Economy

The following charts indicate relative performance of US home prices in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Miami to Canadian home prices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. US home prices are reflected in Canadian dollars for comparison purposes. Words: 240

Barclays Capital has done the math on what the events in the past several days reveal for Italy and the math is not pretty. The conclusion is that "Italy is now mathematically beyond point of no return." Words: 583

Countering Krugman’s argument that today’s low interest rates show that no one is worried about lending money to us and, therefore, that we should borrow and spend our way to prosperity, Ferguson argues that today’s interest rates are irrelevant. When countries get into trouble, he says, they get into trouble quickly – the way Greece and other European countries have. Taking …

Wars and depressions largely characterize the periods of time where there have been significant run-ups in the level of the U.S. National Debt Burden per Capita [i.e. the U.S. National Debt Burden per Capita-to-income Index], with the debt taken on to support the costs of the U.S. Civil War and World War II being the most significant. Today... it is perhaps most comparable to the Great Depression. [Take a look.] Words: 326

A highly talented individual in the USA finds it ever more difficult to fight his way through to self-realization and a socially creative position. Universities, politics, and businesses ever more frequently demonstrate a united front of relatively untalented persons and even incompetent persons. The word 'overeducated' is heard more and more often. Such 'overqualified' individuals finally hide out in some foundation laboratory where they are allowed to earn the Nobel prize as long as they don’t do anything really useful. Words:

The U.S. is headed inexorably toward a systemic failure, a complete and utter collapse of the financial system. TARP and all the other machinations have not improved the underlying insolvency of the banking system. They have, however, deferred a collapse and ensured that it will ultimately be worse. [Let me explain.] Words: 1385

I have a great deal of respect for Paul Krugman as an economist. He has a unique talent among economists for being able to make complex economic issues both understandable and interesting for the average person. [That being said,]...I am far less impressed with his abilities as a public policy commentator. [Let me explain.] Words: 567

The internet is awash (drowning?) in hundreds of doom and gloom videos providing dire warnings of coming world depression, food shortages, rioting in the streets, rampant (hyper) inflation, deepening banking crisis, economic apocalypse, financial Armageddon, the demise of America - well, you get the idea. Below is a small sample of such videos with a hyperlink to each. Sit back with your favorite beverage (or two/three!), turn up the volume (some of the music is foreboding) and look over the abyss into the pit of financial and economic despair that some see as about to erupt and engulf us in the months/years ahead. Take heed - you are being forewarned!

It all comes down to this: We have to match growth to debt. If we can't create miracles from growth, we have to consider inflation to reduce the value of our debt. [Those are the] only two ways out of our current global economic mess - innovation and inflation. As the saying goes, we should hope for the best (more innovation) and prepare for the worst (higher inflation). [Let me explain why that is the case.] Words: 1195

[Below is] a list of my favorite 25 rules for analyzing the economy. There are probably many more than this and many that have yet to be discovered, but this list has served me well over the past quarter century and hopefully will be of use to others. Words: 1849