Economy

Do you think the USD is still on top? What makes a currency strong isn’t necessarily what makes it popular or valuable, as you’re about to read.

News out of Venezuela continues to be quite grim, pointing to further economic deterioration... Here is the the latest:

Most people deal in the present, rarely questioning the future beyond what they consider to be the very next event. The great majority of people...cannot imagine...a disastrous collapse as being in any way possible because surely, somehow, the governments of the world will fix things. The number of people whose eyes have been opened seems to be growing, however, and many of them are asking what the collapse will look like as it unfolds. What will the symptoms be? Here is how we see it.

I get tired of preaching economic disaster and I am sure readers are just as tired of reading about it. Yet, it is coming regardless. The disaster will be of such importance that one cannot overemphasize it or warn too often about it. It will be a disaster of unprecedented scale.

Compared with Ireland, where the individual tax rate is a whopping 48%, the U.S. national average of 36.9% is not so bad. How does your country compare?

The Canadian housing market is headed for a significant bust, in my view. It's going to be a repeat of the 2008 mortgage bubble deflation. Only it's happening to the north. People will lose a lot of money but those who understand and are properly positioned may gain fortunes.

All the hype surrounding Bitcoin is a dead giveaway that you should be suspicious. Forget all the economic arguments against the currency, though. The biggest risk is a technological one. Add in the neck-snapping volatility, and you’re telling me this is the future of money? Keep dreaming! It’s little more than a wild speculation. One with a fatal flaw, at that, so please, whatever you do, refrain from converting your life savings – or any meaningful amount of money – into Bitcoins. At least until you read this article.

Did you know that financial institutions all over the world are warning that we could see a mega default on a very prominent high-yield investment product in China on January 31st? We are being told that this could lead to a cascading collapse of the shadow banking system in China which could potentially result in sky-high interest rates and a precipitous plunge in credit. It could be a Lehman Brothers moment for Asia and, since much of that "hot money" has flowed into stocks, bonds and real estate in the United States, that would be very bad news for the U.S. as well. [Let me explain.]

With international reserves in virtual free-fall, the black market peso rate plunging, and no sign for months that President Kirchner has any appreciation at all of the gravity of the situation, the country is in the advanced stages of another financial panic/meltdown. This will end badly, another chapter in the long history of Argentine financial crises extending back almost 100 years.

Below is an infographic presenting a crash course in the need for, problems with, and benefits of, building the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta through the American midwest to the refineries in Texas.