Economy

There has been a deluge of articles recently about the upticks in the housing data...[yet, while] I do not dispute the improvement in the data regarding home starts, permits, pending sales, etc.,... [see graph below] these data points are still mired at very depressed levels so the assumption is that if home building is stabilizing then it is only a function of time until home prices began to rise as well. Right? Not so fast.. [Let me explain.] Words: 1100

The Fed is completely convinced that without an inexorably rising rate of inflation there won’t be enough money made available to finance our rapidly increasing national debt. [As such, they have just] disclosed that they now have an inflation goal of at least two percent . As a result, we are stuck with a perpetually decreasing standard of living, a middle class that is on the endangered species list and provided the holders of U.S. dollars a target rate for its destruction...[Indeed,] Bernanke’s actions are so destructive to savers that I’m sure if he were a broker, he would be telling his clients to buy more gold.

I have a personal friend who spends months every year developing business opportunities in China and I find his ground level perspective unlike anything written elsewhere. If you really want to know what is transpiring there go no further than to read this insightful email on the "China condition" particularly as it compares with that of the U.S. and Europe. Words: 1320

George Soros...is more concerned with surviving than staying rich...He doesn't just mean it's time to protect your assets. He means it's time to stave off disaster. As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of "evil." Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether. [Perhaps] we should be, too, [but as] we have often explained, [such comments ar nothing more than] the fear-based promotions of the power elite to frighten the middle classes into giving up power and wealth to globalist institutions. Let us explain.

[As you know earlier] this week the Federal Reserve...promised to keep short-term interest rates low through late 2014 ... up from a previous pledge of 2013. Not only that, the Fed also said it would continue with its "Operation Twist" policy of selling shorter-term Treasuries and buying longer-term ones. The goal [is to] hold down long-term interest rates but what does QE really do - and not do? [Let me explain.] Words: 500

Economic imbalances and social inequality risk reversing the gains of globalization according to the findings of a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders, indicating a shift of concern from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks compared to a year ago. Respondents worry that further economic shocks and social upheaval could roll back the progress globalization has brought, and feel that the world’s institutions are ill-equipped to cope with today’s interconnected, rapidly evolving risks.

Most traders and some economists believe the Fed will step in with another round of Quantitative Easing (QE3) in the first half of 2012. This will pump up the stock market, particularly bank stocks, giving the impression that the US economy can’t be that bad, after all, [but in the process] debase the dollar and reduce purchasing power. [This, in turn, will result in higher]...inflation causing prudent investors to buy more gold. [Let me explain further what I see transpiring this quarter and why.] Words: 718

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) painted a stark picture of the global economy this week slashing the outlook for world growth while forecasting a damaging recession in Europe that will leave no country, including Canada and the U.S., unscathed. The report stated that financial conditions have deteriorated, growth prospects have dimmed, and downside risks have escalated and, as such, policymakers must immediately move forward together to save the world economy from falling into a 1930s-style death spiral because the longer corrective action is put off the worse it will actually get. Words: 640

There has been an alarming development for the obscure, yet instructive Baltic Dry Index...[which] tracks the cost of shipping major raw materials (iron ore, coal, grain, cement, copper, sand and gravel, fertilizer and even plastic granules)...It is down 48.4% in the last month...[and] down 54.4% in the last three months. [Let me explain why and how to invest accordingly.] Words: 200

One typically doesn’t look to government bureaucracies to receive hard-nosed, objective discussions on the economy so you can magine my surprise when the latest Financial System Review, published semi-annually by the Bank of Canada, landed in my inbox and I discovered that it contained a very sobering look at Canada’s economy and the many systemic risks the country is facing! It’s not surprising that this report was not picked up by the main stream news, because if they did the popular opinion of Canada’s invincible, recession-proof economy might begin to crumble. [Let me explain.] Words: 2400