A few days ago I continued my regular pooh-poohing of the perils of deflation, which is coming up again because of the fall in the price of oil. As I said in that post, deflation that is associated with productivity is generally a good thing, but if its a result of a collapse in the […]
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Today is my final for macroeconomics and hopefully my students will demonstrate some level of economic understanding. However, I fear that perhaps the culture of economic ignorance which pervades our public understanding might make all my efforts for naught. Unfortunately as they leave my class they will be surrounded for the rest of their lives […]
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A few weeks before the election, I speculated that a potential election threat to the Democrats was a significant correction to the stock market. The main reason for the speculation was the impending cessation of QE3, the Fed’s monetary stimulus program. Pretty much all market observers believe the Fed’s stimulus has at least contributed to […]
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The Fed giveth, and the Fed taketh away? Is a bursting stock market bubble going to be the October Surprise?
11 Oct 2014
The stock market swung wildly this past week, with the final result the S&P 500 down 3.1%, and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.9%. Everybody knows a major reason why: The Federal Reserve is winding down its aggressive monetary stimulus, and now the question is will they increase interest rates, and if so, how soon? QE3 is […]
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Quote for the Day–John Maynard Keynes!
16 May 2014
Whoever thought Bereansatthegate would feature a quote for the day from Lord Keynes? Yet here we are: Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth […]
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Yesterday Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen to become Chairwoman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Borrowing from Stanly Kubrick’s classic film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and with apologies to Slim Pickens, this is how I perceive Yellen’s nomination (and subsequent Senate confirmation) will impact […]
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There is little doubt the Fed’s easy money policy, and especially the deliberate QE of buying long term instruments, has resulted in speculative flows investing in those assets. As we related last week, the Fed’s discussion of tapering has resulted in immense turmoil, as speculators are wondering if capital needs to be redeployed away from […]
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Many critics of Austrian economic theory on the causes of business cycles suggest that the lack of significant CPI-based inflation shows the Austrians are all wrong. Yet, as I have argued earlier, CPI inflation is NOT what Austrians are concerned with. Rather the central banks artificially lowering interest rates leads to malinvestment and a distortion […]
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Margaret Thatcher: October 13, 1925 – April 8, 2013 “No liberty unless there is economic liberty”
08 Apr 2013
Freedom lost a true ally with the passing of the “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher. The quote in the title is from a Time interview from May 14, 1979 as her successful campaign for Prime Minister was coming to a conclusion. Prime Minister Thatcher was a (perhaps the) leading politician along with Ronald Reagan (the “second […]
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A few months ago the big revelation to gold bugs was Germany wanted its gold back from the Federal Reserve. What’s the world coming to when central banks don’t trust each other? Further, with central banks net buyers of gold for the last few years, something seems afoot in the global currency markets. In perhaps […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach