As the economy again started off the year on a sour note, the glass-half-full crowd pointed to the strength of the U.S. jobs market as a reason not to worry. As long as payrolls are racking up monthly gains of 200,000 or more, the economy remains in fine fettle, or so the optimists would have it. Take a peek below …
Bernanke’s Former Advisor: “People Would Be Stunned To Know The Extent To Which The Fed Is Privately Owned”
With every passing day, the Fed is slowly but surely losing the game. Only it is not just former (and in some cases current) Fed presidents admitting central banks are increasingly powerless to boost the global economy, even if they still have sway over capital markets. What is far more insidious to the Fed’s waning credibility is when former economists affiliated …
Hillary Clinton Remains Silent on GMO Labeling Issue
Marianne Williamson – writer, activist, and minister – is still awaiting a reply to her 2014 open letter to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Williamson’s letter puts some very germane questions to the woman who has been called the Bride of Frankenfood. Williamson says very succinctly at the end of her open letter: “I want you to rail against the chemical companies and …
Dominic Frisby – Why we should fear a cashless world
The health food chain Tossed has just opened the UK’s first cashless cafe. It’s another step towards the death of cash. This is nothing new. Money is tech. The casting of coins made shells, whales’ teeth and other such primitive forms of money redundant. The printing press did the same for precious metals: we started using paper notes instead. Electronic banking …
Paul Craig Roberts – The Financial System Is A Larger Threat Than Terrorism
In the 21st century Americans have been distracted by the hyper-expensive “war on terror.” Trillions of dollars have been added to the taxpayers’ burden and many billions of dollars in profits to the military/security complex in order to combat insignificant foreign “threats,” such as the Taliban, that remain undefeated after 15 years. All this time the financial system, working hand-in-hand …
Les Leopold – Decoding Hillary: The Truth Vs. What She Claims About Her Wall St. Record
“I went to Wall Street when I was a United States senator. I told them they were wrecking the economy. I asked for a moratorium on foreclosures. I asked that we do more to try to prevent what I worried was going to happen. I also called for closing loopholes including the carried interest loophole. I also called for changes …
Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Some Real Costs of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Nearly Half a Million Jobs Lost in the US Alone
The Trans-Pacifc Partnership (TPP) Agreement, recently agreed to by twelve Pacifc Rim countries led by the United States,1 promises to ease many restrictions on cross-border transactions and harmonize regulations. Proponents of the agreement have claimed significant economic benefits, citing modest overall net GDP gains, ranging from half of one percent in the United States to 13 percent in Vietnam after fifteen …
JACK RASMUS – The Next Global Financial Fault Line
Global Equity Markets In the past year the stock markets in China erupted, contracting by nearly 50% in just three months, after having risen in the preceding year by 130%–truly a ‘bubble event’. That collapse, commencing in June 2015, continues despite efforts to stabilize it. Chinese bankers then injected directly $400 billion to stem the decline. Including other government and …
Jack Rasmus – Today’s Global Financial Faultlines
In the past year the stock markets in China erupted, contracting by nearly 50% in just three months, after having risen in the preceding year by 130%–truly a ‘bubble event’. That collapse, commencing in June 2015, continues despite efforts to stabilize it. Chinese bankers then injected directly $400 billion to stem the decline. Including other government and private sources, estimates …
Neil Irwin – Negative 0.5% Interest Rate: Why People Are Paying to Save
When you lend When you lend somebody money, they usually have to pay you for the privilege. That has been a bedrock assumption across centuries of financial history. But it is an assumption that is increasingly being tossed aside by some of the world’s central banks and bond markets. A decade ago, negative interest rates were a theoretical curiosity that …










