Periodically in history, the expansion of credit creates the illusion of prosperity which, regretfully, ends in the inevitable bust which seems to be the case today. The sheer magnitude of credit destruction occuring right now is depressionary. The return to growth will be a long and painful process. Words: 625
Read More »U.S. Real Estate? Fuhgeddaboudit for Another 5 Years! (+2K Views)
Real estate has definitely not bottomed in the U.S., and probably not anywhere else either. You have to take a long-term view of this. At this point in time I am completely uninterested in speculating in U.S. real estate – and I don’t foresee being interested for at least five years. I reserve the right to change my mind, but I think it’ll be at least five years. Words: 1340
Read More »The Devil’s Advocate Gives 4 Reasons NOT to Buy Gold (+2K Views)
In the contrarian spirit of playing devil’s advocate four reasons are put forth as to why you shouldn’t buy gold today. Words: 553
Read More »Roubini: Hunker Down for More Job Losses (+2K Views)
Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. We can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back. Words: 536
Read More »Antal Fekete: The Fed Inadvertently Steering Economy on Road to Hell (+2K Views)
I would welcome a public debate of my thesis that risk-free bond speculation suppresses the rate of interest and destroys capital in the process. I have challenged neo-classical economists who still consider the open-market operations of the Fed as a ‘refined tool to manage the national economy’. I want them, instead, to see in open-market operations the cancer of the economy responsible for the withering of the world’s prosperity. So far my challenge has fallen upon deaf ears. Words: 2854
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