Dollar

State Pensions: I'll Buy Your Bonds if You Buy Mine

by John Rubino on May 31, 2010

Here’s a study from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management that ties in nicely with the muni bond collapse / federal bailout of the states thread. State pension funds headed for crisis of national proportion According to new research from the Kellogg School of Management, taxpayers, public workers and state and federal officials alike have [...]

Munis About to Blow Up

by John Rubino on May 24, 2010

So I’m sitting here trying to turn a pile of (mostly terrifying) data on muni bonds into a post that explains why this is the next domino to fall, and here comes Time Magazine with a feature on that subject: Municipal Bonds: The Next Financial Land Mine? As Wall Street nervously watches the sovereign debt [...]

“440 Million Europeans Have Just Joined a New Country”

by John Rubino on May 16, 2010

GlobalEurope Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB), a European newsletter that “brings you its unique analyses on the upcoming stages of the collapse of the world order created after 1945, as well as numerous strategic recommendations for your decisions in the political, economic and financial fields” is out with one of its typically provocative theses: That the Greek [...]

Classic Videos: Meltup

by John Rubino on May 14, 2010

The National Inflation Association is back with another long, well-made, apocalyptic video. The subject is the “recovery” and its inflationary implications: “The truth is, our economy is not recovering. Prices are only rising because of inflation. Our economy is currently experiencing a melt-up…Government spending is so far out of control that if Americans were taxed [...]

Europe Delays the Inevitable

by John Rubino on May 10, 2010

While working on a post about what a waste the European bailout of Greece will turn out to be, I found this from Hussman Funds’ John Hussman, who comes at it from an interesting angle: Greek Debt and Backward Induction On Sunday, the IMF approved its 30 billion portion of the 110 billion euro bailout [...]

Classic Videos: Hyperinflation Nation 3/3

by John Rubino on April 9, 2010

In the third and final part of this series, the National Inflation Association takes us through the hyperinflations, price controls and societal breakdowns of Weimar Germany and Yugoslavia, and makes the case that the U.S. is heading for something similar. “This all but guarantees a dramatic decline in the quality of life in the U.S….Most [...]

Now Start Watching Interest Rates

by John Rubino on April 4, 2010

The phase change happened almost imperceptibly. One month we’re shedding jobs and agonizing over a long list of insolvent European countries and US states — and the next month we’re back in a bubble. U.S. employment has stopped shrinking and started growing. Iron ore is up 170% in the past year and oil is flirting [...]

Classic Videos: Hyperinflation Nation 2/3

by John Rubino on March 20, 2010

Here’s the middle part of a great series created by the National Inflation Association. It begins with a look at Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, then goes on to explain that the U.S. is traveling the same road. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, the dollar is heading for its intrinsic value, and gold is the solution. It [...]

Classic Videos: Ben Bernanke’s Predictions

by John Rubino on March 2, 2010

Of all the surreal choices the U.S. has made in the last few years, the strangest might be our decision to put the people who ruined the old system in charge of fixing it. Ben Bernanke, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Tim Geithner et al built the monetary policy and regulatory structure that let [...]

China and Germany: The Perils of Vendor Financing

by John Rubino on February 26, 2010

In response to Why Would Anyone Buy a Spanish Bond?, reader RAID 3000 pointed out that the U.S. has far more serious problems than Europe (no argument there!) and included a link to LEAP2020, a European site doing great work on this subject. One of its articles contained the following chart: This got me to [...]