asset-based economy

Bill Fleckenstein was back talking to Dylan Ratigan about the source of rising oil prices. (See the last Fleckenstein video here). Clearly, supply constraints and increased demand in emerging markets play the central role in creating a…

Michael Hudson reviews the reasoning behind income tax policy in the 20th century, a good lesson in financial history. Interestingly, he says that data show tax cuts have been followed by slow growth in the US.

In our September 28 Salvo, we imagined an opportunity to ask Chairman Bernanke the following question: “What does the Fed do if it expands its balance sheet to $4 trillion or $6 trillion, drives the 10-year yield down to 2% or less, but…

From From Jeremy Grantham's latest quarterly letter: If I were a benevolent dictator, I would strip the Fed of its obligation to worry about the economy and ask it to limit its meddling to attempting to manage inflation.  Better…

The Fed’s intent is not to create consumer inflation, but rather asset inflation — primarily in the equity market.  By pulling longer-term bond yields lower, the Fed hopes that this will alter how investors value equities relative…

In regards to Paul Krugman's argument's on China in the video in the last post, I think this quote from David Rosenberg's latest daily market commentary is spot on: Since 1985, dollar-yen has sunk nearly 70% and yet the US has the…

"Global imbalances are a shared responsibility. The world is dead wrong to blame it on China." That's how Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach began his interview with CNBC Asia. I agree 100% with these sentiments as I discussed in…

This morning ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan was talking about the recovery on CNBC. His take is that the recent slowdown in GDP growth is normal for the recessions since before World War II so far. If we dip even more from here, we have trouble.…

William White, the former chief economist at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) gave an important speech at George Soros' Inaugural Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET) conference in Cambridge.  While everyone is casting…

Earlier today, I had a brief e-mail exchange with Marshall Auerback in which I said that I had basically thrown in the towel on US (and global) policy makers. Early on in this crisis, I had advocated a number of policy paths which I think…