Tag Archives: Economics

India gold smuggling at all-time high, despite Nepali kingpin’s death

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“In two years–since government increased duty on gold to 10% to rein in a yawning current account deficit—gold smuggling has grown by 900%.  That as an accepted principle seizures could be less than 10% of actual smuggling, the figures look even more ominous.  Sources say gold has also begun to be smuggled in ever unique ways and from rather unexpected corners. There is a silver lining to the grim story though. There is an unexpected drop in Nepal which had seen a massive spurt in gold smuggling in the past couple of years. The reason: the kingpin of illicit yellow metal trade in the Himlayan nation died under the rubble of his house in Kathmandu during the recent quake.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gold-smuggling-at-all-time-high-seizures-total-Rs-1000cr/articleshow/47437207.cms

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LA Unions Demand Exemption from $15 Minimum Wage They Created

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“Unions want to give workers and business the option — the freedom! — to prioritize what’s important to them and negotiate their own pay! Isn’t that nice. But only if those workers are paying union dues, and only if those businesses are using union labor.  The minimum wage hike was always meant to make independent workers more expensive and make unions look better by comparison. But it’s a bold move for the unions to simply say, in one breath, ‘Everyone deserves a living wage! It’ll be good for everyone! Except us, thank you. We’ll set our own pay — and also, give a break to any businesses who agree to go back to union labor.'”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/la-unions-demand-exemption-from-15-minimum-wage-they-created

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Ron Paul: Janet Yellen is Right, She Can’t Predict the Future

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American Exceptionalism: Putin, the Neocons, and Ron Paul

“This week I found myself in rare agreement with Janet Yellen when she admitted that her economic predictions are likely to be wrong. Sadly, Yellen did not follow up her admission by handing in her resignation and joining efforts to end the Fed. An honest examination of the Federal Reserve’s record over the past seven years clearly shows that the American people would be better off without it. Some say that eliminating the welfare-warfare state and the fiat currency system that props it up will cause the people pain. The truth is the only people who will feel any long-term pain from returning to limited, constitutional government are the special interests that profit from the current system.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36314/Ron-Paul-Janet-Yellen-is-Right-She-Cant-Predict-the-Future/

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Rome: Money, Mischief and Minted Crises

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“In a period of about 370 years, the denarius and its successors were debased incrementally from 98 percent to less than one percent silver. The massive spending of the welfare/warfare state exacted a terrible toll in the name of either ‘helping’ Romans or making war on non-Romans. Financial and military crises mixed with poor leadership, expediency, and a clear misunderstanding of economic principles led to the destruction Rome’s monetary system.  Honest and transparent policies could have saved the Romans from centuries of economic hardships. The question future historians will answer is, ‘What did the Americans learn from the Roman experience?'”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/rome-money-mischief-and-minted-crises

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Former Bank of England Economist: Make Cash Illegal

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“Your current account will no longer be held with a bank, but with the government or the central bank. Banks still exist, and still lend money, but they get their funds from the central bank, not from depositors.  Having everyone’s account at a single, central institution allows the authorities to either encourage or discourage people to spend. To boost spending, the bank imposes a negative interest rate on the money in everyone’s account – in effect, a tax on saving.  Faced with seeing their money slowly confiscated, people are more likely to spend it on goods and services. When this change in behaviour takes place across the country, the economy gets a significant fillip.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/comment/11602399/Ban-cash-end-boom-and-bust.html

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The Anti-Hong Kong: Tanzania Bans Private Statistics

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“The government did what any embarrassed, fearful autocrats would do: they passed a bill to outlaw ‘false’ statistics — meaning only official numbers will be allowed. Another of six similar bills rushed through the legislature makes it illegal to publish information that is ‘defamatory,’ likely to ‘disturb the public peace,’ or ‘misleading or inaccurate.’  What are ‘false statistics’? What counts as ‘misleading’ or ‘disturbing’? Nobody is sure, since the government hasn’t bothered to publish the final versions of the acts it passed, but we do know who will get to decide — and the punishment could include a prison sentence of up to three years.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/tanzania-becomes-the-anti-hong-kong-bans-private-statistics

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PIMCO ex-CEO explains why his money “is mostly concentrated in cash”

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“Mohamed El Erian has an estimated net worth of some $2.3 billion. He also served 2 years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment and related accounts, leaving at the end of 2007 to return to PIMCO, just before the Harvard endowment suffered massive capital losses in the 2008 bear market.  El-Erian seems to have learned something about the importance of protecting savings from the ravages of Fed induced asset bubbles.  This week he gave an interview with the Orange County Register explaining, among other things, why he holds most of his personal wealth in cash today–not in stocks and bonds.”

http://jugglingdynamite.com/2015/04/06/el-erian-explains-why-his-personal-money-is-mostly-concentrated-in-cash-today/

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Venezuela Moves to Nationalize Food, Ration Medicine, Kill Comedy

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“The crisis in Venezuela is escalating, and it’s not funny anymore.  Socialist President Nicolás Maduro, successor to the Hugo Chavez regime, has announced he will use his ‘decree powers’ to nationalize the country’s food distribution network.  Milk, flour, and toilet paper may be hard to find, but money can always be located for public employees: ‘Maduro also announced a 30-percent increase in public wages on Friday.’ The government blames ‘hoarding’ — whatever that means — for [medicine] shortages. But doctors and pharmacists blame government price controls, production regulations, and trade restrictions for cutting off the supply.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/venezuela-moves-to-natonalize-food-ration-medicine-kill-comedy

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Bill Bonner: To the Class of 2015, Part 2

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“We — your parents — enjoyed an economic expansion that began when we were born and continued, with only short interruptions, until we retired. We got out of school with little or no student debt. We could start businesses with generally few impediments. We could borrow money to fund our businesses and our lives. We could hire, fire, switch jobs…buy and sell houses…move from place to place… We were freer…and richer…than you will be…unless you can wipe the slate clean of our debts, our foolish wars and dumbbell programs, and our attempts to hold back the future and prevent you from living rich, full, free lives of your own.”

https://www.equitymaster.com/dailyreckoning/detail.asp?date=05/12/2015&story=2&title=To-the-Class-of-2015-Part-2

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John Hussman: Recognizing the Risks to Financial Stability

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“The past several years have featured little more than a gigantic asset swap, the short description being that massive volumes of government debt have been swapped by central banks for massive volumes of idle bank reserves, while massive volumes of low-yielding, covenant-lite debt have been issued into the hands of yield-seeking investors, in order to retire massive volumes of corporate equities at elevated valuations through buybacks. This has left the U.S. economy with a much more leveraged balance sheet than before the last crisis, and with much greater sensitivity to equity risk and debt default than at any point in history.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc150511.htm

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