It's really a good thing that there aren't many serious terrorists (if any) in the US.
Jaison De Montalegre sends this photo taken at Grand Central Station in NYC.
Would hardcore terrorists really tremble because of these two characters?
Charles Goyette is the NY Times Bestselling Author of, The Dollar Meltdown andBob:I don’t know if there’s an Austrian mole in NPR, but this report is well worth a listen!It’s one young girl’s story about irrepressible market forces in North Korea’s command economy. It has all the archetypal elements: the grand socialist plan, fiat currency, starvation, black markets, price discovery, bribery, the crack-up boom, entrepreneurship.
In order for an economy to function on the most basic level, prices have to mean something. They have to make sense -- calculate values of scarce resources accurately in order to allocate them in the most efficient way. In order for them to make sense, they have to relate to something that represents the actual market. So Argentina will have to peg to the dollar once again. More precisely, it will have to peg to something with a recognized value, or its economy will not function. It can't just hand out new pesos and say "Whatever." Nobody would know what to do with them.
Austrian School economist Ludwig Von Mises called this the Monetary Regression Theorem. In order for a money to work, there has to be an existing array of prices recognized for that money in the market already. Otherwise, nothing would make any sense. You can't just have a Master of Coin from the government, go ahead and declare what prices are for everything and start handing out tickets. If that were to work at all, his price declaration would have to reflect an array already in existence. It can't be conjured out of sheer government will.Emails Rafi:
I wasn't expecting them to put it on the front page. But hey, I take what I can get.Rafi's full essay is here.
I believe growth is too strong to start shorting aggressively, but this is no time to be accumulating stocks,aside from those that benefit from price inflation.
The latest data from the Federal Reserve shows annualized money growth at 3.3%. This is a drop of 70 basis points since last week and a decline of 570 basis points since the peak growth rate for this cycle of 9.0%, which was reached at the start of this year. This is the 10th straight week of decline in money growth. The money growth numbers have become extremely erratic under Bernanke-Yellen. In fact, it does not appear that Yellen pays any attention to them at all.... It is very dangerous to be accumulating stocks at present, outside of those that will benefit from price inflation. I am very likely to recommend shorting the stock market if money supply growth breaks below 3%---which could occur as early as next week...
Short-term traders should already be trading from the short side.
This will be a big week for news. Because I am getting bearish, the key to trading this news, as I state above, will be to short any upticks.
The two day FOMC meeting starts today, with a Fed statement on monetary policy scheduled for 2:00 PM ET tomorrow. As I indicated yesterday, short-term traders should short any strength. Aggressive traders might want to short any strength that occurs even before the FOMC statement has been released. Yellen has proved to be quite the dynamo with her statements and comments. They have led to stock market upticks after them in the past BUT we are now in a different environment with slowing money growth and many indicators that the Fed watches signalling strength, thus any surprises may come on the down side, from a more slightly cautious Fed.
TRADING THIS MARKET
In recent days, as money growth continues to plunge, and the market looks toppy, I have switched my advice for short-term traders from one of buying dips to shorting strength.
That would have worked out well this morning after the GDP release. A stock market early rally sparked by the GDP number faded quickly. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) is down 0.2 percent to 1,966.43 as I write, after rising as much as 0.5 percent earlier.
Short-term traders should continue to trade from the short side. The potential for a major break is increasing.
"There's no talent shortage. There's an opportunity shortage."
That was Jesse Jackson's attempt to justify his current shakedown of Silicon Valley, where he's trying to impose de facto black hiring quotas in the name of expanding "opportunity" for minorities. Once again, Mr. Jackson has got it wrong.
According to USA Today, whites and Asians make up around 90 percent of the staffs of Twitter, Google, GOOGL Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn. "Of Twitter's U.S. employees, only 3% are Hispanic and 5% black," reports the paper. Let's leave aside Mr. Jackson's bizarre notion that Asian people—Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Bangladeshis, etc.—don't bring racial diversity to a workforce. Are these numbers proof that something is amiss?..
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reports that "In 2005, Blacks earned 5.3 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering. In 2012, Blacks earned only 4.2 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in the discipline." The Journal adds: "The news is slightly better in graduate degree awards in engineering. From 2005 to 2012, the percentage of all doctoral degrees in engineering awarded to Blacks increased from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent."...
Silicon Valley's workforce does not reflect racial animus towards blacks. Rather, it reflects the rates at which whites and Asians are earning the requisite degrees from America's most selective institutions. Forcing Google and Yahoo to lower hiring standards in order to satisfy Mr. Jackson's definition of diversity would only slow innovation and make these companies less competitive. Let's hope they stand up to this shakedown.
If Jesse Jackson wants to impact the racial mix in Silicon Valley, he might try starting in places like inner-city Chicago, where he could devote more of his energies to convincing young black men to pull up their pants, finish school, take care of their children and stop shooting each other
Read the full commentary here.
For the economy and for the disadvantaged, curtailing SNAP would be devastating. While providing nutrition help to families in desperate need, food stamps also offer an immediate economic stimulus at moments when the economy is losing purchasing power. Economists call such programs “automatic stabilizers.”Now before you hop into the shower to wash that nonsense off, let me dissect this. It's what I do.
Earlier this year, in an effort to derail Ms. Blanchett’s Oscar campaign, a couple of anonymous complaints turned up in the tabloids about Mr. Allen not using black actors. He’s horrified when I bring up the subject. We talk about the new generation of wonderful black actors like Viola Davis and wonder if they’ll ever be cast in a Woody Allen film. He doesn’t hesitate to respond: “Not unless I write a story that requires it. You don’t hire people based on race. You hire people based on who is correct for the part. The implication is that I’m deliberately not hiring black actors, which is stupid. I cast only what’s right for the part. Race, friendship means nothing to me except who is right for the part.”I wonder if she has a problem with the lack of white people in the movie Barbershop.
It is a busy summer. Economic Principals has many pots upon the stove and relatively little time to read the papers. That seems just as well most days. The news from Gaza, Ukraine, and the southern border of the US is uniformly heartbreaking.
I do, however, find time to look at Johnson’s Russia Listwhenever a new edition arrives.
David Johnson, EP readers may remember, is a longtime student of the former Soviet Union who since 1996 has tracked, more or less daily, what is written about Russia in the Western and the English-language Russian press. Johnson faithfully reproduces virtually all points of view, and only occasionally and gently intrudes his own, in the form of short precedes to the list.
““What we need is a comparative analysis of current levels of ‘nationalist hysteria’ in Kiev and Moscow so that an informed comparison can be made…. Where is I. F. Stone when we need him?” Johnson asked the other day, reflecting the fact that no persistent voice has yet emerged critical of the US stance. (I notice, though, that he has begun to occasionally list relevant items from the Ron Paul Institute.)
Forty-three men have served as President of the United States. Countless books have been written about them. But never before has a President told the story of his father, another President, through his own eyes and in his own words. A unique and intimate biography, the book covers the entire scope of the elder President Bush’s life and career, including his service in the Pacific during World War II, his pioneering work in the Texas oil business, and his political rise as a Congressman, U.S. Representative to China and the United Nations, CIA Director, Vice President, and President. The book shines new light on both the accomplished statesman and the warm, decent man known best by his family. In addition, George W. Bush discusses his father’s influence on him throughout his own life, from his childhood in West Texas to his early campaign trips with his father, and from his decision to go into politics to his own two-term Presidency.The scheduled publication date is November 11. 2014
The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that McDonald's could be held jointly liable for labor and wage violations by its franchise operators — a decision that, if upheld, would disrupt longtime practices in the fast-food industry and ease the way for unionizing nationwide.
Business groups called the decision outrageous. Some legal experts described it as a far-reaching move that could signal the labor board's willingness to hold many other companies to the same standard of "joint employer," making businesses that use subcontractors or temp agencies at least partly liable in cases of overtime, wage or union-organizing violations...
The fast-food workers who filed cases asserted that McDonald's was a joint employer on the grounds that it orders its franchise owners to strictly follow its rules on food, cleanliness and employment practices and that McDonald's often owns the restaurants that franchisees use.
McDonald's said it would contest the decision, warning that the ruling would affect not only the fast-food industry but businesses like dry cleaners and car dealerships.
Heather Smedstad, a senior vice president for McDonald's, said the N.L.R.B.'s move was wrong because the company does not determine or help determine decisions on hiring, wages or other employment matters. "McDonald's also believes that this decision changes the rules for thousands of small businesses, and goes against decades of established law," she said.
Could you compare and contrast the US Navy shootdown of the Iranian civilian Air Flight 655 to the shootdown over Ukraine of Malaysian civilian flight MH17.-RW
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Admiral Gary Roughead |
Following the disaster in Vietnam, United States citizens were, in general, not in favor of United States military adventures in foreign lands. The public had had it with war. Ronald Reagan changed this with the invasion of Grenada. It is my contention that Reagan's invasion of Grenada was the first step in United States post-Vietnam military adventures. It was an important step and Reagan started it all. It was the taste of victory against the tiny island of Grenada that set the stage for the invasion of Panama, Iraq War I and the current occupation of Iraq. Reagan's adventure into Grenada and its quick victory wiped out the hesitation to go to war that the Vietnam experience engendered in the masses.I have never heard the view advanced by anyone else, that is, until yesterday.
Here is another rally in Ukraine against the [military] mobilization order, from yesterday. This time the residents are so angry at their parliamentary representative (who according to the video hails from the extremist Svoboda party) for attempting to send their sons off to war that they actually rough him up. The best part is around the :56 mark, where the mothers start shoving the politician and yanking on his ponytail.Here is a google translation of the youtube summary of the video:
Novoselitsk recruiting office near rally against mobilization. Enraged residents beat Bandera deputy Ivan Papadyuka that threats forced residents to go to war.
You mentioned Paul Ryan and his new plan. Here are some of my articles on Ryan's horrible budgets:
Nevada, which was hard hit by the housing crisis, tops the list of past-due states: 47 percent of people with a credit file have reported debt in collections. The District of Columbia and an additional 12 states (11 in the South) are over the 40 percent mark: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.On the other end of the spectrum,, in some states, the figure is about half of Nevada’s. The 10 lowest include: North Dakota (19.3%), Hawaii (22.7%), Nebraska (23.9%), Minnesota (19.8%), Montana (26.2%), Connecticut (26.2%), South Dakota (20.8%), Iowa (26.3%), Massachusetts (23%) and Vermont (23.7%). A review of unemployment by state in June shows that North Dakota, Nebraska, Vermont, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and Iowa all have unemployment rates at or below 4.5%.
It is irritating enough here in the US to have to pay $2 or more to get money out of a cash machine, if there happens not to be a bank branch handy. Imagine if the machine also told you it will not give you the cash for 10 days.I warn once again, there is simply no advantage to keeping funds in a money market fund, at this time, versus at an elitist, establishment bank account. Your money will be much more liquid and safe at Wells Fargo, Chase or Citi versus in an MMF. The establishment is in charge.
These aggravations – fees and withdrawal restrictions – will soon be threatened by money market mutual funds, which millions of American investors use as a kind of higher interest-bearing savings account...
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a slew of new rules covering the $2.6tn MMF industry. After years of controversy and intense lobbying, it was surprising that fund managers reacted with statements of broad support. One potential explanation for the outbreak of peace is that asset managers view the SEC’s decision as advancing a broader agenda, namely to win more discretion for managers over when and how their investors are allowed to pull money out of funds.
The SEC’s thinking will inform forthcoming debates about how to limit systemic risk and prevent runs across the fund management industry. The conclusion it came to in this case might actually have made runs more likely, not less.
Under the new rules, MMFs that hold corporate or municipal government debt will be allowed to charge a fee for withdrawals or even halt them altogether by putting up gates for up to 10 days, should market liquidity dry up or the fund get into trouble...
Giving fund managers discretion to halt redemptions is superficially attractive, especially given the fiduciary duty to protect investors in their funds.
The trouble is that many investors cannot countenance the risk of losing access to their money, and nor should they. It is as frightening an idea to them as the cash machines stopping working.
What will happen? As market stress rises, it becomes more likely that a fund will erect gates, and the incentive to get out kicks in even earlier. This was a warning made by Federal Reserve governors to the SEC last year, which has been ignored.
We may ultimately find that the SEC has increased rather than decreased systemic risk and, more worryingly, opened the intellectual door to further moves in this wrong-headed direction.