June 22, 2015

The Mount Rushmore rule

The replacement of Hamilton on the $10 note takes another lame progressive turn.  There’s a move afoot to have SCOTUS justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg chosen for this honor. If it’s to be a woman, my suggestion – call it the Moun...

April 28, 2015

There May be Dragons

Ron Paul, John Hussman, David Stockman, and many other doomsday forecasters have one thing in common: they are all focused on the financial architecture of the world in 2015. They believe the financial structure cannot endure in its present...

April 21, 2015

Quantitative Easing with a Chinese Face

There’s no lack of invention in finance. In fact, while accounting is a library’s worth of rules for writing down what happened yesterday, finance is by definition an exercise in creating what will happen tomorrow. Imagination i...

April 11, 2015

Structural Failure and QE and ZIRP

If the world’s central bankers are successful in pursuit of their short-term goals by the use of Quantitative Easing (QE) and Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) -- winning the race to the bottom in currency devaluation to the ...

March 14, 2015

Why Should We Care about Greece?

I'm giving a short (four session, 6 hour) seminar this month on assorted financial topics. The venue is the SAIL program at Collin College in my hometown of Plano, Texas. The topics to be discussed are chosen by the participants, from w...

December 3, 2014

Federal Debt Crosses $18T Line

“Debt held by the public” in the graphic below is Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.  “Intergovernmental holdings” are special bonds, the debt of the federal government to independent federal agencies, the largest of which...

November 3, 2014

Hara kiri by yen

The central government in Japan borrows ¥40 of every ¥100 it spends.  Sovereign debt now equals 260% of ¥GDP.  Total debt, including corporate and individual debt, exceeds 600% of ¥GDP.  Japan is demographically the old...

October 17, 2014

Reality Returning with a Vengeance

We’re about to rediscover the joys and sorrows of market-sourced pricing for all assets, real and financial (read: commodities, housing, equities and bonds). For five years the Fed has been “supporting” asset prices artificiall...

September 26, 2014

Winning the Debate

Debates with progressives on economic and political policy often lead nowhere. In my experience this is because conservatives argue from historical fact and cold, hard data -- from experience -- while progressives wave off all such referenc...

September 21, 2014

Crony Capitalism and Progressive Desperation

If you hang out at the intersection of Politics Avenue and Economics Boulevard, as I frequently do, you've noticed the ugly fusion of welfare state government and major corporations we have come to call "crony capitalism."  It was ...

September 14, 2014

The 1999-2008 Housing Mess: A Diagnosis and Prescription

As any physician will tell you, insightful diagnosis must precede effective prescription. Stated simply, you can't fix problems you don't understand or refuse to recognize. So, to the point of this essay, in purely economic terms where one...