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 | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "deflation"
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
Inflation or Deflation?
The feds are more incompetent than even we suspected. They are trying to cause mild inflation – say, 4%…maybe 6%…even 8%. But they aren’t doing a very good job of it. Their efforts are too hesitant…
July 15th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 13 comments | Continued
California and its Ailing Economy
And what about California? This week’s Economist magazine gives us a new measure for California’ budget deficit — $26 billion, up from the $24 billion last reported in this space. A widely published photo shows Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar…
July 14th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Can China Change the Rules of Global Capitalism?
For example, it appears China is beginning to throw its considerable economic weight around. It’s doing so in a tentative, experimental manner, not sure if it will offend but not seeming to care all that much. And why should it? The world is perfectly happy to do business with the largest emerging market of the next fifty years. Other issues-human rights, the environment, and the Rule of Law-are secondary.
July 13th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 5 comments | Continued
World Economy Faces Hyperinflation or Deflation?
What is more likely is that over the coming months, we will get another deflationary scare. Any sell-off in the markets later this year will be met by an even larger stimulus from the policymakers and this will ultimately result in high inflation.
July 9th, 2009 | Puru Saxena | 4 comments | Continued
Hyper-Deflation on the Streets of Paris
Scarcely a block from our office in Paris is a monetary phenomenon that has escaped the financial press. In one of the highest-cost economies in the world, you can buy a woman’s shirt for 2 euros. A dress? Four euros. A man’s jacket can be had for the price of a cup of coffee.
June 29th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 20 comments | Continued
Feds’ Plan is to Reflate the Economy
For that, they need rising consumer prices. Consumers need to borrow…and spend. They’ll do so, say economists, when prices rise and their dollars lose value. So far, milk and potatoes aren’t cooperating.
June 1st, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Fed Will “Monetize the Debt”
Meanwhile, the US Treasury is borrowing hundreds of billions’ of dollars in order to close the gap between what the US spends and what it receives in taxes. Even if the Chinese are willing to fund that borrowing in the very short term, it just pushes forward the inevitable day…
May 29th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
A Merciless War Between Inflation and Deflation
The rally itself is a part of a larger battle between two contradictory body parts – the heart and the mind. The heart wants to believe that the worst is over. It reacts sentimentally, remembering the glory days of the great bubble era and wishing they were back.
May 29th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Japan: A Morality Tale of Banks and Government Refusing to Deal With Debt?
This may puzzle some people. Wasn’t the Japanese economy roaring into a bubble in the late 1980s? Indeed it was – driven in part by the 300 basis point decline in interest rates that resulted from the soaring yen.
May 27th, 2009 | Nathan Lewis | 0 comments | Continued
Investors Tend to Race Ahead and Ruin the Whole Thing
If people could read next year’s fashion magazines, they’d buy tomorrow’s fashions today. Then, some wiseacre would buy the day after tomorrow’s fashions…just to be ahead of everyone else. And then, nobody would want to be stuck with tomorrow’s hairdo – it would already be out-of-style.
May 19th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
