Government's poll shows Canadians want marijuana laws changed … More than two-thirds of Canadians want this country's marijuana laws to be softened, according to an opinion poll conducted for the federal government earlier this year. And while a small majority of the public believes companies should not be permitted to sell marijuana just as they sell alcohol and cigarettes, it's...Read More

Federal Reserve stays on cruise control … The U.S. economy is strengthening but the Federal Reserve remains in cruise control. The Fed decided to once again reduce its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion, as expected. The central bank has been gradually reducing, or tapering, its monthly bond purchases since January. It will now buy just $25 billion a month. That's down from a peak of...Read More

Why Voters Aren't Angrier About Economic Inequality … Why don't governments in democratic societies do more to combat income inequality? Scholars have grappled with this question for years. The median voter theory, a longstanding workhorse of political science, predicts that politicians hoping to get elected will seek to close a growing income gap to woo the big bulk of voters in the...Read More

Nomura Profit Slump Signals End of Abenomics … Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604)'s lowest profit in seven quarters signals the boost from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus policies for Japanese brokerages is over. Japan's largest securities firm yesterday posted a 70 percent drop in net income to 19.9 billion yen ($195 million) in the three months ended June, missing analys...Read More

The Federal Marijuana Ban Is Rooted in Myth and Xenophobia … The federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its origins in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with marijuana use at the time. This racially freighted history lives...Read More

Heads or Tails? Either Way, You Might Beat a Stock Picker … Imagine a world where investors in the stock market have no skill whatsoever. The investors themselves don't understand this, however, and many truly believe that they are good at what they do. But in this thought experiment, there's no doubt about the underlying reasons for fund managers' success: When they turn in an o...Read More

Companies proclaim water the next oil in a rush to turn resources into profit … Mammoth companies are trying to collect water that all life needs and charge for it as they would for other natural resources … "Is now the time to buy water?" enquired the email that showed up in my inbox earlier this week. Its authors weren't worrying about my dehydration levels. Rather, the...Read More

Is the Fed fueling a giant stock market bubble? … Not only has the S&P 500 fully recovered from the financial crisis, it's a staggering 30% higher than the peaks of the Internet and housing bull markets. But is this really the case? With unemployment still above 6%, how could we find ourselves in the throes of yet another brewing catastrophe? Didn't investors and analysts learn...Read More

Chief Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone has contracted the deadly disease … The "national hero" chief doctor leading the fight against the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in Sierra Leone has himself been infected with the disease, the president's office has announced …The virus has mortality rates of up to 90 per cent. – UK IndependentDominant Social Theme: Ebola is spreadin...Read More

Greenspan says bubbles can't be stopped without 'crunch' … Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has always been a student of the economy. Since the financial crisis, he's become a student of human nature. Sitting in his office with a view of the Washington Monument in the distance, Greenspan is eager to share the insight distilled in his recent book, "The Map a...Read More

And minder makes three: For White House interviews, it's never just one-on-one … When NBC News White House reporter Chuck Todd conducts background interviews with government officials these days, he and his source usually aren't the only ones in the room or on the call. Typically, there's a third party: A representative of the White House's press staff monitors the conversati...Read More

Liberal party looks to legalize medical marijuana in Colombia … Colombia's Liberal Party will support a new bill to legalize medical marijuana in the country, local media reported … The move was announced by Liberal Party (Partido Liberal) Senator Juan Manuel Galan, who explained that the bill would open the door for the use of currently illicit marijuana for medicinal uses, Colomb...Read More

'Obama hates business' is an idiotic distraction. Also: It's wrong … What's gnawing at me is this throwaway line in an editorial from the Economist about the very real problem of slower macroeconomic growth. In reference to an alleged spate of "anticompetitive regulations," the magazine labeled President Obama "…the least business-friendly president for d...Read More

China's terrifying debt ratios poised to breeze past US levels … The China-US sorpasso is looming … The sorpasso may instead be the ominous moment when China's debt ratios overtake the arch-debtor itself … A a new report from Stephen Green at Standard Chartered argues that China's aggregate debt level has reached 251 per cent of GDP, as of June. – UK TelegraphDo...Read More

Americans hate Congress. They will totally teach it a lesson by not voting … Americans are angry at Congress – more so than basically ever before. So it's time to throw the bums out, right? Well, not really. In fact, Americans appear prepared to deal with their historic unhappiness using perhaps the least-productive response: Staying home. – Washington PostDominant Social The...Read More

The dollar's 70-year dominance is coming to an end … Within a decade, greenback's could be replaced as the world's reserve currency … The dollar's hegemony continues to be cemented by the operations of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Founded at Bretton Woods, they're both Washington based, of course, and controlled by America, despite some Francophon...Read More

Strange Bedfellows: … Silicon Valley Techies Like Conservative Senator Rand Paul … There's a new app in Silicon Valley — conservatarianism. It's the app that conservative Senator Rand Paul is pushing. He wants to join forces with local techies. But how can technology and liberty flourish side by side? Paul's answer, "shrink government." … Recent polls...Read More

Republicans want to control, not end, the Fed … The Republicans' latest plan to rein in the Federal Reserve is, to damn it with the faintest of faint praise, their smartest yet. But it's still nowhere near convincing. It might be hard to believe, but Republicans weren't always so suspicious of the Fed's efforts to revive the economy. As Paul Krugman points out, you only have...Read More

Federal government moves to reduce sentences of 46,000 drug offenders … The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted Friday to slash the sentences of 46,000 inmates serving time for drug offenses, the latest move by federal officials to ease decades-old policies that have clogged the nation's prisons. If the decision is not blocked by Congress, nearly half of federal prisoners incarcerated for d...Read More

The Robot Economy and the Crisis of Capitalism: Why We Need Universal Basic Income … The material prosperity that capitalism has wrought is the product of technology, as well as markets (and social norms and state institutions). Markets enhance the efficiency of allocation of resources – such as human labour – between competing projects, while technological innovations enhance th...Read More