(WashingtonsBlog) – As I have repeatedly documented, influential Americans are lobbying for war in order to save the American economy – what is often called “military Keynesianism”.

For the first couple of years that I wrote on this topic, commenters more or less said, “That’s crazy, no one is calling for war to stimulate the economy”. Read the rest of this entry »

(VisionVictory) – Read the rest of this entry »

(ABCNews) – Now that Obamacare is law of the land, Dems and their supporters admit what we knew all along. Read the rest of this entry »

(KrugmanInWonderland) – The Most Bizarro Health “Reform” Arugment: ObamaCare Will Cut the Deficit

Is Paul Krugman an economist or a political operative? Seven years ago, I said it was the latter, and nothing Krugman has written since then has changed that opinion. In this blog post, Krugman once again exposes himself as the politically-partisan shill that he has become. Read More Here

Spiegel: 2009 swine flu pandemic a boost for Big Pharma/R. C. Camphausen

Those who suspected a money- and greed-driven conspiracy behind the 2009 swine flu outbreak – declared a pandemic by overzealous WHO officials and their advisers from within the industry – are being proven right by recent revelations in Der Spiegel. Read More Here

Video: The Best investment opportunity in 30 years Silver – Investment Tips – Video Link Here

(PressTV) – Anti-Berlusconi strike paralyzes Italy

Italy has been hit by a nationwide worker strike following a call by the country’s largest trade union, which has protested at Rome’s economic and immigration policies. Read More Here

(SmirkingChimp) – United States of Foreclosures: How ‘Bankquakes’ Shake People from Their Homes

The financial crisis started as a housing bubble with the financial industry convinced that home values never fall. How wrong they were even as they leveraged and securitized their investments to create a global crisis. Read More Here

(RealNewsNetwork) – Video: Wars sending U.S. into ruin

Eric Margolis: Obama the peace president is fighting battles his country cannot afford View Video Here

(DailyMail) – UK taxpayer ‘WILL pay tens of billions of euros for Greek rescue’

The UK taxpayer could still end up forking out for the bailout of debt-stricken Greece despite Treasury assurances, politicians warned last night. Read More Here

(DailyBreeze) – Report: One-fourth of welfare payments go to illegals

Nearly one-quarter of state welfare payments and food stamps issued in Los Angeles County go to children whose parents are in the U.S. illegally, according to January figures released today. Read More Here

(FT) – Alleged Tarp fraud at The Park Avenue Bank [UPDATED]

Watch this space: at 1pm ET on Monday, Tarp overlord Neil Barofsky will discuss the arrest of one Charles J Antonucci Sr, the former president and chief executive of the (failed) Park Avenue Bank in New York. Read More Here

(WSJ) – Maryland’s Mobile Millionaires

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is the latest Democrat to demand a tax increase, this week proposing to raise the state’s top marginal individual income tax rate to 4% from 3%. He’d better hope this works out better than it has for Maryland. Read More Here

(MCall) – Recession hitting returning vets hard

Despite skills acquired, those who served have higher unemployment rate than that of the general population. Read More Here

(Time) – China Takes Aim at the U.S. on Currency Conflict

At one moment during Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s press conference on Sunday, it was easy to confuse whom he was criticizing when he denounced efforts by some countries to lower the value of their currency to boost trade. Read More Here

(Mirror) – Cabin crew strikes will ‘kill’ British Airways

British Airways could go bust if cabin crew strikes go ahead, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis warned yesterday. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing AAA Credit Rating

The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Read More Here

You almost could hear the bankers heave a sigh of relief when Haiti’s earthquake knocked the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings off the front pages and evening news broadcasts last week. At stake, after all, is Wall Street’s power grab seeking to centralize policy control firmly in its own hands by neutralizing the government’s regulatory agencies. The first day – Wednesday, January 15 – went innocuously enough. Four emperors of finance were called on to voice ceremonial platitudes and pro forma apologies without explaining what they might be apologizing for. Typical was the statement by Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd C. Blankfein: “Whatever we did, it didn’t work out well. We regret the consequence that people have lost money.” Read the rest of this entry »

(C4L) – This past week we celebrated the end of what most people agree was a decade best forgotten. New York Times columnist and leading Keynesian economist Paul Krugman called it the Big Zero in a recent column. He wrote that “there was a whole lot of nothing going on in measures of economic progress or success” which is true. However, Krugman continues to misleadingly blame the free market and supposed lack of regulation for the economic chaos. Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – Paul Krugman argues that cap and trade worked to reduce sulfur dioxide and stop acid rain, and so it will work to reduce C02.
However, two EPA lawyers with more than 40 years of cumulative experience – including the guy who has been head of California’s cap and trade offset programs for more than 20 years – say that sulfur dioxide was different, and that cap and trade for climate is a scam which only benefits the financial players. Read the rest of this entry »

Things could get ugly fast. With the Democrats backing-off on a second round of stimulus, the Fed signaling an end to quantitative easing, and Obama moaning about rising deficits; there’s a good chance that the stumbling recovery could turn into another sharp plunge. Read the rest of this entry »

(C4L) – Readers of George Orwell’s 1984 might recall Big Brother’s claims that “war is peace” or “freedom is slavery.” Orwell was writing a novel, but some of the commentary these days makes me think that elite economists have taken residence in Oceania’s “Ministry of Truth.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Dow’s at 10,000, and the bankers are reaping huge bonuses, but the economy in which the rest of us live is a disaster. Read the rest of this entry »

“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” Karl Marx
If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics. Read the rest of this entry »

(C4L) – In the wake of the panic of 2008, finger pointing has become fashionable. According to some left-wing elements in the chattering classes, the free-market, entrepreneurial capitalist system caused the economic crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people may not realize that when they turn on the television in their home, what they see as a constant flow of images is actually flickering. Although we do not see this consciously, the repetitive pattern of flickering images creates a state that is similar to hypnosis in the television viewer. Studies by researcher Herbert Krugman have shown that within 30 seconds of television viewing, brain waves switch from predominantly beta waves, indicating alert and conscious attention, to predominantly alpha waves, indicating an unfocused, receptive lack of attention. Read the rest of this entry »

(NYPost) – It’s been a hilarious August, watching media supporters of President Obama’s health care package puzzle over the obscure motivations of the noncompliant Americans rallying against it. Read the rest of this entry »

Commonly-accepted wisdom says that we can inflate our way out of our debt crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent poll shows that most economists now believe that the recession, which began in December 2007, will end in the third quarter of 2009. There’s been an uptick in manufacturing and consumer confidence, and the decline in housing prices appears to be flattening out. Unfortunately, the return to positive GDP will likely be short-lived. Read the rest of this entry »

So yet another Bush administration Cabinet-level official has petitioned to get his conscience and reputation back. This time, it’s Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security. The one-time Pennsylvania governor admits in a new book that he felt political pressure from the White House to issue bogus terror alerts before the 2004 presidential election. Read the rest of this entry »

The Obama White House – full of supposedly smart political advisors led by the President of the “Change You Can Believe In” campaign movement of 2008 – is in disarray. Worse, multiple, confusing varieties of disarray provoking public confusion, internal Democratic Party strife, and the slow withdrawal of belief in Mr. Obama by his strongest supporters around the country. Read the rest of this entry »

(DannySchechter) – Economic Stress Is Hidden, But It’s There in a Recovery That Isn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

(RawStory) – The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back nearly a century — an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties, the last time the US saw such similar disparities in wealth. Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – A new report by University of California, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez concludes that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression. Read the rest of this entry »

(BusinessInsider) – Another happy forecast from Elliot Wave gury Bob Prechter (who may waste his time staring at charts most of the day, but also talks fundamentals): Read the rest of this entry »

“Since 1945, the US dollar has been the world reserve currency. As its value depreciates, countries holding huge dollar reserves begin to worry. China in particular has expressed grave concerns since it holds nearly $2 trillion in US currency reserves, mostly in the form of US treasury bonds. According to some reports, it is drawing down its dollar reserves by purchasing gold and stocks of raw materials and energy.” Read the rest of this entry »

Due to the fact that Goldman Sachs is currently the favorite of Washington they are raking in massive profits during a time when most banks and brokerage firms are struggling for survival. Read the rest of this entry »

(aljazeera) – Wall Street and the City of London – the world’s two major financial centres – declare it is “business as usual” again… They are hiring, poaching each other’s staff and their profits are soaring. Read the rest of this entry »

The Republicans are convinced that hyperinflation is just around the corner, but don’t believe it. The real enemy is deflation, which is why Fed chief Bernanke has taken such extraordinary steps to pump liquidity into the system. Read the rest of this entry »

Will the Financial Reforms lead to Change or just Prop up the Status Quo?
It is almost axiomatic to argue that renewal comes out of chaos. And reform and change are born in crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

(Noam Chomsky) – Historical amnesia is a dangerous social phenomenon because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

Game theory tells us that a risk neutral gambler would pay $50 dollars for a coin flip that paid $0 for Heads and $100 for Tails. Game theorists would call $50 the value of the bet.

Suppose someone is willing to fund your gambling problem, and lend you $80 at zero interest. Better still, if you lose the bet you don’t have to pay him back. Under that scenario, the same gambler would pay $90 for the bet, giving him an even chance of winning or losing $10. Read the rest of this entry »

For the financial crisis that has wiped out trillions in wealth, many have felt the lash of public outrage. Read the rest of this entry »

As I have previously pointed out, Paul Krugman is calling for the U.S. and Europe to spend an amount equal to 4% of their gross domestic products on the financial crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

(Bloomberg) – U.S. stocks will fall and the government will nationalize more banks as the economy contracts through the end of 2009, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted last year’s economic crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

Timothy Geithner refuses to take underwater banks into receivership and resolve them, but has no problem transforming the FDIC into a hedge fund. Go figure? Here’s what everyone needs to know: The US government (you) will provide up to 94 percent of the financing (low interest, of course) for dodgy mortgage-backed assets that no one in their right mind would ever buy so that wealthy and politically-connected banksters can scrub up to $1 trillion of red ink from their balance sheets. Ugh! Read the rest of this entry »

Nobel economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz slammed Obama’s economic policy this week. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to economics, many Americans need an education, and if not, at least an explanation of current problems, trends, and just plain what’s going on.

Christine Bowman writes a comprehensive pre-State of the Union Analysis of what’s going on, what Americans are thinking, but perhaps are afraid to ask, namely, “Will someone please just tell us what happened, what’s coming, and what we have to do now?” She says the President would not have to be the Econ Professor in Chief if the Business Media had done a decent job, but it seems to her that only Paul Krugman has been trying to describe today’s problems in real terms. Read the rest of this entry »