Canadian Economy Tumble … Given the historical relationship between cross-border trade and global economic activity, report from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis that world trade volumes seem to be consolidating but are within a hair's breadth of turning negative on a year-over-year basis suggests that another global downturn is on the cards. Weak economic data from Eu...Read More

CASH GRAB: Inactive bank accounts to be seized … The government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. Households face losing up to $109 million from their family savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the governme...Read More

5 Reasons the World Is Catching on to the Financial Transaction Tax … It has been more than 70 years since John Maynard Keynes wrote about the value of a financial transaction tax in "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise in the United States." A financial transaction tax works by levying a miniscule fee on the estimated $2.9 trillion of daily financial activit...Read More

Deathbed of Keynesian Economics Will Be in U.K … The U.K. has produced notable economists over the years, but John Maynard Keynes, the guru of government intervention, was one of truly global significance. So it may be fitting that the U.K. will also become the deathbed of Keynesian economics. Britain has been following the mainstream prescriptions of his followers more than any developed na...Read More

Canadian Economy Tumble … Given the historical relationship between cross-border trade and global economic activity, report from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis that world trade volumes seem to be consolidating but are within a hair's breadth of turning negative on a year-over-year basis suggests that another global downturn is on the cards. Weak economic data from Eu...Read More

CASH GRAB: Inactive bank accounts to be seized … The government will from May 31 be able to transfer all money from accounts that have not been used for three years into their own revenues. Households face losing up to $109 million from their family savings as the Federal government moves to seize cash from inactive bank accounts. After legislation was rushed through parliament, the governme...Read More

Colombia, South America's largest coal producer, risks losing access to its main markets as mounting issues affecting major coal miners in the country have started to disrupt supply, reports local newspaper Vanguardia.Early this month, the nation's environmental licensing agency ANLA suspended Alabama-based Drummond Co.'s loading license at the port of Santa Marta, after the company spilled coal...Read More

Morning in America? U.S. economy poised to accelerate substantially by the end of the year, even if Washington goes forward with $85 billion in budget cuts scheduled to begin on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters this month predicted the economy will expand at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from the 1.8 percent rate expected in the first quarter, when higher tax rates enacte...Read More

How the Fed Could Fix the Economy—and Why It Hasn't … Quantitative easing (QE) is supposed to stimulate the economy by adding money to the money supply, increasing demand. But so far, it hasn't been working. Why not? Because as practiced for the last two decades, QE does not actually increase the circulating money supply. It merely cleans up the toxic balance sheets of banks. A...Read More

Energy revolution promises to transform East Africa … An energy revolution is taking place in East Africa as the price of solar technology tumbles and huge resources of geothermal steam beneath the Great Rift Valley start to be exploited, moves which have the potential to lift millions out of poverty and cut greenhouse gas emissions. – BBCDominant Social Theme: So much unexpected good...Read More

As for [Stephan] Kinsella's prediction that I won't debate him, I will walk through hell, if I have to, to debate him and chop up his defect laden anti-IP views. – Robert WenzelDominant Social Theme: All Libertarians are cranks that hold the same rabid views.Free-Market Analysis: Well, here we have an example of two "big brains" – respected free-market commentators &n...Read More

Unsolicited advice for Jeff Zucker, CNN's new boss … As Zucker seeks inspiration for CNN, I can guarantee he won't devote himself to the 300-year history of the American newspaper. But he could do worse than to review the early decades of the 19th century, when most newspapers operated as adjuncts to the political parties, much as Fox and MSNBC have aligned themselves with the Republ...Read More

Morning in America? U.S. economy poised to accelerate substantially by the end of the year, even if Washington goes forward with $85 billion in budget cuts scheduled to begin on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters this month predicted the economy will expand at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from the 1.8 percent rate expected in the first quarter, when higher tax rates enacte...Read More

How the Fed Could Fix the Economy—and Why It Hasn't … Quantitative easing (QE) is supposed to stimulate the economy by adding money to the money supply, increasing demand. But so far, it hasn't been working. Why not? Because as practiced for the last two decades, QE does not actually increase the circulating money supply. It merely cleans up the toxic balance sheets of banks. A...Read More

Energy revolution promises to transform East Africa … An energy revolution is taking place in East Africa as the price of solar technology tumbles and huge resources of geothermal steam beneath the Great Rift Valley start to be exploited, moves which have the potential to lift millions out of poverty and cut greenhouse gas emissions. – BBCDominant Social Theme: So much unexpected good...Read More

As for [Stephan] Kinsella's prediction that I won't debate him, I will walk through hell, if I have to, to debate him and chop up his defect laden anti-IP views. – Robert WenzelDominant Social Theme: All Libertarians are cranks that hold the same rabid views.Free-Market Analysis: Well, here we have an example of two "big brains" – respected free-market commentators &n...Read More

Unsolicited advice for Jeff Zucker, CNN's new boss … As Zucker seeks inspiration for CNN, I can guarantee he won't devote himself to the 300-year history of the American newspaper. But he could do worse than to review the early decades of the 19th century, when most newspapers operated as adjuncts to the political parties, much as Fox and MSNBC have aligned themselves with the Republ...Read More

RED ALERT: World's biggest gold storage company dumps US citizens … ViaMat, a Swiss logistics company that has been safeguarding precious metals since 1945, is literally the gold standard in secure storage. They have vaults from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Dubai, and they count among their clients some of the largest mining companies in the world. They know what they're doing. And no...Read More

Mercenary firms: a lucrative niche market … Contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater secured the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad in 2005 (AFP) European states are subcontracting an increasing number of tasks to private military companies to cut their armies' sizes and budgets. These mainly US firms cost them dearly, however, says m...Read More

Scientists have long published the results of their work in scholarly journals, and many such publications have warned that open access would destroy them and the function they provide the scientific community. The White House has moved to make the results of federally funded research available to the public for free within a year, bowing to public pressure for unfettered access to scholarly artic...Read More