Finance

In a dynamite interview, Richard Fisher, former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve of Dallas, gave what may be the biggest confession you’ll ever see and hear from a Federal Reserve insider:

When the Federal Reserve decided to lift interest rates, they made a colossal error. You don’t raise interest rates when a global financial crisis has already started. That is absolutely suicidal...Surely the “experts” at the Federal Reserve can see what is happening:

The Pew Research Center’s recent report says that 49% of adults are members of the Great American Middle Class. My more qualitative analysis suggests that no more than 33% of U.S. households qualify as middle class. Claiming that 49% of the nation’s households are still middle class is a gross exaggeration and I substantiate my contention in this most interesting and revealing article.

On January 1st, 2016, a new bail-in system will go into effect for all European banks which means that, if you have more than 100,000 euros in a European bank right now, you are potentially on the hook should that bank go under. In the U.S. the Federal Reserve recently adopted a new rule that limits its ability to lend emergency money to banks. Is that the first step to European style bank "bail-in" legislation being enacted in America?

If you’re under 30 the old playbook of “go to school, get a good job, work your way up the ladder” doesn’t apply anymore. Here's why and what to do about it.

In an unprecedented move that signals China’s growing global influence, Zimbabwe has announced that it will adopt the Chinese currency as legal tender as it seeks to increase trade with Beijing.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ keeps running real time totals of estimated U.S. national debts and assets. Take a look! Links to debt clocks of other countries provided too.

Every year, Forbes analyzes the sports world to produce a list of the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world. This year’s list includes 20 NFL teams, 12 MLB teams, 10 NBA teams, 7 soccer teams, 1 NHL team, and 1 racing team (Formula One) worth, on average, $1.75 billion each, which is up 31% from 2014.

In 2011, the IRS introduced the Foreign Account Compliance Act, or FACTA to “minimize tax cheats” but in doing so FACTA is making banking - and life in general- painfully difficult for millions of American expats. The affects of FACTA are illustrated in the following infographic.

The American Dream--characterized by plentiful jobs offering living wages, security and opportunities to get ahead--is over....Piling on debt is not a solution; it's simply a politically expedient method to forestall the crisis, while guaranteeing the eventual repricing will be even more severe because the debt load is then so much larger. If you think otherwise, I strongly recommend that you reduce your dosage of Delusionol.