We began having doubts about the ‘feds inflate…gold soars’ hypothesis last year. It was too easy…too obvious. And if it were that easy to inflate a nation’s currency, how come the Japanese couldn’t get the hang of it…
September 24th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "deflation"
Japanese Practically Gave Away Money to Anyone Who Would Borrow It
We wrote a book, Financial Reckoning Day with Addison Wiggin, in 2003. In it, we predicted that the United States would follow Japan into a long slump. We thought it would begin after the tech crash of 2000…
September 16th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
What Evil Sends Investors Running to the Protection of Gold?
The press attributed this week’s rise in gold to benign causes. The end of the world seems to have been postponed – indefinitely. Bloomberg reported that a clear majority of those polled thought the world economy was recovering.
September 14th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
A Deflation in Unit Labor Costs
Since employment is a lagging indicator of economic activity, we learned over the years to dig deeper than the headline figure to get a read on where labor market conditions may be going.
September 10th, 2009 | Rob Parenteau | 0 comments | Continued
Should You Buy Gold Now?
The Trade of the Decade is still buy gold/sell stocks. And the decade isn’t over. If you have US stocks, this is a good time to sell. The Dow went up 63 points yesterday – a weak bounce after several days of losses.
September 7th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Have the Chinese Stopped Industrial Stockpiling of Raw Materials?
Speaking of losing and just what’s at stake as September begins, why don’t we start with where the entire global recovery – and Australia’s resilience – are supposed to reside: Chinese strength. The Shanghai Composite fells 6.7% overnight and is now down over 25% from its highs. Uh oh.
September 1st, 2009 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Ben Bernanke is a Victim of the Trade
This week, Ben Bernanke got the nod for another stint as head of the world’s most important central bank. Yes, he completely misunderstood the implications of the hugely negative US trade balance, believing that America did the world a favor…
August 31st, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Ben Bernanke Averts a Second Great Depression
According to the popular version, Ben Bernanke, our flawed hero, has averted a Second Great Depression. When the crisis came in ‘07-’08, he calmly took out the text he had written himself: “Dummies’ Guide to Avoiding a Japan-style Deflation”…or something like that.
August 31st, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
What Assets are Going to Beat Inflation in the Coming Ten Years?
Last night was trivia night in Elwood. Your editor sat across from Australian Wealth Gameplan editor Kris Sayce. Between questions about how many venomous snakes there are in Australia and whether New South Wales is larger than South Australia (it’s not), we found the time to query him about whether buying inflation indexed bonds from the Australian government was a good investment strategy.
August 14th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
Household Debt Represents Spending Taken From the Future
But you can’t take an infinite amount from future earnings. You reach a point when the future can’t handle it. As more and more future earnings are absorbed by past consumption, pretty soon there’s not enough left to live on. At some point, so much of earnings are devoted to paying the interest…
August 11th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued