Bill Bonner: Middle Class? What Middle Class?

Bill-Bonner2

“Want a middle-class lifestyle… with middle-class finances… and middle-class attitudes?  Forget it. Trying to enter the middle class is like trying to get a job as a galley slave. You get chained to an oar. You sit. You row… until you drop dead.  The middle class, as Smith tells it, is desperate to continue its ‘aspirational consumption financed by debt.’ It’s a trap – set for you by the oligarchs and ‘poligarchs’ (people whose votes can be bought cheaply) who control Washington and its major industries.  And if you’re young, you face a lifetime of backache… trying to keep up the pace.  These heavy burdens didn’t ‘just happen.’ They are the result of dirty dealing by America’s goons and poltroons.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/middle-class-what-middle-class/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Hidden Erosion of Corporate Worth Since U.S. Abandoned Money

“For 173 years, the United States used money as a medium of exchange. In 1965, it switched to using a floating accounting unit. This change coincided with a dramatic yet hidden reversal in the net trend of worth for U.S. corporations.  The shift to fake money in 1965 just happens to coincide with the year that divides the long term trend of corporate worth in the United States from mostly up to mostly down.  This chart reveals the breathtaking rise in total U.S. corporate worth during the money period and exposes the stunning net destruction of U.S. corporate worth since the start of the non-money period.”

http://www.elliottwave.com/freeupdates/archives/2014/05/07/THE-HIDDEN-EROSION-OF-CORPORATE-WORTH-SINCE-THE-GOVERNMENT-ABANDONED-MONEY.aspx

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Angela Merkel approves Germany’s first minimum wage

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has approved the country’s first minimum wage, at 8.50 euros an hour (£7; $11.75), to start in 2015.  At the moment, the country is one of seven in the 28-nation EU without a minimum wage level.  Germany has relied on trade unions and business groups to fix pay instead.  Mrs Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats approved the change as part of a power-sharing deal with the Social Democrats (SPD).  The SPD’s labour market policy spokesperson, Katja Mast, said: ‘Labour has got its dignity back with a fair payment of 8.50 euros, whether in the East or West and with no industry exceptions.'”

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26851906

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Jim Rogers: I am sceptical India government will deliver on promises

“Normally, when markets move as per anticipation, one should sell as an expression in financial markets — buy on rumours and sell on news.  If I were an Indian, I would probably sell into this kind of excitement.  I am sceptical about India because I have seen Indian politicians for decades.  Everyone knows that India has been badly managed for decades. There are concerns about inflation, trade deficit, high debt-to-GDP ratio. Whether Modi can solve all these problems, I don’t know, I am still sceptical.  If India makes currency convertible and opens the markets to all investors, where anyone can bring money in and take it out, then only I would get excited.”

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/now-is-the-time-to-deliver-on-promises-but-i-am-sceptical-says-jim-rogers-chairman-of-rogers-holdings/articleshow/35234622.cms

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Google to Microsoft Face User-Request Overload in Europe

“The European Union’s top court yesterday ruled citizens have a ‘right to be forgotten’ online, meaning people may ask search-engine owners to remove personal information and request that a court or data-protection authority step in if a company doesn’t comply. The EU decision doesn’t spell out what types of information must be removed and doesn’t provide exemptions for data that are true or from a reputable source.   The ruling opens the way for European users to flood the firms with Web takedown requests, adding costs and time to what they already do in content removal.  Google and others may now have to [charge] a fee for European users to cover the costs of staff to comb through requests.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-14/google-to-microsoft-face-user-request-overload-in-europe.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Developers Turn Former Office Buildings Into High-End Apartments

“A major realignment [is] taking place in cities across the U.S. as landlords repurpose their buildings from spaces where people work to spaces where they sleep. In the process, the traditional economic relationship between residential and commercial real estate is turning upside down.  At the end of 2013, the U.S. apartment vacancy rate stood at 4.1%—the lowest since the end of the dot-com boom in the early 2000s, and below its 5.7% average rate since 1980. Meanwhile, the office vacancy rate was 16.7%—only a nudge down from the 17.6% post-economic crisis high reached in 2010 and well above its average of 14.9% since 1980.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303626804579506073419741570

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Doug French: The Market Is Rigged

“In the end, the controversy surrounding high-frequency trading is likely much ado about nothing. For one thing, the industry peaked five years ago, pulling in $5 billion in profits. In 2012, it pulled in $1 billion. That might sound like a lot, but JPMorgan Chase made $5 billion just last quarter. As far as influencing markets and costing the average person money, HFT doesn’t compare to the Fed’s quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy.  A more sound currency, whether metallic or digital, would spread a healthier culture: one not so obsessed with speculation, wealth, material goods, and nanoseconds.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-market-is-rigged

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Uruguay’s New Regs: Unreasonable on Purpose?

the-daily-bell-top-logo61

“Uruguay is now in the business of fixing prices for an entire industry. In fact, this can only lead to a renewed black market. If Uruguay continues along this path it probably won’t much reduce black-market trafficking because the black market will supply a similar and even better product at a lower price without demanding that people sign some sort of public document attesting to their use of the drug. The whole point of this exercise supposedly was to remove the criminal influence from the production and ingestion of cannabis. After beginning splendidly, Uruguay officials have acted in a way that reverses most of the benefits that could have been expected from ‘legalization.'”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35290/Uruguays-New-Regs-Unreasonable-on-Purpose/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Arson charges brought after accidental hash oil homebrew explosions

“Colorado’s constitutional amendment that legalized marijuana allows adults 21 and older to ‘process’ the drug. But prosecutors in some cases, including Braithwaite’s, have charged alleged hash oil cookers with ‘processing or manufacturing marijuana and marijuana concentrate’ through a different law. Colorado lawmakers Tuesday gave final approval to bills that tackle two other marijuana issues that have raised concern in recent months. The second requires the state to limit the potency of store-sold edibles and hash oil (also known as dabs, shatter or wax).  Producing hash oil at home is about 50% cheaper than buying it in stores.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-legal-brewing-hash-oil-colorado-explosions-20140506-story.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

The Shocking Truth About Regulatory Costs

the-daily-bell-top-logo61

“After years of rapid growth during the Obama administration, the cost of federal regulations is now bigger than the entire economies of all but nine countries in the world. Author Clyde Wayne Crews found that the ‘regulation tax’ imposed on the economy now tops $1.86 trillion. By comparison, Canada’s entire GDP is $1.82 trillion. India’s is $1.84 trillion. [..] The article also notes that on a per-household basis, federal regulatory costs average nearly US$15,000. US regulations are not “capped” nor are they subject to specific legislative oversight. In theory, regulations and regulatory costs can simply continue to grow until they become literally unaffordable.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35259/The-Shocking-Truth-About-Regulatory-Costs/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin