Farewell QE, you have been a magnificent success … As the US Federal Reserve starts to drain dollar liquidity from the global system at long last, let us celebrate success. Quantitative easing has worked marvellously well. Monetary policy has been vindicated. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: Hurray for central banking. It works!Free-Market Analysis: The promotional propaganda is we...Read More
The first world war… Look back with angst … Thanks to its military, economic and soft power, America is still indispensable, particularly in dealing with threats like climate change and terror, which cross borders. But unless America behaves as a leader and the guarantor of the world order, it will be inviting regional powers to test their strength by bullying neighbouring countries. T...Read More
Farewell QE, you have been a magnificent success … As the US Federal Reserve starts to drain dollar liquidity from the global system at long last, let us celebrate success. Quantitative easing has worked marvellously well. Monetary policy has been vindicated. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: Hurray for central banking. It works!Free-Market Analysis: The promotional propaganda is we...Read More
The first world war… Look back with angst … Thanks to its military, economic and soft power, America is still indispensable, particularly in dealing with threats like climate change and terror, which cross borders. But unless America behaves as a leader and the guarantor of the world order, it will be inviting regional powers to test their strength by bullying neighbouring countries. T...Read More
Canadian Mutual Fund Adviser, MPL Communications Inc.133 Richmond St.W., Toronto, ON, M5H 3M8. 1-800-804-8846Among resource issues, oil and gas and energy stocks overall have held up relatively well this year. That may reflect the abundance of high-quality companies you find in this sector, as well as the positive long-term outlook for energy. Energy stocks have been a relatively bright spot...Read More
Should the U.S. force citizens to save? Americans aren't saving enough to retire. This gap poses a problem for everyone, not just people who will face near-poverty when they can't work anymore. Does that merit forcing people to save more? Retirement in America is supposed to be financed by three sources: Social Security, employer pensions, and additional saving … Another, potentially...Read More
What's wrong with Science. And Nature. And Cell. A Nobel prize-winner attacks elite journals … BLUNT criticism is an essential part of science, for it is how bad ideas are winnowed from good ones. So when Randy Schekman, one of the 2013 crop of Nobel prize-winners (for physiology or medicine, in his case), decided to criticise the way scientific journals are run, he did not hold back. Dr...Read More
Should the U.S. force citizens to save? Americans aren't saving enough to retire. This gap poses a problem for everyone, not just people who will face near-poverty when they can't work anymore. Does that merit forcing people to save more? Retirement in America is supposed to be financed by three sources: Social Security, employer pensions, and additional saving … Another, potentially...Read More
What's wrong with Science. And Nature. And Cell. A Nobel prize-winner attacks elite journals … BLUNT criticism is an essential part of science, for it is how bad ideas are winnowed from good ones. So when Randy Schekman, one of the 2013 crop of Nobel prize-winners (for physiology or medicine, in his case), decided to criticise the way scientific journals are run, he did not hold back. Dr...Read More
US Federal Reserve: The Bernanke years … It was a drizzly day in Washington when Ben Bernanke went to his confirmation hearing in November 2005, but all seemed bright for the US economy. Growth was on track to hit 3 per cent. House prices had another five months left to rise. The assembled senators felt indulgent towards the modest academic – variously described by the media as bearded...Read More
Is NATO's Trojan Horse Riding Toward the 'Ukraine Spring'? … Ukrainian citizens have rallied in the bitter cold at Independence Square in Kiev to demand a better economic future and to protest President Viktor Yanukovych's failure to sign an economic agreement with the EU. But while the draft of the EU "Association Agreement" is being sold as an economic boon for Uk...Read More
US Federal Reserve: The Bernanke years … It was a drizzly day in Washington when Ben Bernanke went to his confirmation hearing in November 2005, but all seemed bright for the US economy. Growth was on track to hit 3 per cent. House prices had another five months left to rise. The assembled senators felt indulgent towards the modest academic – variously described by the media as bearded...Read More
Is NATO's Trojan Horse Riding Toward the 'Ukraine Spring'? … Ukrainian citizens have rallied in the bitter cold at Independence Square in Kiev to demand a better economic future and to protest President Viktor Yanukovych's failure to sign an economic agreement with the EU. But while the draft of the EU "Association Agreement" is being sold as an economic boon for Uk...Read More
The budget deal and Washington's new politics of compromise … The muted market reaction to this week's budget deal in Washington may initially seem like a disappointment. After all, uncertainty over government spending, debt and taxes has consistently emerged in business sentiment surveys as the biggest single factor holding back corporate investment and damaging financial confidence...Read More
Release the Senate Torture Report … A dozen years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the American public still doesn't know the full extent of the laws that were broken and the human rights abuses that were committed. Moving forward as a country demands taking responsibility for past actions and providing redress to victims. And that process can only take place after a full public acco...Read More
The budget deal and Washington's new politics of compromise … The muted market reaction to this week's budget deal in Washington may initially seem like a disappointment. After all, uncertainty over government spending, debt and taxes has consistently emerged in business sentiment surveys as the biggest single factor holding back corporate investment and damaging financial confidence...Read More
Release the Senate Torture Report … A dozen years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the American public still doesn't know the full extent of the laws that were broken and the human rights abuses that were committed. Moving forward as a country demands taking responsibility for past actions and providing redress to victims. And that process can only take place after a full public acco...Read More
Uruguay becomes first nation to legalise marijuana trade … The Uruguayan government hopes legalising the sale of marijuana will tackle drug cartels … Uruguay's cannabis bill reflects liberal past … Uruguay has become the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana. After nearly 12 hours of debate, senators gave the government-sponsored bill...Read More
Central banks lose $400bn in gold rout … Fall in gold price catches out central banks' fearful of repeating Gordon Brown's mistake of selling reserves at the bottom … Central banks, fearful of repeating Gordon Brown's mistake of selling the nation's gold reserves at the bottom of the market, have been caught out by the slide in prices this year, with the value of the pr...Read More
Uruguay becomes first nation to legalise marijuana trade … The Uruguayan government hopes legalising the sale of marijuana will tackle drug cartels … Uruguay's cannabis bill reflects liberal past … Uruguay has become the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana. After nearly 12 hours of debate, senators gave the government-sponsored bill...Read More