Celebrations are in order on the poorest continent. Never in the half-century since it won independence from the colonial powers has Africa been in such good shape. Its economy is flourishing. Most countries are at peace. Ever fewer children bear arms and record numbers go to school. Mobile phones are as ubiquitous as they are in India and, in the worst-affected countries, HIV infections have fall...Read More
Western political economy since the Industrial Revolution has been a vibrant world of rapid growth and development, at least for countries in the industrial "core." But it has also been a world of continuing and sometimes enormous fluctuations in economic activity. Business cycles — expansions and contractions across most sectors of an economy — have come to be taken as a fac...Read More
Mexico to audit its gold holdings at the Bank of England … The Mexican Government Audit Office has issued an official statement, criticizing the Bank of Mexico for not auditing the gold it has supposedly bought and stored at the Bank of England. The auditors ask the Central Bank of Mexico to "make a physical inspection with the counterparty that has the gold under its custody, in order...Read More
Great Rotation a myth but stocks still a top pick … Don't hold your breath waiting for that Great Rotation out of global bonds and into stocks. Even so, go into stocks anyway if you are big enough and tough enough to survive the inevitable volatility … It also makes intuitive sense given the likelihood of lousy inflation-adjusted returns, even losses, in bonds. The only problem is...Read More
Europe Union Agrees on Plan to Limit Bankers' Bonuses … The move, part of a package of banking regulations known as Basel III that is aimed at reducing the danger of big bank failures, was hailed Thursday by some European lawmakers. 'We've achieved the most comprehensive banking reform in the European Union,' said Othmar Karas, an Austrian member of the European Parliament wh...Read More
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's breathing problems worsen, has severe new infection … "The president has been receiving high-impact chemotherapy, along with other complementary treatments … The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing the operation in Cuba. It was his chemotherapy: fourth surgery since t...Read More
Mexico to audit its gold holdings at the Bank of England … The Mexican Government Audit Office has issued an official statement, criticizing the Bank of Mexico for not auditing the gold it has supposedly bought and stored at the Bank of England. The auditors ask the Central Bank of Mexico to "make a physical inspection with the counterparty that has the gold under its custody, in order...Read More
Great Rotation a myth but stocks still a top pick … Don't hold your breath waiting for that Great Rotation out of global bonds and into stocks. Even so, go into stocks anyway if you are big enough and tough enough to survive the inevitable volatility … It also makes intuitive sense given the likelihood of lousy inflation-adjusted returns, even losses, in bonds. The only problem is...Read More
Europe Union Agrees on Plan to Limit Bankers' Bonuses … The move, part of a package of banking regulations known as Basel III that is aimed at reducing the danger of big bank failures, was hailed Thursday by some European lawmakers. 'We've achieved the most comprehensive banking reform in the European Union,' said Othmar Karas, an Austrian member of the European Parliament wh...Read More
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's breathing problems worsen, has severe new infection … "The president has been receiving high-impact chemotherapy, along with other complementary treatments … The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing the operation in Cuba. It was his chemotherapy: fourth surgery since t...Read More
The black swan sequester … Since the housing market imploded six years ago, we've been suffering from black swan fever. When Nicholas Taleb penned his passionate polemic about the inability of financial markets to allow for unanticipated and rare events ("black swans"), he did us all a great service in highlighting the narrow-mindedness that can have dire consequences. Then the...Read More
GRAY MATTER: This Story Stinks … In the beginning, the technology gods created the Internet and saw that it was good. Here, at last, was a public sphere with unlimited potential for reasoned debate and the thoughtful exchange of ideas, an enlightening conversational bridge across the many geographic, social, cultural, ideological and economic boundaries that ordinarily separate us in life, a...Read More
Letting Wall St. hang … It's one thing for President Obama to attack Wall Street as the place fat cats roam free as proof, a class warrior justifying all the mainly useless banking regulations he's imposed since the 2008 financial crisis. It's quite another thing for New York's elected officials to let him get away with the big lie that's costing New Yorkers jobs and sque...Read More
Americans – Like Nazi Germans – Don't Notice that All of Our Rights Are Slipping Away … Americans Are Acting Like Slowly Boiling Frogs … The German citizens were boiling frogs … the water heating up so gradually that they didn't realize they had to jump out of the pot to safety. Because the exact same thing is happening to Americans (fear of terror makes peopl...Read More
The black swan sequester … Since the housing market imploded six years ago, we've been suffering from black swan fever. When Nicholas Taleb penned his passionate polemic about the inability of financial markets to allow for unanticipated and rare events ("black swans"), he did us all a great service in highlighting the narrow-mindedness that can have dire consequences. Then the...Read More
GRAY MATTER: This Story Stinks … In the beginning, the technology gods created the Internet and saw that it was good. Here, at last, was a public sphere with unlimited potential for reasoned debate and the thoughtful exchange of ideas, an enlightening conversational bridge across the many geographic, social, cultural, ideological and economic boundaries that ordinarily separate us in life, a...Read More
Letting Wall St. hang … It's one thing for President Obama to attack Wall Street as the place fat cats roam free as proof, a class warrior justifying all the mainly useless banking regulations he's imposed since the 2008 financial crisis. It's quite another thing for New York's elected officials to let him get away with the big lie that's costing New Yorkers jobs and sque...Read More
Americans – Like Nazi Germans – Don't Notice that All of Our Rights Are Slipping Away … Americans Are Acting Like Slowly Boiling Frogs … The German citizens were boiling frogs … the water heating up so gradually that they didn't realize they had to jump out of the pot to safety. Because the exact same thing is happening to Americans (fear of terror makes peopl...Read More
The age of austerity is ending … Whisper it softly, but the age of government austerity is ending. It may seem an odd week to say this, what with the U.S. government preparing for indiscriminate budget cuts, a new fiscal crisis apparently brewing in Europe after the Italian election and David Cameron promising to "go further and faster in reducing the deficit" after the downgrade o...Read More
United Nations chief urged to offset UN's carbon footprint … The United Nations' portal on Climate Change is impressive … The problem? Neither the United Nations nor its 38 Partners on Climate Change practice what they preach. – EcoGreen editorialDominant Social Theme: The United Nations is at the forefront of green environmental responsibility and is an inspiration to us...Read More