India and Vietnam: Taking the Glitter out of Gold … When uncertainty reigns, investors all over the world turn to gold as a safe haven. But some countries are starting to take issue with their residents' preference for storing wealth in gold bars, rather than bank accounts. Large gold imports can throw of a country's current account balance – the difference between what a count...Read More
Stop Mandating Reliance on Ratings … The Justice Department's suit against Standard & Poor's is a fresh reminder of the large mistakes by the three major rating agencies – S.&P., Moody's, and Fitch – in their evaluations of mortgage-based bonds during 2004-2007. There's an understandable urge to further regulate bond raters to prevent such mistakes in th...Read More
Florida Atlantic University's Stadium Named After a Prison Company … The GEO Group (GEO) is a for-profit prison company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that calls itself "the world's leading provider of correctional and detention management and community reentry services to federal, state and local government agencies." It can also call itself the world's leading provider of...Read More
India and Vietnam: Taking the Glitter out of Gold … When uncertainty reigns, investors all over the world turn to gold as a safe haven. But some countries are starting to take issue with their residents' preference for storing wealth in gold bars, rather than bank accounts. Large gold imports can throw of a country's current account balance – the difference between what a count...Read More
Stop Mandating Reliance on Ratings … The Justice Department's suit against Standard & Poor's is a fresh reminder of the large mistakes by the three major rating agencies – S.&P., Moody's, and Fitch – in their evaluations of mortgage-based bonds during 2004-2007. There's an understandable urge to further regulate bond raters to prevent such mistakes in th...Read More
Florida Atlantic University's Stadium Named After a Prison Company … The GEO Group (GEO) is a for-profit prison company based in Boca Raton, Fla., that calls itself "the world's leading provider of correctional and detention management and community reentry services to federal, state and local government agencies." It can also call itself the world's leading provider of...Read More
China loves the US dollar again as America roars back … China's central bank has radically revised its view of US economic and strategic power, predicting that the dollar will remain the world's paramount reserve currency for decades to come. Dr Jin said the world was moving to a '1+4' system, with the greenback serving as the anchor of global payments … Jin Zhongxia, h...Read More
Minimum human wages … The empirics of the minimum wage debate are complex, but it isn't impossible to draw some conclusions. A recent Free exchange column attempted to do just that: America's academics still do not agree on the employment effects. But both sides have honed their methods and, in some ways, the gap between them has shrunk. Messrs Card and Krueger moved on to other work...Read More
Senator Warren's rebuke of regulators goes viral … Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's strong criticism of U.S. financial regulators last week has inspired a liberal political action committee to launch an online petition urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to take more Wall Street banks to trial. The petition, introduced by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Su...Read More
China loves the US dollar again as America roars back … China's central bank has radically revised its view of US economic and strategic power, predicting that the dollar will remain the world's paramount reserve currency for decades to come. Dr Jin said the world was moving to a '1+4' system, with the greenback serving as the anchor of global payments … Jin Zhongxia, h...Read More
Minimum human wages … The empirics of the minimum wage debate are complex, but it isn't impossible to draw some conclusions. A recent Free exchange column attempted to do just that: America's academics still do not agree on the employment effects. But both sides have honed their methods and, in some ways, the gap between them has shrunk. Messrs Card and Krueger moved on to other work...Read More
Senator Warren's rebuke of regulators goes viral … Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's strong criticism of U.S. financial regulators last week has inspired a liberal political action committee to launch an online petition urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to take more Wall Street banks to trial. The petition, introduced by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Su...Read More
Free exchange … The voice of public choice … James Buchanan, who died on January 9th, illuminated political decision-making … A list of things that Americans judge more favourably than Congress, according to Public Policy Polling, a survey firm, includes colonoscopies, root canals, lice and France. America seems to have stumbled from economic crisis to political paralysis. That w...Read More
Ivory Coast ex-president Gbagbo present as ICC hearing opens … Laurent Gbagbo's pre-trial hearing on charges of crimes against humanity opened at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, with the former Ivorian leader present. Presiding judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi opened the confirmation of charges hearing while Gbagbo, the first former head of state before the court, greeted...Read More
Remember Who You Are – the great new song written and performed by Gareth Icke. An anthem for our time. – David Icke websiteDominant Social Theme: Pop's satanic evolution is normal and natural.Free-Market Analysis: We've written about David Icke before, suggesting that what is seemingly inexplicable and strange – downright nutty – about his conspiracy theories is no...Read More
Free exchange … The voice of public choice … James Buchanan, who died on January 9th, illuminated political decision-making … A list of things that Americans judge more favourably than Congress, according to Public Policy Polling, a survey firm, includes colonoscopies, root canals, lice and France. America seems to have stumbled from economic crisis to political paralysis. That w...Read More
Ivory Coast ex-president Gbagbo present as ICC hearing opens … Laurent Gbagbo's pre-trial hearing on charges of crimes against humanity opened at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, with the former Ivorian leader present. Presiding judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi opened the confirmation of charges hearing while Gbagbo, the first former head of state before the court, greeted...Read More
Remember Who You Are – the great new song written and performed by Gareth Icke. An anthem for our time. – David Icke websiteDominant Social Theme: Pop's satanic evolution is normal and natural.Free-Market Analysis: We've written about David Icke before, suggesting that what is seemingly inexplicable and strange – downright nutty – about his conspiracy theories is no...Read More
How a junk bond bubble is driving a buyout and merger boom … The merger and buyout boom of 2013 is upon us! Some of America's biggest companies are coupling up faster than frisky teenagers at their first unchaperoned party. On Thursday alone, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and private equity firm 3G Capital announced a $23 billion purchase of H.J. Heinz Co., the iconic producer...Read More
Dr Fredric Wertham Lied And Lied And Lied About Comics … The Illinois News Bureau reports, (with the most condescending and predictable headline you can imagine, even for Bleeding Cool) that Dr Fredric Wertham, author of Seduction Of The Innocent, the book that inspired government hearings about the content of comic books, saw sales plummet from the bad publicity, and eventually leading to t...Read More