Swiss National Bank's Zurbruegg Repeats Opposition to Gold Vote … Vote Would Force SNB to Maintain a Minimum of 20% of The Assets … A member of the Swiss National Bank governing board reiterated opposition to an upcoming vote that would require it to hold a fifth of its assets in gold, saying it would impede the central bank's ability to conduct monetary policy. In text of a sp...Read More

Despite some recent reversals, there is evidence that globalisation is on the march again … For most of the 1990s and 2000s, it seemed almost inevitable that the world would become ever more integrated and borders ever less bothersome. The crash of 2008, which spread havoc around the world faster than any previous financial crisis, called that assumption into question. Headlines about the wo...Read More

Wal-Mart Promises Organic Food for Everyone … Buoyed by the improving economy and Americans' belief that they can eat themselves healthy, sales of organic food are booming again. The growth in sales of organic products in the U.S., food and nonfood, had slowed to 4.6 percent in 2009 but has since rebounded. Sales rose 11.5 percent in 2013, to $35 billion, according to the Organic Trade A...Read More

Japan's Warning to the World … Japan's renewed descent into recession – its sixth in the past two decades – comes with an urgent if obvious warning to the U.S., Europe and the rest of the developed world: Don't let this happen to you. Japan's famously stagnant economy may not be all that unique. True, Japan's predicament is exceptionally difficult. Extraordina...Read More

With focus elsewhere, GOP Congress shows little interest in blocking pot legalization in D.C. … Looming over the District's historic decision this month to legalize marijuana has been another mandate that voters delivered on Election Day: A Republican majority on Capitol Hill with the power to interfere with the measure when it goes to Congress for review. But congressional Republicans a...Read More

Time for a 'melt-up': the coming global boom … Get ready for a "melt-up." Back in mid-October, as stock markets around the world plunged faster than at any time since 2011, many investors and economists feared a meltdown. But with the U.S. economy steadily expanding, monetary and fiscal policies becoming more stimulative in other parts of the world and the autumn season for...Read More

Putin Is Hoarding Gold To Prepare For Economic War … Russia's central bank added to its reserves of bullion in the third quarter, according to the latest report from the World Gold Council. Russia has taken advantage of lower gold prices to pack the vaults of its central bank with bullion as it prepares for the possibility of a long, drawn-out economic war with the West. The latest resea...Read More

G-20 Plans $2 Trillion Growth Boost to Uneven Global Economy … Group of 20 leaders agreed to take measures that would boost their economies by a collective $2 trillion by 2018 as they battle patchy growth and the threat of a European recession. Citing risks from financial markets and geopolitical tensions, the leaders said the global economy is being held back by lackluster demand, according...Read More

The Pipeline From Hell: There's No Good Reason to Build Keystone XL … No lasting jobs, no cheaper gas, and a chance to kill off one-fourth of U.S. farmland and maybe the planet. Why are both parties going all out to get such a crappy deal? The Senate will vote Tuesday on whether to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Republican-led House approved the initiative Fr...Read More

EU finance chief to announce capital market plan in 2015 … The EU's new financial services commissioner will set out his plans for a pan-European capital market by the middle of next year, aiming to reduce companies' reliance on banks and help revive the bloc's fragile economy. Jonathan Hill said on Thursday (7 November) he was seeking to create an integrated market for raising m...Read More

Fortune Investors buzz for marijuana-related businesses … Marijuana-related businesses are like most others: They need money to get off the ground, pay the bills and expand. Until recently, money from legitimate sources was tough to come by. But with more states legalizing pot, big investors are starting to open their wallets and fork over piles of cash. On Wednesday, a medical marijuana con...Read More

California County Quietly Votes For Independence From State and Federal Laws … Mendocino County, in the pristine northern lands of California, where the magnificent ancient coastal Redwood trees meet the inland California Oaks, has voted itself into the constitution writing (righting) business. … By a significant margin, they became the first county in California, and only the second c...Read More

Colombia Takes First Step To Regulate Marijuana Use … The regulation of the use of marijuana for medical purposes was approved in the first debate of a Senate committee in Colombia on Tuesday. With a vote of 13 to two, members of a committee of Colombia's Senate approved legalizing marijuana for medical and therapeutic use in a country in which this drug is the most vastly consumed by th...Read More

Surprise! There may be a way to fix Washington … U.S. President Obama hosts a luncheon for bi-partisan Congressional leaders in the Old Family Dining Room at the White House in Washington. The morning after the midterm elections, one of the best places to go for hope that the 114th Congress might actually get something done was a think tank not far from the Capitol called the Bipartisan Poli...Read More

For Gold Miners, Another Terrible Run … For years, the gold mining sector has been the worst investment sector imaginable. There was a while in 2014 when it seemed like the gold mining sector might avoid another disastrous 12-month stretch, but that seems unlikely after what has taken place in financial markets in the last few weeks. – ForbesDominant Social Theme: Gold and gold miners...Read More

Mark Carney: No more bank bail-outs … Financial Stability Board, chaired by Bank of England Governor, unveils proposals for ending 'Too Big To Fail' banks … Mark Carney has pledged that taxpayer money should never again be used to prop up banks. The Governor of the bank of England, in his position as chairman of the international Financial Stability Board (FSB), has unveiled pr...Read More

Catalonia's Vote Was a Success. Now Negotiate … Catalonia's independence vote on Sunday was encouraging – not in creating momentum for the region that wants to break off from Spain, but in laying a foundation for political agreement on how best to decide the question. Perhaps for the first time, the national government in Madrid made the smart choice, allowing the nonbinding &q...Read More

With Fear of Being Sidelined, Tea Party Sees the Republican Rise as New Threat … As most Republicans were taking a victory lap the morning after the elections, a group of conservatives huddled anxiously in a conference room not far from Capitol Hill and agreed that now is the time for confrontation, not compromise and conciliation. Despite Republicans' ascension to Senate control and an...Read More

The Marlboro of marijuana … The legal cannabis industry is run by minnows. As liberalisation spreads, that may not last … Colorado's pot industry expects to rack up sales of $1 billion this year. Across America the market is reckoned to be worth about 40 times that much. Most of it is still illegal, of course. But slowly, entrepreneurs are prising it out of the hands of crime gangs...Read More

Apparently, Europe's economic malaise has got nothing to do with the euro … Believe it if you will; Europe's economic malaise has got nothing to do with the euro … Hard to believe, perhaps, but this was the suggestion put to me at the CityUK annual dinner this week by someone with a lifetime of public service now turned, as many top civil servants eventually do, to more lucrati...Read More