Monthly Archives: August 2013

Bernanke Textbook Royalties

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EPJ13

“The textbook business can be very very lucrative. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is co-author (from before he was in government) of ‘Principles of Economics’ and ‘Principles of Macroeconomics’ (written with Robert Frank, published by McGraw-Hill) and ‘Macroeconomics’ (with Andrew B. Abel and Dean Croushore, from Pearson). It appears that the McGraw-Hill books are more lucrative, generating $100,000 to $1 million in income for the chairman, who also made $50,000 to $100,000 from Pearson.”

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/08/bernanke-textbook-royalties.html

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Bernanke Is Getting Killed in the Bond Market

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“Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke’s latest disclosure statement for year end 2012 shows that he held positions in the Blackrock High Yield Bond Fund and US Treasury strips. If he continues to hold these positions, he is losing big time.  His Blackrock bond position is down by at least 5%. Meanwhile, his strips position is likely getting destroyed.  Here is a chart on the PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF, which is likely comparable to what Bernanke is holding.  Over the last 12 months, it is down more than 24%.  Bottom line: Bernanke is not only screwing up the nation’s economy, he is screwing up his own portfolio.”

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/08/bernanke-is-getting-killed-in-bond.html

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Past, Present and Future of Customer Payments (Infographic)

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“While today there may be a lot of buzz about Bitcoin and most businesses are well versed in accepting electronic and mobile payments, customers over the course of history have used a lot of different methods to pay for goods and services. The infographic below, compiled by Chargeback.com, an anti-credit card fraud company, details the past, present and future of customer payments.”

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227951

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Some Central Banks Bought Gold; Others Sold

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“The central banks that are buying are not in the West. They are in the East. The list of buyers indicate what is happening. In July 15 central banks were buyers. Turkey and Russia bought. So did Kazakhstan. Turkey is now #11 in world gold reserves: up to 464 tonnes. A year ago, Turkey adopted a new policy. It lets commercial banks store some of their reserves in gold. The numbers are small. The pattern counts. When central banks sell gold, other central banks buy it, plus a little more. This indicates a shift of opinion. Central bankers want more of what Keynes called a barbarous relic in their vaults — or at least in their pile of gold bars in the vault of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.”

http://teapartyeconomist.com/2013/08/28/central-banks-bought-gold-others-sold/

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Does Gold’s Price Matter to the Central Banks? No.

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“Economic erosion, yes. Monetary depreciation, yes. Recession? Yes. Collapse? Because of the price of gold as a trigger? I don’t see why. Not so far.  Gold’s price tells gold bugs the system is rigged. But we believe that without a rising price of gold. For most gold bugs, a falling price of gold testifies to the rigging. They blame the decline on manipulation. The system is rigged irrespective of the price of gold. The price of gold is not proof of the rigging. The existence of central banks is all the evidence anyone should need. Sadly, it isn’t.”

http://teapartyeconomist.com/2013/08/27/golds-price-matter-central-banks/

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Sacre bleu! Poor weather ruins 2013 wine grape harvest in France

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“France is facing one of its poorest wine grape harvests in four decades due to a cold and rainy spring and severe hail storms. The 2013 harvest is expected to reach just 43.5 millions hectolitres — well below the 10-year average of 45.4 million.  That would make the 2013 harvest one of the worst in 40 years and only a slight improvement on last year’s record low harvest of 41.4 million.  Jerome Despey, head of FranceAgriMer’s viticulture section, said cool temperatures and excessive rains contributed to a particularly poor harvest, while some vineyard owners in famed wine regions like Bordeaux and Burgundy saw their harvests nearly wiped out by hail.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/28/sacre-bleu-poor-weather-ruins-wine-grape-harvest-in-france/

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Bill Bonner: What does real estate want to do?

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Bill-Bonner2

“‘The Miami area is booming,’ reports a friend who visited yesterday. ‘I’m on Key Biscayne. Real estate went up about 20% last year in my neighborhood. This is like the days before the crisis… Everybody speaks Spanish. So I thought the new people would be coming from Colombia and Mexico. But not at all. They biggest buyers I see are Russians. Then, the French. I guess the Russians have a lot of money. And compared to France, everything is still cheap. The third major group of buyers is coming from Brazil. They seem to have a lot of money too. And everybody knows that Miami is the place to be if you’re Latin American.  Argentines are in fourth place.”

http://www.equitymaster.com/dailyreckoning/detail.asp?date=08/28/2013&story=1&title=What-does-real-estate-want-to-do

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Emerging market turmoil ‘not another’ currency crisis: analysts

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“Back then, investors reacted by panicking, withdrawing funds en masse, resulting in the Thai baht eventually collapsing. The phenomenon then spread like a wildfire throughout Asia, and even to Russia, with foreign capital vanishing almost with the blink of an eye. Short of capital, emerging countries suffered acute shortages of credit, plunging them even deeper into the crisis. Fifteen years on, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week said emerging countries are now much better equipped. The Economist’s Ryan Avent wrote on his blog that a bigger concern are potential policy errors on behalf of governments and central banks as they try to stem the slide of their currencies.”

http://news.yahoo.com/emerging-market-turmoil-not-another-currency-crisis-064543689.html

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Gold and Bitcoin: Currencies of the Future

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“Bitcoin and gold each have advantages and disadvantages. The piece of gold you hold in your hand has 5,000 years of history. Bitcoin has maybe four years of history. On the other hand, because you can hold gold in your hand and store it in vaults, it can be confiscated by governments. Bitcoin, because it is a crypto-currency based on mathematical formulas stored in computers all around the world, cannot be confiscated. Bitcoin has value to people who understand that confiscation is a real risk. In the last century, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler and Roosevelt all confiscated gold to increase the power of the state.”

http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/15275

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Why Whiskey Was Money, and Bitcoins Might Be

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“The acceptance of whiskey as money was spontaneous, incremental, and voluntary. And, since its value was based on efficiency and not on political decree, the practice continued many years into the future, surviving then-Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey tax—an effective income tax passed off as an excise tax—long enough for Thomas Jefferson’s administration to repeal it. Experiments came and went as people grew familiar with the alcohol’s value, and many local businessmen offered their customers an even more convenient medium of exchange: coins. They would mint, engrave, and then distribute tokens redeemable for commodities at their stores.”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-whiskey-was-money-and-bitcoins-might-now-be/

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