Are investors worried about gridlock in Washington? Or maybe it’s the European debt crisis that has them bugged? It doesn’t matter. When Mr. Market wants to go down, he’ll go down. The real reason? The US economy is sinking into a deeper Great Correction.
July 29th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Bonner Diaries
The Daily Reckoning started out in 1999 as a personal letter from Bill Bonner to his readers. Today, even though we now have almost a million readers worldwide, it’s kept that personal touch. In this column Bill shares the trials and tribulations of living as an expat and global traveller in London, Paris, Buenos Aires and well, pretty much everywhere. Still haven’t subscribed to the Daily Reckoning? What are you waiting for… sign up here, it’s free!
A chronological listing of articles is below.
Debts Make a Deal
After a certain point, debt becomes toxic. Professors Reinhart and Rogoff put that ‘point of no return’ at 90% of GDP. Greece, Japan, and the US are all beyond that point. America’s gross debt is 100% of GDP. Greece sits at 120%. And Japan is off the charts, at 229%.
July 25th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Overconfidence in Paper Currencies
After such stunning gains over the last few weeks, the stuff that Ben Bernanke does not regard as money, gold, needed a rest. But if gold isn’t real money, what is? Pieces of paper that a private bank and the US Treasury say is real money?
July 21st, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Deflation and the Gold Price Trajectory
Gold will go higher. A lot higher. …but not before it sinks. As debt is destroyed in the Great Correction the price of the dollar will go up and gold will go down. We will have deflation before we can move on to a super-boom. But, eventually gold will end up at twice today’s price – at least.
July 19th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 2 comments | Continued
Makers, Takers and the Transfer of Wealth
As the welfare state has matured, more and more people have found ways to game the system in order to get more and more out of it. From special parking places to tax credits to military contracts… ‘benefits’ have expanded far beyond what the public can afford.
July 15th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
Imperial Suicide
The US economy was a free-market success story for a hundred years…from the end of the US War Between the States to the end of the Vietnam War. It was the richest, fastest-growing, most innovative, most competitive, and most admired economy in the world.
July 11th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
The IMF: Leading the Way to Financial Ruin
Lending at the IMF increased 10 times under Dominique Strauss-Kahn. To borrowers who can’t pay it back, such as Greece and Portugal. Meanwhile, under Ben Bernanke, America’s central bank, has taken the same approach. Got a problem? Lend it more money!
July 8th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 2 comments | Continued
We’re Number One: More Reasons for the Decline of the American Empire
Forget the debt ceiling. Forget the budget cuts. Forget the idle ranting and raving, posturing and pretending…the United States is going bust! Congress has raised the debt “ceiling” so often – 94 times in the last 94 years, the Capitol might as well be an open-air building.
July 7th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 7 comments | Continued
The Day QE2 Ended
Americans had something to celebrate this Independence Day. QE2 – the Feds’ $600 billion money-printing program – ended on Friday. And guess what? The world didn’t end with it. If QE2 is going to be the death of the US economy, the stock market doesn’t see it.
July 6th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Bear Traps in the Bond Market
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Laurence Lindsay, former assistant for economic policy to George W. Bush, delivers thoughts that might have come from The Daily Reckoning. Growth rates have been overestimated, he says, while interest costs and deficits have been grossly underestimated.
June 30th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Why the Greek Debt Crisis Won’t “Grow Away”
Most of investors’ attention has been fixed on the Eurozone. Europeans are worried. They are mad. They don’t know what to make of the situation. But while in Europe, a few marginal nations head for bankruptcy, in America, the whole shebang is going broke.
June 29th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 7 comments | Continued
Irish Property Market Seeks Divine Intervention
Among the prayers at St. Patrick’s cathedral on Sunday was an entreaty to the Almighty to intervene on behalf of Irish bond yields. Had we been in charge, we’d have saved our breath. Ireland’s financial problems were caused by man. They can be solved by man too.
June 28th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
The Central Bank Stock Market Indicator
Yesterday, we drove back from a financial conference. It was held way out in western Pennsylvania. Such a beautiful area; we wondered why so few people live there. More about that in a minute… First, let’s check the world of money. “Bernanke comments keep equities in check,” says a headline in The Financial Times.
June 10th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
The Once and Future Dips of the US Economy
Last week, it looked as though a tide might have turned. The Dow fell another 97 points on Friday. And the 10-year US Treasury note rose to yield less than 3%. What will happen next? We don’t know. But it wouldn’t be a bad thing if investors took a beating.
June 7th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
The True Products of Quantitative Easing
Well-traveled asparagus…and the US in recession… Markets were closed in the US yesterday. We didn’t bother to look at what happened outside the US. We were tired. After traveling to China, Switzerland, England and France…we had run out of gas. But yesterday, Memorial Day in the USA, gave us a time to fill up the tank.
June 1st, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
