The saga of MF Global has faded from the headlines a bit, what with the end of the world approaching in 13 months or so, and societal and economic collapse prior to that.  But one big question I have is why have I not heard any talk about either the US DOJ or some States [...]

The common wisdom one hears these days is that we are in a hard spot because economic growth is stalling, but government debt is so high that resort to additional “stimulus” via government expenditure is unpalatable.   This is of course only wisdom to the extent that you believe that government expenditure is inn fact [...]

Romer, who until a year ago was a failed architect of “President” Obummer’s failed economic policies, today wrote a hysterical piece in the New York Times which seeks to conflate image with reality.  In it she states the following:
Mr. Bernanke needs to steal a page from the Volcker playbook. To forcefully tackle the unemployment [...]

Today there are multiple articles out about tax policy and the “President” is out talking about millionaires and billionaires again. This must be part of a coordinated effort to change public opinion in the wake of the Debt Ceiling battle and S&P downgrade. So lets tackle the biggest issue head-on. Maobama insisted [...]

Today the Department of Energy (DOE) in conjunction with the International Energy Agency decided it was going to release 30 Million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) – 1 million Barrels a day for 30 days.  According to the Energy Information Administration (a sub body of the DOE), we use about 18.77 [...]

If it were not so sad it would be funny.  This is one of Dennis Gartman’s favorite sayings.  The reaction to the May Employment Report by those in Washington would be hilarious if it weren’t so serious.  The reaction of those brain-dead in Washington is “We have to craft better policies to get jobs going”.  [...]

It is passing strange that a week or so after the Obama administration declared it would be taking a tough line on speculation and shortly after the Fed was roundly abused for a lackluster performance in its 1st press conference and for not taking any responsibility for the run-up in commodities due to its outrageously [...]

Barney Frank is out again with his legislation that would strip regional Federal Reserve Bank Presidents of their right to vote on monetary policy. In other words they would presumably no longer sit on the Federal Open Market Committee. What a good idea! Then we can have only political appointees beholden to [...]

What I missed in watching this farce was any sense that the Fed is going to fail in achieving the fulfillment of its mandate by virtue of the very policies it is pursuing. It reminds me of the oft-heard proverb that one often meets ones destiny on the road one takes to avoid it, [...]

Today I paid $4.15 to put some gas in the tank of my car. Ben Bernanke refuses to accept that the Fed has anything to do with commodity inflation and refuses to view it as anything other than “transitory” according to remarks on April 5th.  Before putting the lie to such nonsense, it will [...]

While our Dear Leader, our erstwhile American Nero, left for India and Asia spending $200 Million per day on entertaining his Media Mogul friend and mouthpiece, CNBC owner and GE Chairman Jeff Immelt, in order to escape the unpleasantly painful aftermath of his face slapping in the mid-term elections, his putatively independent economic minion, [...]

Unless you live under a rock, you must be aware that the Federal Reserve is now widely expected to engage in a strategy of expanded Quantitative Easing to fend off incipient deflation, or if you believe the Fed’s latest statement, even to get low inflation to be more in line with what the Monetary Policy [...]

I just watched Maria Bartiromo interview Jennifer Granholm, the Governor of Michigan. The topic of the interview was the great job Granholm was doing revitalizing the Michigan economy by partnering with automotive green energy companies, specifically those producing the batteries to be used in electric vehicles. After much blabber about access to capital, [...]

I always sort of a grimly chuckle when I hear a politician on the tube say something like “Our focus is now entirely on creating jobs.” Politicians may be just about the stupidest creatures on our shared Earth, but they do know one thing. When people feel economically insecure, they tend to [...]

With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Federal Budget our Dear Leader the Obamanator proposed recently, you occasionally hear the solution mentioned but it is rarely discussed and Congress turns it’s back (for example by voting unanimously to keep entitlements off the table when considering how not to bankrupt the country).  It [...]

UPDATE 05 March 2009: I would add that in light of what seems an unbelievable overextension of their balance sheet by writing hundreds of billions of dollars or more in Credit Default Swap (CDS) contracts they could not even remotely begin to conceive of being able to honor in the event, it would [...]

UPDATE:  4 June 2009 – Freedom House and some other organizations have released a report, Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians (pdf) that captures the ideas expressed here so I guess it is now official.
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I have been meaning to write about this for about 5 years, but the installment of the Obama administration with what should [...]

Foreclosure statistics were reported this morning on CNBC and were just dismal.  In California, where things were just absolutely out of hand in 2006 and 2007, with 800 sq. ft. closets selling for $500,000, foreclosures are up 100% compared to last year and 500% compared to the year before.
They had some clown on to comment [...]

In listening to some congressional idiot talk about aid to the auto makers, I was struck by their determination in insisting that this is not a bailout but a bridge loan.  There is a grain of truth in this I suppose.  When the commercial paper markets seized up, financing oprerations would have become very difficult [...]

UPDATE:  28 October 2008,  3PM Central.  Well That was wrong.  Stocks broke out the TOP of the wedge rather than breaking out the bottom and falling through the table.  Never fight the Fed.  The Fed is expected to set rates at or below 1% tomorrow afternoon.  Of course this in itself is nearly unprecedented; for [...]