Take a step back and look what’s going on. Last year, Rick Santelli, a Chicago trader who does reports for CNBC did “The Rant Heard Round the World,” in which he said, among many good things: “I’m thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists who want to show up on Lake Michigan, I’m going to [...]
Archive | September, 2010
A Candid Appraisal of the Recovery
John Browne (2010.09.27 ) Investing
Over the last two weeks, seemingly good economic news offered some shreds of optimism to a stock market that was desperate for a pick-me-up. The week before last, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the US recession had ended back in June 2009. At the beginning of last week, news came in that month-on-month [...]
The Fakirs of Reality
Edward Cline (2010.09.24 ) Politics
Raymond Ibrahim, an associate director of
Prohibition Revisited
Sylvia Bokor (2010.09.24 ) Politics
Survivalists, or “Preppers” as they sometimes call themselves, see a bleak future. They could be right…or not. It depends on which road we take: acquiescence or resistance. Prohibition made it illegal for Americans to buy alcohol. It did not stop them from drinking. It increased it. Going to a speakeasy was groovy, as collegians — [...]
Obama's Economic Ignorance
Ralph R. Reiland (2010.09.23 ) Politics
With 15 million workers unemployed and another 11 million underemployed, President Obama recently decided that the answer was to hit the road and throw some anti-rich red meat to some friendly stadium audiences. At a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee, Mr. Obama declared that the United States “didn’t become the most prosperous country in the [...]
The "Deleveraging" Deception
Michael Pento (2010.09.20 ) Investing
There is wide agreement among economists and the financial media that our lackluster economic performance stems from continued “deleveraging” among consumers and businesses. Although it is certainly true that after decades of overly speculative borrowing, individuals and corporations are paying down debt, rebuilding their savings, and generally repairing their respective balance sheets. But these activities [...]
Castro and Obama
Ralph R. Reiland (2010.09.20 ) Politics
At least for a few moments last week, we had the strange spectacle of President Obama sounding more like a collectivist than Fidel Castro. With the federal payroll in the United States up by 200,000 positions and the private sector down by 7.8 million jobs since the current recession began, Mr. Obama continues to aggressively [...]
Japan Intervenes to Bail Out America.com
Peter Schiff (2010.09.17 ) Investing
This week, after the Japanese yen had surged to a fifteen-year high against the US dollar, the Japanese government decided to intervene in the foreign exchange market. To great fanfare, the Bank of Japan initiated a vigorous campaign to buy US dollars, thereby stemming the rise of the yen and pulling up the greenback. The effects [...]
Does the Fed Ultimately Control Interest Rates?
Michael Pento (2010.09.17 ) Investing
In forecasting the consequences of current economic policy, many pundits are downplaying the risks associated with the surging national debt and the rapid expansion of marketable Treasury securities. Their comfort stems from the belief that a staggering debt burden will be manageable as long as interest rates remain extremely low; and, as they believe the Fed [...]
Burning the First Amendment for The Muslim Cult of Sharia
Edward Cline (2010.09.15 ) Politics
In the classic western, High Noon, Will Kane, the retiring U.S. Marshall of Hadleyville, must face a gang of criminals who have come back to town, intent on vengeance on Kane for his having helped send the leader to prison. Most of the townspeople, in an demonstration of mass cowardice (a “terror-stricken town,” as the trailer [...]