China posts surprise trade deficit for March …China swung to a trade deficit of $880 million in March, the General Administration of Customs reported Wednesday, as imports surged 14.1% from a year earlier. The deficit, which followed February's $15.2 billion surplus, missed a forecast for a surplus of $14.7 billion from a Dow Jones Newswires survey and a $15.2 billion projected surplus t...Read More
Are We About to See a Global Gold Selling Spree? … Heavily indebted euro zone nations such as Italy and Portugal could come under pressure to put their bullion reserves to work as a result of plans for Cyprus to sell gold to meet its financing needs. A European Commission assessment of what Cyprus needs to do as part of its European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout showed Cyprus is...Read More
Margaret Thatcher made Britain a less, not more, desirable place to do business The ex-PM's greatest mistake was her failure to recognise that social cohesion is crucial to long-term economic growth … 'Margaret Thatcher's most important long-term legacy is likely to be the huge rise in inequality which she caused. – GuardianDominant Social Theme: Margaret Thatcher's fre...Read More
Italy and France Pose Grave Risks to Euro Zone, Report Says … The uneven performance of economies using the euro is one of the main reasons for the severity of a debt crisis in which some of the worst affected countries were able to borrow more than they could repay. France and Italy are among the nations in the beleaguered bloc that need to accelerate the policy changes needed to improve th...Read More
Publish Book – Get Turned Over by Police … No, I am not making this up. My memoirs A Mote in Brussels' Eye describing my five years in the Brussels lunatic asylum came out as an eBook at the end of January. Today, March 5, nine policemen arrived unannounced at my front door armed with a warrant to search our home. Much of my book details my efforts on behalf of the taxpayers of SE...Read More
In favour of the living wage … In the United States and some other developed economies, wages for the least well paid are too low. A mandatory living wage is the best way to redress this injustice. The idea of minimum wages is well accepted, but the American $7.25 an hour does not meet the simple standard of providing enough to support the worker who earns it. For an adult in New York State,...Read More
Beware of Economists Peddling Elegant Models … Mathematics can be beguilingly elegant. It can also be dangerous when people mistake its elegance for truth. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity might be the best example of elegant math, capturing a wide range of subtle and surprising phenomena with remarkable simplicity. Step toward the practical, though, and physics moves quick...Read More
Italy and France Pose Grave Risks to Euro Zone, Report Says … The uneven performance of economies using the euro is one of the main reasons for the severity of a debt crisis in which some of the worst affected countries were able to borrow more than they could repay. France and Italy are among the nations in the beleaguered bloc that need to accelerate the policy changes needed to improve th...Read More
Publish Book – Get Turned Over by Police … No, I am not making this up. My memoirs A Mote in Brussels' Eye describing my five years in the Brussels lunatic asylum came out as an eBook at the end of January. Today, March 5, nine policemen arrived unannounced at my front door armed with a warrant to search our home. Much of my book details my efforts on behalf of the taxpayers of SE...Read More
In favour of the living wage … In the United States and some other developed economies, wages for the least well paid are too low. A mandatory living wage is the best way to redress this injustice. The idea of minimum wages is well accepted, but the American $7.25 an hour does not meet the simple standard of providing enough to support the worker who earns it. For an adult in New York State,...Read More
Beware of Economists Peddling Elegant Models … Mathematics can be beguilingly elegant. It can also be dangerous when people mistake its elegance for truth. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity might be the best example of elegant math, capturing a wide range of subtle and surprising phenomena with remarkable simplicity. Step toward the practical, though, and physics moves quick...Read More
'I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro': Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl admits power-trip forced continent to accept single currency … Newly published 2002 interview reveals candid admission about euro project Helmut Kohl says: 'Chancellor must be a man of power to achieve' But also admits that he would have lost a referendum on the single currency … Helmut...Read More
Japan stimulus will start currency war, say Chinese economists … Plan to buy bonds will open liquidity floodgates and spells doom for other nations, observers say … The Bank of Japan will double its monetary base to 270 trillion yen (HK$22.1 trillion) by March 2015. Many of China's top economists are livid at what they view as an effective currency devaluation by Japan and are call...Read More
The low-rate world was not meant to last. The Federal Reserve is making a better job of it than the European Central Bank … In 2008-09, when central banks slashed short-term rates close to zero and started buying bonds to push down longer-term rates, everyone assumed these extraordinary measures would soon be unwound as economies recovered. But the extraordinary has become the norm. America&...Read More
Why Canada Can Avoid Banking Crises and U.S. Can't Since 1790, the United States has suffered 16 banking crises. Canada has experienced zero — not even during the Great Depression. When it became a British colony, the majority of Canada's population was of French origin — and the French inhabitants hated the British government. It turns out Canada can thank the French for their...Read More
France's President Hollande: Eradicate tax havens … President Hollande was getting poor opinion poll ratings even before the tax scandal … French President Francois Hollande has called for "eradication" of the world's tax havens and told French banks they must declare all of their subsidiaries. He was speaking after presenting a draft law aimed at "moralising&quo...Read More
'I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro': Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl admits power-trip forced continent to accept single currency … Newly published 2002 interview reveals candid admission about euro project Helmut Kohl says: 'Chancellor must be a man of power to achieve' But also admits that he would have lost a referendum on the single currency … Helmut...Read More
Japan stimulus will start currency war, say Chinese economists … Plan to buy bonds will open liquidity floodgates and spells doom for other nations, observers say … The Bank of Japan will double its monetary base to 270 trillion yen (HK$22.1 trillion) by March 2015. Many of China's top economists are livid at what they view as an effective currency devaluation by Japan and are call...Read More
The low-rate world was not meant to last. The Federal Reserve is making a better job of it than the European Central Bank … In 2008-09, when central banks slashed short-term rates close to zero and started buying bonds to push down longer-term rates, everyone assumed these extraordinary measures would soon be unwound as economies recovered. But the extraordinary has become the norm. America&...Read More
Why Canada Can Avoid Banking Crises and U.S. Can't Since 1790, the United States has suffered 16 banking crises. Canada has experienced zero — not even during the Great Depression. When it became a British colony, the majority of Canada's population was of French origin — and the French inhabitants hated the British government. It turns out Canada can thank the French for their...Read More