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
Rethinking the Idea of a Basic Income for All … In October, Swiss voters submitted sufficient signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would pay every citizen of Switzerland $2,800 per month, no strings attached. Similar efforts are under way throughout Europe. And there is growing talk of establishing a basic income for Americans as well. Interestingly, support comes mainly from t...Read More
Single Payer Is Getting a Second Life as Obamacare Frustration Peaks … Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system? That's what activists are hoping—and they're plotting a state-by-state fight. As the rollout of Obamacare clunks forward, activists who opposed the law from the beginning say it is time to seize the momen...Read More
Rethinking the Idea of a Basic Income for All … In October, Swiss voters submitted sufficient signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would pay every citizen of Switzerland $2,800 per month, no strings attached. Similar efforts are under way throughout Europe. And there is growing talk of establishing a basic income for Americans as well. Interestingly, support comes mainly from t...Read More
Single Payer Is Getting a Second Life as Obamacare Frustration Peaks … Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system? That's what activists are hoping—and they're plotting a state-by-state fight. As the rollout of Obamacare clunks forward, activists who opposed the law from the beginning say it is time to seize the momen...Read More
The MoneyLetter, MPL Communications Inc.133 Richmond St.W., Toronto, ON, M5H 3M8. 1-800-804-8846According to Keith Richards (Portfolio Manager at Value Trend), the major U.S. markets have entered into a new mega-year bull market, having recently broken through a 14-year technical ceiling that began in 1999. Some may argue that stocks should be getting ready for a bear market correction instead. Th...Read More
US tax deal could prove deadly for small banks … US demands are "barely tolerable both economically and legally", according to Swiss Bankers Association chairman Patrick Odier … Valiant, Berner Kantonalbank and Vontobel are the first Swiss banks to have agreed to sign up to a United States tax declaration programme. Experts warn the associated legal costs of complying with th...Read More
Fed's Bullard Sees Higher QE Taper Odds as Labor Market Improves … Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, a voter on policy this year, said an improving job market has increased the chances of a reduction in the Fed's bond purchases, and any cut should be modest because of too-low inflation. – BloombergDominant Social Theme: It's very complicated. It has...Read More
US tax deal could prove deadly for small banks … US demands are "barely tolerable both economically and legally", according to Swiss Bankers Association chairman Patrick Odier … Valiant, Berner Kantonalbank and Vontobel are the first Swiss banks to have agreed to sign up to a United States tax declaration programme. Experts warn the associated legal costs of complying with th...Read More
Fed's Bullard Sees Higher QE Taper Odds as Labor Market Improves … Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, a voter on policy this year, said an improving job market has increased the chances of a reduction in the Fed's bond purchases, and any cut should be modest because of too-low inflation. – BloombergDominant Social Theme: It's very complicated. It has...Read More
The west is losing faith in its own future … Living standards are even under pressure in countries that have done relatively well … American and European politicians like to talk about values and institutions. But for billions of people around the world, the crucial point is simpler and easier to grasp. The west is the part of the world where even ordinary people live comfortably. That...Read More
AOL, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple and LinkedIn to call for reforms to restore the public's trust in the Internet … AOL, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple and LinkedIn say: 'The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual.' The world's leading technology companies have uni...Read More
The west is losing faith in its own future … Living standards are even under pressure in countries that have done relatively well … American and European politicians like to talk about values and institutions. But for billions of people around the world, the crucial point is simpler and easier to grasp. The west is the part of the world where even ordinary people live comfortably. That...Read More
AOL, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple and LinkedIn to call for reforms to restore the public's trust in the Internet … AOL, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple and LinkedIn say: 'The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual.' The world's leading technology companies have uni...Read More
Money Reporter, MPL Communications Inc.133 Richmond St.W., Toronto, ON, M5H 3M8. 1-800-804-8846Canadian equities are gradually improving, according to recent growth in the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The only way to sustain increases in stock and trust prices is for those stocks and trusts to have sustained increases in earnings or cash flows, as the case may be. On that front, we have good news. Of...Read More
Bitcoins: A Fully-Compliant Currency The Government Can Love … All of bitcoin's benefits to the establishment revolve around its blockchain. In simple terms, a blockchain is a registry of all transactions carried out in bitcoins. Thus is resolved the problem of double-spending one particular bitcoin: It can't be done (at least in theory) due to the blockchain. But the blockchain is i...Read More
WTO overcomes last minute hitch to reach its first global trade deal … The World Trade Organization reached its first ever trade reform deal on Saturday to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy. The approval came after Cuba dropped a last-gasp t...Read More
Bitcoins: A Fully-Compliant Currency The Government Can Love … All of bitcoin's benefits to the establishment revolve around its blockchain. In simple terms, a blockchain is a registry of all transactions carried out in bitcoins. Thus is resolved the problem of double-spending one particular bitcoin: It can't be done (at least in theory) due to the blockchain. But the blockchain is i...Read More
WTO overcomes last minute hitch to reach its first global trade deal … The World Trade Organization reached its first ever trade reform deal on Saturday to the roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers who had gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to decide on the make-or-break agreement that could add $1 trillion to the global economy. The approval came after Cuba dropped a last-gasp t...Read More
The Coming Global Wealth Tax – Indebted governments may soon consider a big one-time levy on capital assets. Between ObamaCare, Iran and last quarter's uptick in U.S. economic growth, taxpayers these days may be distracted from several dangers to come. But households from the United States to Europe and Japan may soon face fiscal shocks worse than any market crash. The White House and Ne...Read More