Category: economics

economics

Inflation looms

The bond market does not tell us what the smart money people think inflation will be. It tells us what those among the smart money people who do not expect very high levels of inflation think inflation will be.

In addition to an on budget deficit of ten percent or so, there is also a much larger off budget deficit, in the form of an ever growing pile of government guarantees, which there is no will to restrain. Put the two deficits together, crisis looms.

Trees do not grow to the sky. That which cannot continue, must stop

economics

Internet Gold alive and well

Like Napster they demonstrated that the business model was viable, and also demonstrated that as soon as you started transferring serious money the US government would come after you. As a result, there are a lot of replacements for e-gold, which the US government will find hard to shut down

economics

obamanomics

Megan nails it: the government is using its intervention in the banking system to pressure banks to give special deals to the government’s special friends.

economics

Securitization

From the point of view of oligarchs and crony capitalists, the crisis is not that a lot loans were made to no hablo English wetbacks. The crisis is that people are rejecting securitization of debt. The Obama regime’s capitalism smashing measures are intended not to destroy capitalism, nor to install socialism, but to restore securitization of debt. This is socialism for the financiers, not for the proles:  Crony socialism, crony …

economics

Galt strike or inadequate aggregate demand?

The Randian concept of a Galt Strike is that if the elite slack off, the masses will be impoverished – that countries are rich or poor according to whether the elite is productive, while the masses and resources do not matter much, except in extreme cases such as oil rich sheikdoms. There has been a large fall in GDP over the past six months: The Keynesian explanation of this fall is …

economics

Trillion missing, top accountant dead

David Kellerman, the acting Chief Financial Officer and Senior VP at Freddie Mac, was found dead early this morning from at his home in Virginia. It is described as an apparent suicide. The press is rightly comparing this with the very similar “suicide” of Enron’s top accountant. When large sums of money disappear, the person who knows most about where the money went often, by an interesting coincidence, winds up …

economics

Smashing capitalism

President Barack Hussein Obama tells us: Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it has ever been. Because starting today, the United States will stand behind your warranty. This reads like something out of “Atlas Shrugged”. I predict fifty percent inflation or so over the next three or four years – and that is if we eventually turn back from this course, or at least …

economics

Geithner’s plan explained

President Barack Hussein Obama tells us: Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it has ever been. Because starting today, the United States will stand behind your warranty. This reads like something out of “Atlas Shrugged”. I predict disturbing inflation or so over the next three or four years – and that is if we eventually turn back from this course, or at least stop …

economics

The crisis explained

I have been seeing a lot of references to “a speculative bubble” Nope. They were not speculating. The crisis consisted of people, mostly members of protected minorities with nothing to lose, buying houses they could not afford with borrowed money in the expectation that they would go up, and if they went down, it was the bank’s problem. So the people who bought houses were taking no risk, since mostly …