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Two Questions on the Conventional Bailout Commentary

Two issues keep bothering me in all this bailout talk. (Well, actually there are about 202 things bothering me, but you get what I mean.) Up till now I have assumed I was missing something, but now that I am reading other people voicing my internal confusion, I feel more confident in proceeding… (1) “Instead […]

The Deflationists Have a Good Day

Many people, including Austro-libertarian Gary North, have been warning of deflation. This is unusual, since Austrians typically decry the Fed and its inflationary fiat money. Today is certainly a feather in the cap of the deflationists. The stock indices are all down 3% or more, and at the same time all the commodities are way […]

Chris Sciabarra Puts More Thought Into His (non)Blog Than Paulson Into His Plan

Chris Sciabarra has a long but excellent post on the whole mess. (Don’t worry folks, even I’m starting to get sick of this topic. It’s actually a subtle technique on my part: By the time this thing goes through, you will prefer an extra personal debt of $3000 in order to have me switch to […]

Tom Woods Interviews Murphy–Fortunately No Mention of the Bush Doctrine

Interview here.

Add Chadwick to the No-Short-Read List

I decided a few days ago to never ever read or listen to Jim Cramer again, on principle. Today I must add another frequent CNBC contributor, Patricia Chadwick, to the list. I have criticized Chadwick before. But that was nothing. In today’s “article,” she offers absolutely zero arguments. She simply asserts that the American people […]

Market Thinks Much More Likely Uncle Sam Will Default

According to this Fortune article, the premium on a credit default swap–basically an insurance contract against bond default–for the US Treasury has more than quadrupled since January, though Treasury debt is still considered the safest in the world.

Bailout: Karl Marx’s Comeback?

So argues Martin Masse in the Financial Post: In his Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx proposed 10 measures to be implemented after the proletariat takes power, with the aim of centralizing all instruments of production in the hands of the state. Proposal Number Five was to bring about the “centralization of credit in […]

I’m Pulling Out Some Extra Cash

The FDIC has asked for an increase in the size of accounts it can fully insure, presumably to forestall bank runs. I encourage everyone to have larger cash balances than normal; at least a few days’ worth. It’s true that an FDIC-insured account is “safe,” but Robert Wenzel explains that the FDIC purposely makes you […]