2010

Commercial real estate has been regressively “freed” from debt – leaving the rental value to be pledged to banks as interest. This un-taxing of land rent has been a major factor inflating the real estate bubble on credit, much as…

Undaunted by falling municipal bond prices, rising yields, and withdrawal of funds, research reports by large brokerage firms still mollify the majority of clients and fund managers with numbers and assertions: "General obligation bonds do…

We have long argued that there was less to the EFSF that met the eye due to the need to maintain AAA rating when most members are rated lower. However, to increase the guarantees now could signal that officials are preparing to have to…

The thinking behind Eurobonds is that a pan-euro zone debt instrument could be used as a release valve for liquidity issues, allowing the truly insolvent to restructure their state level debt if necessary, without creating contagion. The…

Below are today's links. The must-read links are from Edward Chancellor on Japan and the two links on state debt woes fron the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I also recommend the Baseline Scenario link which goes…

Links on Google Search, civil liberties and the European debt crisis plus a lot more.

I have been in meetings with Very Serious Texas Politicians where secession was earnestly discussed 15 years ago. Do I think that could happen? No. The Fed will never choose hyperinflation, and I do not think you can find 60 Senators to…

if many countries were in the cast of “The Biggest Loser,” the US would be among the fattest competitors. Thus, with this report, is the US now able to say, “See here, we are going to go work as hard as the rest of you to slim down”? Maybe…

James K. Galbraith writes that the National Committee on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's underlying budgetary analysis is faulty because it rests on the false premise that a country can involuntarily default on a fiat currency it…

This is about how site scrapers use loopholes in the Google Search algorithm to rank highly for content they scrape from the sites of others. These activities may eventually become an issue for regulatory officials since Google also earns…