Syrian President Bashar al Assad has warned Western countries against intervening in his country’s affairs but says he is now willing to talk to members of the opposition.
“Bankruptcies of governments
have, on the whole, done less harm to mankind than their ability to raise
loans.”
- R.H. Tawney, Religion and
the Rise of Capitalism, 1926
“By a continuing process of
inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important
part of the wealth of their citizens.
- John Maynard Keynes, Economic
Consequences of Peace
“Unemployed men took one or two
rucksacks and went from peasant to peasant. They even took the train to favorable
locations to…
Dr. Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington of Hoisington Investment
Management write a “Quarterly Review and Outlook” that is a must-read for me.
This quarter they focus on US monetary policy, noting that “After peaking at
1.69 in the second quarter of 2010, M2 velocity declined for four consecutive
quarters, and we estimate that a major contraction in velocity to 1.59 is
likely for the third quarter.” (I mentioned the importance of the velocity of
money in judging inflation vs. deflation prospects in…
Australia’s labour tribunal orders Qantas and unions to halt the dispute that stranded thousands of passengers, with some flights to resume in hours.
Where is the
peace dividend that was supposed to come after the end of the Cold War? Where
are the fruits of the amazing gains in efficiency that technology has afforded?
It has been eaten by the bureaucracy that manages our every move on this earth.
The voracious and insatiable monster here is called the Federal Code that calls
on thousands of agencies to exercise the police power to prevent us from living
free lives.
It is as Bastiat
said: the real cost of the state is the prosperity we do…
Watch special video of David Rosenberg, Paul McCulley, John Mauldin, Louis-Vincent Gave and Martin Barnes as they discuss their different economic viewpoints. Moderated by Jon Sundt, president and CEO of Altegris. This animated panel discussion was filmed at the Strategic Investment Conference 2011 in La Jolla, CA.
Note: I’m still recovering from a bad flu I caught from my granddaughter, as I travel back from South Africa. Sorry there won’t be a letter this week. Please check back again next…
Do we need a law that makes it illegal to
push a moose out of a moving aircraft? In baseball, what are the odds of a
perfect game? How difficult will it be to solve the problems of the Eurozone?
These and other issues are meditated upon by Grant Williams in his Things That Make You Go Hmmm… letter,
which is this week’s Outside the Box. Maybe it was the baseball set-up (as my
Rangers battle the Cardinals in the World Series) or that I keep getting asked
about Europe here in New Orleans at the…
Former DJ, television presenter and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile has died, aged 84.
Labour’s Michael D Higgins has won a landslide victory in Ireland’s presidential election.
In my letter earlier this week, our guest writer, Grant Williams,
gave Europe about the same odds of escaping crisis as a pitcher throwing a
perfect game in baseball. That’s 40,000 to 1. Take a look at this decision tree
on Europe (below) from STRATFOR, a private intelligence company. Looks like
they give Europe something more like the odds of a major-league pitcher leading
in home runs. Not gonna happen.
With a serious impending crisis on our hands, we need to understand
it from all angles,…
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