Global shares near 5-year high as central bank rally rolls … World shares hit their strongest in almost five years and Germany's Dax reached an all-time high on Tuesday …Global shares near 5-year high as central bank rally rolls on … ECB President Mario) Draghi that he'll do whatever it takes to push the euro zone economy forwards. Draghi's comments that the ECB could...Read More
Foul Weather Friends … The financial repression thesis (FRT) imagines a state of nature in which the market exists, but the state does not. This view implies that the market is natural and the state artificial. But if this is the case, any action by the state in the financial markets falls under the expansive definition of financial repression. – JacobinDominant Social Theme: There are...Read More
Following Europe's lead on the basic income for all … Folks in Europe are currently campaigning for a basic income, which would provide a livable income directly to everyone as a human right, paid for by taxing the rich, financial transactions, carbon pollution etc. and eliminating old fashioned, expensive welfare programs … – Daily KosDominant Social Theme: Major Douglas'...Read More
The Kimberley Process may ban diamond exports from the Central African Republic, reports Reuters.KP head Welile Nhlapo told the press during a World Diamond Council meeting in Israel Monday it would review a possible trade suspension of the country at a May 10 meeting.The process was set up to regulate the trade in diamonds from conflict torn areas to ensure they do not enter the marketplace and f...Read More
The Oil and Gold Booms Are Over …The wreckage caused by China's great, juddering slowdown continues to spread far beyond the country's shores. Although most commodities enjoyed a bounce on May 3, after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, the plunge in their prices over the past few months suggests the past decade's rally is truly broken. For those of us not in the mining i...Read More
German euro founder calls for 'catastrophic' currency to be broken up … Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is "leading to disaster". Mr Lafontaine said on the parliamentary website of Germany's Left Party that Chancellor Ange...Read More
Long-term unemployment is one of the most vexing problems the U.S. faces, and today's jobs report shows all-too-meager progress in fixing it. The U.S. created 165,000 new jobs in April, pushing down the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent from March's 7.6 percent. But as of the end of April, 4.4 million Americans, or 37 percent of the unemployed, had been without a job for 27 weeks or longer,...Read More
The Oil and Gold Booms Are Over …The wreckage caused by China's great, juddering slowdown continues to spread far beyond the country's shores. Although most commodities enjoyed a bounce on May 3, after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, the plunge in their prices over the past few months suggests the past decade's rally is truly broken. For those of us not in the mining i...Read More
German euro founder calls for 'catastrophic' currency to be broken up … Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is "leading to disaster". Mr Lafontaine said on the parliamentary website of Germany's Left Party that Chancellor Ange...Read More
Long-term unemployment is one of the most vexing problems the U.S. faces, and today's jobs report shows all-too-meager progress in fixing it. The U.S. created 165,000 new jobs in April, pushing down the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent from March's 7.6 percent. But as of the end of April, 4.4 million Americans, or 37 percent of the unemployed, had been without a job for 27 weeks or longer,...Read More
Fed Open to Expanding QE as It Counters Talk of Tapering … Facing the risk of a fourth straight summertime slowdown, Federal Reserve officials raised the prospect of increasing the monthly pace of bond buying above $85 billion to guard= against any slump in growth or employment. The Fed's statement yesterday that it's "prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases&quo...Read More
If People Could Immigrate Anywhere, Would Poverty Be Eliminated? … What if there was a program that would cost nothing, improve the lives of millions of people from poorer nations, and double world GDP? At least one economist says that increased mobility of people is by far the biggest missed opportunity in development. And an informally aligned group of advocates is doing its best to make t...Read More
The U.S. Has Much, Much More Gas and Oil Than We Thought … The United States has double the amount of oil and three times the amount of natural gas than previously thought, stored deep under the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, according to new data the Obama administration released Tuesday. – National ReviewDominant Social Theme: There is no oil. It's all been us...Read More
The Real Reason for Swedish 'Equality' … Super-Economy: The Upper Class and Wealth Inequality in Sweden … Sweden is viewed as an egalitarian utopia by outsiders, but reality is complex. In some ways Sweden has less social equality than the United States. While the American upper class is largely meritocratic, the upper class in Sweden are still mostly defined by birth. –...Read More
'The civil war in Iraq has already begun': Politician claims conflict… will be 'worse than Syria' … The Sunni rise again: Uprising in Syria emboldens Iraq's minority community Iraqi army losing hold on north to Sunni and Kurdish rebels as troops desert Iraq's Prime Minister fights off attempt to push him out of office … Iraqi leaders fear that the country...Read More
News … In his new book, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on = Terrorism, investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson analyzes 10 years of terrorism cases that were prosecuted in the United States after Sept. 11. By assembling a database of the cases and going through court records, he concluded that the FBI, which receives $3 billion per year for counterterrorism, is &q...Read More
Fed Open to Expanding QE as It Counters Talk of Tapering … Facing the risk of a fourth straight summertime slowdown, Federal Reserve officials raised the prospect of increasing the monthly pace of bond buying above $85 billion to guard= against any slump in growth or employment. The Fed's statement yesterday that it's "prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases&quo...Read More
If People Could Immigrate Anywhere, Would Poverty Be Eliminated? … What if there was a program that would cost nothing, improve the lives of millions of people from poorer nations, and double world GDP? At least one economist says that increased mobility of people is by far the biggest missed opportunity in development. And an informally aligned group of advocates is doing its best to make t...Read More
The U.S. Has Much, Much More Gas and Oil Than We Thought … The United States has double the amount of oil and three times the amount of natural gas than previously thought, stored deep under the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, according to new data the Obama administration released Tuesday. – National ReviewDominant Social Theme: There is no oil. It's all been us...Read More
The Real Reason for Swedish 'Equality' … Super-Economy: The Upper Class and Wealth Inequality in Sweden … Sweden is viewed as an egalitarian utopia by outsiders, but reality is complex. In some ways Sweden has less social equality than the United States. While the American upper class is largely meritocratic, the upper class in Sweden are still mostly defined by birth. –...Read More