2014 was quite a bizarre year, wasn’t it? The past 12 months brought us MH370, Ebola, civil war in Ukraine, civil unrest in Ferguson, the rise of ISIS and the fall of the Democrats in the midterm elections. Our world is becoming crazier and more unstable with each passing day, and I have a feeling…
The ability of oil exporters to trigger a short-term collapse in price does not automatically translate into an ability to control the financial conflagration such a crash ignites. My BS detector went off when two stories with similar headlines touting $20/barrel oil were published on the same day. Color me skeptical, but it’s almost as if…
In many ways what is going on in late 2014 is a carbon copy of events in early 2009: back then the market was melting down every single day. Now, it is also melting, only in reverse. Back then the the interest rate was 0%, as it is now 6 years later (only with $3…
In a Hollywood saga that has a severe shortage of heroes, George Clooney has covered himself with distinction. While theater owners and then Sony Pictures Entertainment cravenly buckled to terrorist threats and some news outlets reveled in the gossipy e-mails made public by the Sony hackers, the superstar actor tried valiantly to rally Hollywood to…
Peter Schiff covers a wide range of topics in his latest interview with Chris Waltzek on GoldSeek Radio. Of course, they look closely at the precious metals markets and how they’re being influenced by the Federal Reserve’s monetary manipulation. However, they also discuss the price of oil, Russia’s ruble problems, and the future of the…
Some believe the central political issue of our era is the size of the government. They’re wrong. The central issue is whom the government is for. Consider the new spending bill Congress and the President agreed to a few weeks ago. It’s not especially large by historic standards. Under the $1.1 trillion measure, government spending doesn’t…
Economic illiteracy has absolutely no bounds. The top example of the day comes from Belarus. For those unfamiliar with the country, this map of Belarus will help put things into perspective. For the economic illiteracy of the day, please consider Belarus Imposes Moratorium on Rising Consumer Prices. “The moratorium is aimed at preventing consumer prices…
A year ago, Jeff Frieden and I forecast (along with others) in Politico Magazine a boom in output. In light of today’s third release for 2014Q3 real GDP, clocking in at 5% SAAR [1], it’s reasonable to ask, are we there yet? Figure 1 depicts the upward revision in GDP from advance to final, in the context of the…
According to the most recent report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General,government “mis-spent” $2.4 billion on food stamps. While $2.4bn may feel like small amount in the present day of trillion-dollar debts, as The Daily Signal’s Alexandra Gourdikan notes, the fact itself should raise concerns adding that the food stamps program is…
The headlines say new home sales are down from last month. Econintersect also sees the new home sales data soft again this month — with the unadjusted 3-month rolling averages continuing to decline. As the data is noisy, the 3-month rolling average is the way to look at this data. This data series is suffering from…
