The Economy is in Liquidation Mode

If you’re an American over a certain age, you remember roller skating rinks (I have no idea if it caught on in other countries). This industry boomed in the 1970’s disco era. However, by the mid 1980’s, the fad was … Read More

What Number Will Signal When the Dollar is About to Plunge to Zero Value?

Last week, we left off with this.

“Something is happening with gold…”

It began in Dec 2008. To understand it, it is necessary to understand two principles. The first is that gold is money and the dollar is credit, … Read More

Yield Purchasing Power: $100M Today Matches $100K in 1979

I wrote a story about poor Clarence who retired in 1979, and even poorer Larry who retired last year. I created these characters to challenge the notion of calculating a real interest rate by subtracting inflation. The idea is that … Read More

Minimum Wage Kills Goodwill

Seattle has imposed a $15/hour minimum wage.

Of course, this will kill jobs. It is basic economics: you cannot pay someone $15 to produce $10 worth of value. However, this essay is not about that. Nor is it about the … Read More

Prime Minister Tsipras, Here’s How To Create a New Golden Age for Greece

Dear Prime Minister Tsipras,

First, congratulations for mustering the popular support to say “no” to the troika. The euro has long offered Greece a perverse incentive to borrow, and now your country is trapped in debt. By any conventional means, … Read More

Gold Prices are Well Below Market Fundamentals

For those who are speculating on the dollar—i.e. most people—there was good news this week. The dollar rose almost a milligram, to 28.3mg gold. That’s a big gain, and welcome news for those who keep all of their eggs … Read More

This is Your Brain on Dollars

We can’t count how many articles we saw last week, bemoaning gold going down. The price action is bad for gold (whatever that means). China underreported their gold holdings. No, China doesn’t care about gold. No, they want the … Read More

Steve Moore vs. Paul Krugman Debate = Tom and Jerry Show

With apologies to his fans, Jerry is an evil little mouse who constantly pesters Tom the Cat. Tom tries and tries, but cannot seem to overpower someone who is a fraction of his size and strength.

Watching Stephen Moore attempt … Read More

Gold Price Crash, Speculators or Fundamentals?

The prices of the monetary metals cascaded downward this week, and the ratio of the gold price to the silver price rose accordingly.

Many analysts and speculators are puzzled. With everything going on in the world, gold should go … Read More

THERE’S Your Hyperinflation!

Hyperinflation is commonly defined as rapidly rising prices which get out of control. For example, the Wikipedia entry begins, “In economics, hyperinflation occurs when a country experiences very high and usually accelerating rates of inflation, rapidly eroding the real … Read More

Silver Scarcity Rose Last Week

Last week, we concluded with this:

“So now, for the first time in about two years, the fundamental price of silver is above the market price, about $0.35 over.

…

Unless you really like to trade the bleeding edge … Read More

Interest on a Million in Savings – $300 – Thanks Fed

I have to admit that I derive some pleasure in taking on hoary old myths. For example, some economists assert that the interest rate you see on the Treasury bond is not real. You see, it’s only nominal. To calculate … Read More

Greece, Gold, and Silver

The prices of the metals drooped further this shortened week (Friday was a holiday in the US, as the Fourth of July, Independence Day, occurred on Saturday). The S&P 500 index also fell this week, as did crude oil.

Markets … Read More

Why Government Enablers Want To Abolish Cash

The stories are all over the Internet. Governments are forcing us into a cashless society. Supposedly the pretext is terrorism, and the real reason is to take more control. No doubt more power appeals to politicians, and banning cash … Read More

How Could the Fed Protect Us from Economic Waves?

Mainstream economists tell us that the Federal Reserve protects us from economic waves, indeed from the business cycle itself. In their view, people naturally tend to go overboard and cause wild swings in both directions. Thus, we need an … Read More

Answering Obama, Are Hedge Funds Worth More Than Kindergartens?

“The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country,” declared President Obama in a discussion of poverty at Georgetown University. Calling them “society’s lottery winners,” he proposed to hike their taxes.

Predictably, battle … Read More

Welcome to Compliance Hell

I attended a panel discussion recently on the problems start-ups have in raising capital caused by securities regulation. Start-ups have to hire a lawyer before they raise the first dollar of capital. It’s a real catch-22.

Entrepreneurs are often surprised … Read More

Stable Cost of Living? Not If You Live Off Savings!

The dollar is always losing value. To measure the decline, people turn to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or various alternative measures such as Shadow Stats or Billion Prices Project. They measure a basket of goods, and we can see … Read More

Arizona Governor Ducey Vetoes Gold

This isn’t yet another in a long series of articles lamenting the Federal Reserve, power, politicians, corruption, and the hopelessness of fighting the status quo. What’s the marginal utility of the Nth plus one article reiterating these points? Nearly zero. … Read More

Bernanke and the (Economic) Euthanasia of Retirees

Ben Bernanke presided over the Federal Reserve for two terms, from 2006 through 2014. A year and half into his first term, he began driving the Federal Funds Rate down. By the end of his frantic interest episode, this … Read More

Falling Interest Causes Falling Wages

Interest rates have been falling for over three decades. Conventional economics has two things to say about this. One, inflation expectations are falling. Monetarists believe that the interest rate is set based on bond traders’ predictions of future price increases. … Read More

Gold and Silver Price Predictions

We’re still at the start of a new year. The question on everyone’s mind is whither the prices of gold and silver? This Brief presents our answer (and the full Monetary Metals Outlook 2015 report gives our reasoning).

One approach … Read More

The Dollar is Debt, Not Money

I wrote what I thought was a fairly simple article for Forbes recently. I noticed that some people really got it, and they were very excited. However, others were skeptical or asking questions that went into the weeds. The former … Read More

The Swiss Franc Will Collapse

I have worked to keep this piece readable, and as brief as possible. My grave diagnosis demands the evidence and reasoning to support it. One cannot explain the collapse of this currency with the conventional view. “They will print money … Read More