When it comes to running a tight ship, you'd be hard-pressed to ask for a better precious metals miner than Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI-TSX).For starters, it remains in the lowest quartile of the industry cost curve, notes Anita Soni, a mining analyst with Credit Suisse in Toronto.Moreover, Yamana obviously knows where to allocate its resources, given that in its most recent quarter, 85 per cent of its...Read More
Zombie Ideas That Keep on Losing … The worst of today's political malfeasance is being driven by failed ideologies. Zombie ideas that refuse to die have become enshrined in our collective intellectual legacy. The people behind these have been insulated from the economic costs they impose. Blame the billionaires. – BloombergDominant Social Theme: There are so many bad memes. Why do...Read More
Uruguay's roll-out of marijuana experiment faces election risk … Uruguay is struggling to roll out the commercial production and sale of marijuana and its ground-breaking experiment could be dropped or watered down if an opposition candidate wins this month's presidential election. – ReutersDominant Social Theme: Cannabis legalization is too complex to work. The state has a nea...Read More
Zombie Ideas That Keep on Losing … The worst of today's political malfeasance is being driven by failed ideologies. Zombie ideas that refuse to die have become enshrined in our collective intellectual legacy. The people behind these have been insulated from the economic costs they impose. Blame the billionaires. – BloombergDominant Social Theme: There are so many bad memes. Why do...Read More
Uruguay's roll-out of marijuana experiment faces election risk … Uruguay is struggling to roll out the commercial production and sale of marijuana and its ground-breaking experiment could be dropped or watered down if an opposition candidate wins this month's presidential election. – ReutersDominant Social Theme: Cannabis legalization is too complex to work. The state has a nea...Read More
Here Comes the Internet of Money … Paul Volcker, the acclaimed former chairman of the Federal Reserve, famously questioned the value of financial innovation. He said he saw the point of the automated teller machine ("more of a mechanical innovation than a financial one"), but that was about it. Financial innovation was an unproductive competition for excess profit and a cause of in...Read More
Texas Puts Marijuana Reform on Legislative Agenda for 2015— Marijuana reform in Texas has been a long time coming, but as the end of this momentous year in cannabis legalization draws to a close, it is now on the legislative road map of reform, potentially as soon as 2015. The State Legislature plans to take up decriminalization in January, on the heels of states around states around the cou...Read More
Here Comes the Internet of Money … Paul Volcker, the acclaimed former chairman of the Federal Reserve, famously questioned the value of financial innovation. He said he saw the point of the automated teller machine ("more of a mechanical innovation than a financial one"), but that was about it. Financial innovation was an unproductive competition for excess profit and a cause of in...Read More
Texas Puts Marijuana Reform on Legislative Agenda for 2015— Marijuana reform in Texas has been a long time coming, but as the end of this momentous year in cannabis legalization draws to a close, it is now on the legislative road map of reform, potentially as soon as 2015. The State Legislature plans to take up decriminalization in January, on the heels of states around states around the cou...Read More
Nanny State… The Best Regulator? That's Easy. It's the Market. … As the Goldman Sachs tapes show, regulators almost always fail. In other cases, they cheat consumers out of choices. Leave it to the market. – The Daily BeastDominant Social Theme: Regulation … what good is it?Free-Market Analysis: Remarkably, we continue to see articles about regulatory capture. The l...Read More
Behind the Mask of Altruism: Imperialism, Monsanto and the Gates Foundation in Africa … Since 2006, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to the tune of almost $420 million. Activists from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ethiopia recently attended the US-Africa Food Sovereignty Strategy Summit in Seattle to argue...Read More
Nanny State… The Best Regulator? That's Easy. It's the Market. … As the Goldman Sachs tapes show, regulators almost always fail. In other cases, they cheat consumers out of choices. Leave it to the market. – The Daily BeastDominant Social Theme: Regulation … what good is it?Free-Market Analysis: Remarkably, we continue to see articles about regulatory capture. The l...Read More
Behind the Mask of Altruism: Imperialism, Monsanto and the Gates Foundation in Africa … Since 2006, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to the tune of almost $420 million. Activists from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ethiopia recently attended the US-Africa Food Sovereignty Strategy Summit in Seattle to argue...Read More
The height of idiocy: US Government hijacks the whole Swiss banking system … True story … One of our SMC members just received a package from HSBC giving him and his wife a deadline to comply with FATCA—US' global tax law … Suddenly they had just four weeks to prove that they were not US taxpayers, all because at one point they had purchased a service that gave them a U...Read More
Whole Foods to roll out rankings for produce… Whole Foods plans to start rolling out a system that ranks fruits and vegetables as "good," ''better" or "best" based on the supplier's farming practices. Most notably, the supermarket chain says its "responsibly grown" labeling system for produce and flowers will prohibit the use of several common p...Read More
The height of idiocy: US Government hijacks the whole Swiss banking system … True story … One of our SMC members just received a package from HSBC giving him and his wife a deadline to comply with FATCA—US' global tax law … Suddenly they had just four weeks to prove that they were not US taxpayers, all because at one point they had purchased a service that gave them a U...Read More
Whole Foods to roll out rankings for produce… Whole Foods plans to start rolling out a system that ranks fruits and vegetables as "good," ''better" or "best" based on the supplier's farming practices. Most notably, the supermarket chain says its "responsibly grown" labeling system for produce and flowers will prohibit the use of several common p...Read More
The great Lira revolt has begun in Italy … Italy's Five Star Movement has thrown down the gauntlet, calling for a euro referendum to end depression and save democracy, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard … The die is cast in Italy. Beppe Grillo's Five Star movement has launched a petition to drive for Italian withdrawal from Europe's monetary union and for the restoration of eco...Read More
Government wants farmers to quit farming … It seems that U.S. companies would follow the unprecedented action of Japan's equivalent to WalMart if they could figure out how to force farmers to quit farming their land and let the companies grow food crops exactly as they think is "sustainable agriculture." – AgProfessionalDominant Social Themes: Farmers have to work more ef...Read More
The great Lira revolt has begun in Italy … Italy's Five Star Movement has thrown down the gauntlet, calling for a euro referendum to end depression and save democracy, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard … The die is cast in Italy. Beppe Grillo's Five Star movement has launched a petition to drive for Italian withdrawal from Europe's monetary union and for the restoration of eco...Read More