http://www.FreeMarketNews.com FreeMarketNews.com - FMNN itself is an independent media solution, an Internet-grown, free-market alternative to mainstream media complexes. en-us Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:25:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58863 Banking system like South Sea bubble, says senior Bank of England official Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:21:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58862 he U.S. economy will grow for a few quarters and then contract again, said Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University. Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:18:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58861 A senior member of President Barack Obama's auto task force testified Wednesday that the U.S. government will not continue to fund General Motors Corp.'s operation. Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:16:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58860 Reversing a decade-long trend, many of the largest U.S. cities are now growing more quickly than the rest of the nation. Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:14:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58859 General Motors Corp. said Wednesday that sales in China jumped 38 percent in the first half of this year, helped by strong demand for minivans and other small vehicles. Wed, 1 Jul 2009 03:13:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58858 There is a clear trend home prices declines are moderating -- another sign the beleaguered housing market is stabilizing, according to data released yesterday. Wed, 1 Jul 2009 02:59:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58857 Ford Motor Co. says its June U.S. sales fell only 10.7% from a year earlier, Wed, 1 Jul 2009 02:58:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58856 U.S. consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June, figures released on Tuesday showed. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:04:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58855 Investor Jim Rogers said on Thursday that he sees prolonged economic problems and while he did not see much worth buying, he is not shorting any assets either. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:31:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58854 Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that inflation poses a major threat to long-term economic recovery and its threat must be confronted. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:30:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9759/?wid=246&nid=9759 Apparently, the issue is not whether the Obama administration should be spending a budget of US$3 trillion-plus for 2009, and even more for 2010, but whether the administration is spending bailout portions of it fast enough. Say, what? Yes! This is the burning issue of the day. The crux of this story, above, is apparently why federal "stimulus" funds are not being disbursed more rapidly in order to lessen the pain of the unemployed. In fact, common sense tells us that such stimulus packages may not do what they are intended to on a micro-scale let alone a macro. A bubble such as the one that occupied much of the 2000s inevitably generates mal investments. That's because the bubble itself is caused by overprinting of money by central banks. When there is too much money in circulation, people are fooled into setting up businesses that will fail. Once the bubble has deflated, these businesses are often beyond salvage. Fri, 5 Jun 2009 08:54:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/102/9758/?wid=102&nid=9758 Bloomberg.com had a report by Kim-Mai Cutler saying, "Currencies of countries that are using quantitative easing, or printing money to buy government or corporate bonds, are plunging against those of nations sticking to conventional monetary policy" which surprised me because I did not know of any big economies that were "sticking to [the] conventional monetary policy" of not creating excess money and credit, which makes their currencies strong, but I know of plenty of them that are "sticking to [the] conventional monetary policy" of constantly creating too much money and credit because that is the bizarre bastardization of the economic system that has evolved! Hahaha! Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:26:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/117/9757/?wid=117&nid=9757 Dictionaries aren't decisive about what the central meaning of terms are--they are mostly descriptions of common usage. For definitions of the meaning of important and controversial concepts--as some call them, "essentially contestable" ones--it is necessary to read books or encyclopedia entries. This is how I generally keep reasonably well informed and up to date. So not long ago I penned a column in which I identified the economic policies of the Obama administration's so far as fascist! In it I said "Fascism is a political system in which a country is lead by a charismatic leader who has full power to order things about because he (or she) is taken to know best." Among the many comments I received, mostly very complimentary, I also got some that disputed my description of our current trends in political economy. Some of my critics insisted, in fact, that the newspapers in which my columns run should dismiss me because fascism in fact has to do with a system that elevates the nation to an exclusive level of supremacy and not with what I said. Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:24:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9756/?wid=246&nid=9756 Another week full of "good" economic news has passed. Preliminary bank earnings floated the stock markets late in the week. Although the specific banks earnings won't come out for another two weeks the talk is that they will be great. I fail to see how that is possible. It wasn't long ago that the quarter was looking good, so banks and car companies said, until they reversed coarse, and now they are reversing coarse again. So, let's see here, three weeks ago, good, two weeks ago, bad, last week, good, I suspect next week will be bad and the trend of weekly changes will continue until actual earnings are released. Then we will have to muddle through the suspect books and fraudulent accounting methods to try and find the real numbers. They don't make it easy these days. The Dow was up 0.82% while the S&P rose 1.67% and the Nasdaq lead rising 1.89%. Up in resource heavy, and warmer these days, Canada the TSX rose 1.34% and the TSX Venture exchange fell a slight 0.68%. The TSX gold index dropped a large 5.18% on some slight gold weakness. Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:23:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9755/?wid=246&nid=9755 NO FOOLING! It doesn't matter which currency you earn, spend or invest, gold bullion has been the best-performing asset class bar none this decade. That fact bears repeating, so you'll have to forgive me: Gold has dominated the last nine years for investors, smacking everything else in the nose and pulling their ears, too. So when finance advisors and hacks finally come to glance back at this decade, they'll see it - in fact - as the "decade of gold". Just as US tech stocks ruled the 1990s, rising 11-fold on the Nasdaq. Just as Japanese exporters owned the 1980s, up more than six times over on the Nikkei-225. Just as gold itself dominated the 1970s. Thu, 2 Apr 2009 12:01:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/117/9754/?wid=117&nid=9754 Over the years as I have learned more and more about how vital liberty is to a good, just human community, I have encountered sizable not just opposition and skepticism but out and out ridicule for holding this position. Of course, there are those, like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who are unabashed fascists and make no pretense of any devotion to human freedom. Those like Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and North Korea's Kim Jong-il make no bones about supporting anything but a regime of individual liberty for all its citizens. But within countries like the United States of America there are few political players who do not in some measure claim to be advocates of human freedom, including economic freedom. Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:21:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/65/9751/?wid=65&nid=9751 A crisis of global confidence in the USDollar is upon us. Foreigners have begun to lose respect for USGovt approach to problem solving, for US bank administration, and for USDollar custodial management. Foreigner creditors have suffered deep losses from fraudulent bond export, continue to sit atop mountains of US$-based debt securities, and watch current events in horror. The heap of moldy paper includes both USTreasury Bonds and USAgency Mortgage Bonds. Foreigner creditors see the USDollar valuation propped up by liquidation forces rather than USEconomic strength. Foreigner creditors see the USTBond yields forced down by liquidation forces rather than USGovt debt integrity. Foreigners are aghast at four new trends. They lose respect when the financial market rules change periodically, obviously to favor the insiders, elite, and connected. They lose respect when the approach taken by the Obama Admin is marred by lack of consistency, coordination, or even thorough research. They lose respect at the flow of $trillion$ in rescues and redemptions for failed institutions, most of which are responsible for the global crisis. They lose respect at the prospect of $trillion$ in ongoing federal budget deficits as far as the eye can see. They lose respect at the prospect of $trillion$ in monetized US$-based bonds, with the prospect of repeated announcements. Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:20:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9753/?wid=246&nid=9753 At the end of last week the market had made impressive progress through a strong zone of resistance, but it had become extremely overbought on a short-term basis. My conclusion was that we should at least get a short-term correction, since we are in a bear market. Instead, short-term indicators backed off while the market continued higher. This is bullish behavior -- the kind of thing you will see time after time in a bull market. That does not mean we are now in a bull market, but it does imply that the current price advance (now about +25%) may not be over. During bear market rallies, the market can persist in positive behavior, so that many people think a new bull market has begun. But eventually, the bear reasserts and the down trend resumes. On the chart we can see that there is a short-term line of resistance just above current price levels. Even if the rally is destined to continue, it is likely that we will experience a short-term pull-back as the market prepares to break through the resistance. Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:17:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9752/?wid=246&nid=9752 Yesterday after Treasury Secretary inadvertently waxed supportive of the idea that he was open to China's suggestion of moving toward a currency system linked to the International Monetary Fund's Strategic Drawing Rights. gold spiked and the dollar dove as markets reacted swiftly. Geithner soon thereafter came back to assure viewers that the U.S. Dollar was going to remain the reserve currency for "the foreseeable future". Special Drawing Rights are a basket of currencies comprised of the dollar, the yen and the euro. G20 leaders argued in favor of SDRs replacing the dollar as reserve currency initially at the G20 special meeting in New York and Washington last year. The suddenness and violence of the market spasm (gold shot up $20 in less than a minute while the dollar lost one and a half cents) is evidence of what's in store for gold and the dollar should the trend in U.S. economic news continue unfavorably in the macro view. Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:32:00 EST http://www.Freemarketnews.com/Analysis/246/9750/?wid=246&nid=9750 The Great Inflation Versus Deflation Debate has been occurring all over the place. The Deflationists cite the charts of the Dow in the last K-Winter, the period of 1929, as evidence of where the Dow is headed. Yet, they are comparing a chart of "Dow price" in the current period of Dollar Inflation with a chart of "Dow Price" in the 1929 period of Dollar Deflation. You cannot compare price charts in a period of currency inflation with price charts in a period of currency deflation due to the effect of the different currency environments on the charts. It just does not work because they "look" different. In a period of currency stability or lesser currency deflation, "price equals value." In a period of currency inflation, "price" and "value" diverge due to the effect of the currency inflation. The only way one can compare the two is to create charts where apples are compared to apples- by removing the effect of currency inflation from the price chart in the period of currency inflation. This concept was why we devoted a portion of an earlier editorial to showing why the Dow price chart would likely mimic the 70's Dow price chart in this Dollar inflation environment. Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:48:00 EST