And after we consider the impact of the credit boom on S&P 500 earnings we’d say that corporate earnings are never going to be the same again. They may revert to the mean. But it will not be nearly as high as it was at the highs of the credit boom. It’s undeniable that the expansion of the credit bubble and the advent of securitisation and derivatives led to…
July 28th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 13 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "financial crisis"
Any Money That You Don’t Earn is Stimulus
Those whom the gods would destroy are first granted stimulus. When a man wins the lottery, for example, it has a stimulating effect on everyone around him. He usually spends the money quickly – often even before he gets it.
July 27th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
Let’s first set the record straight on Herbert Hoover’s fiscal policies. Contrary to what you have heard and read over the last year, Hoover behaved as a textbook Keynesian after the stock market crash. He immediately cut income tax rates by one percentage point…
July 16th, 2009 | Robert P. Murphy | 6 comments | Continued
American Banking System is a Branch of the Federal Government
You probably know the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” I heard it first 30 years ago from an economics professor – my mentor, in fact. He was lecturing about the problems Austrian economic models predict when banking is controlled by government.
July 8th, 2009 | Patrick Cox | 1 comment | Continued
House Prices Always Go Structurally Higher in Australia
What about housing? ANZ Bank published a report on the subject yesterday. Among other things, it declared that, “We expect dwelling prices to edge higher for much of the remainder of 2009 with upside risk presenting from intensification of strong fundamentals, a shift in price expectations and restoration of confidence.”
July 2nd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 75 comments | Continued
Waxman-Markey Bill: Most Expensive Thing to Hit Economy Since Financial Crisis Began
Even the normally mild- mannered Wall Street Journal called it “one of the most ambitious efforts to re-engineer American social and economic behavior in decades, presenting risks and opportunities for a wide array of businesses from Silicon Valley to the coal fields of the Appalachians.”
June 5th, 2009 | Chris Mayer | 13 comments | Continued
It May Be a Depression But it Doesn’t Seem Like One
As expected, the financial world seems to be walking with a lighter step. It feels the sun on its face…and guesses that the long winter is behind it.
April 28th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 2 comments | Continued
Experiencing Hard Work
“Damien really knows how to work. He’s been working hard all his life. Well, just try to find someone like Damien today. Young people don’t want to work at all. And if they get a job, they expect a machine to do all the hard work. They don’t know what a shovel is. You’d have a hard time getting a young person out to help us do this work…
March 17th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 7 comments | Continued
Hangover Nation
Have you noticed? Bernie Madoff bears a striking resemblance to George Washington. And so goes the nation…from the man who couldn’t tell a lie, to the man who couldn’t tell the truth…
January 28th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 11 comments | Continued
The Credit Depression
“How bad do you think it will get,” asked a friend in an e-mail yesterday. Our friend has a Master’s Degree in Classics (Latin and Greek). We know that when he starts wondering what’s going on in the economy there are probably a lot of other people starting to sit up and question their basic economic beliefs too. In Latin, a creditum is a loan or thing entrusted to another. The Latin for “to entrust” or “to believe” is “credere.” The word “creed” also has similar origins, as you can see.
January 8th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | Continued
Bernie Madoff is a Giant in His Field
Bernie Madoff is a giant in his field. He out-ponzied Charles Ponzi. He out-princed Chuck Prince. He could have taught the Egyptians how to build pyramids. In the history of high-stakes grifting, he outdid them all. A Robin Hood with Alzheimer’s; he stole from the rich. If he’d only remembered to give to the poor he’d be a hero! Read on…
December 22nd, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 8 comments | Continued
Argentina Dodges Worldwide Financial Crisis By Accident
Argentina has been spared from the worldwide financial inferno. It is blessed by its own mismanagement…saved by its own incompetence…
October 21st, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Fed Gives Financial System No Doc Loan
In an announcement released at two in the morning in New York, the Fed announced that it and other central banks would be providing unlimited liquidity to anyone who wanted it, more or less. Specifically, it said that participants to its new lending program, “will be able to borrow any amount they wish against the appropriate collateral in each jurisdiction.” This is like a giant no-money down, NO DOC loan to the entire global financial system. If the Fed could talk, you can imagine it saying…
October 14th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Alan Greenspan Bears Blame for Intensity of Financial Crisis
More than any other man – living or dead – Alan Greenspan bears the blame for the intensity of the current financial crisis. Booms and busts are inevitable…
October 13th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Inflation has a Bigger Agenda
Most people think of inflation as affecting prices they pay for bread and magazines. But inflation has a bigger agenda; it adjusts the wealth of whole societies…
April 16th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 4 comments | Continued
