales numbers for September. Official data revealed that retail sales were flat on the month, in contrast to market expectations of a 0.5% rise. These figures feed into the first estimate of Q3 GDP, which we expect to show a small quarterly rise of 0.1%, the first positive outturn since Q1 2008.
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