This one I found from my friends over at Nousonomics Puerto Rico Will Default and That’s a Good Thing Amid a surfeit of debt and other downward-trending economic indicators, Puerto Rican legislators put it all on the line last week when it added an additional $3.5 billion worth of IOUs to its balance sheet. Island…
US credit rating at risk, warns Fitch “Credit rating agency Fitch has warned it could downgrade its AAA rating of US government debt if policymakers cannot agree a deal to raise the debt ceiling. . . . The US is expected to hit its $16.4tn (£10.2tn) borrowing limit by February. If lawmakers do not agree to…
Thanks to Gary North for pointing this one out to me. Current monetary policy worldwide has resulted in the running of the race of the printing presses. Nations across the globe are competing to increase their money supplies in order to keep ahead of their trading partners. There are many reasons for this. Some, like…
The whole political scene is abuzz with the “fiscal cliff” that the US government is facing and must resolve before falling off of. But my question is, why does it even matter anymore? Neither of the parties are actually proposing to do anything that will actually bring about fiscal responsibility back to the US government,…
So what is money? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it the root of all evil? Does the government create it or did it appear on its own? Why do we need it and can we live without it? Money, simply speaking, is a commodity that serves as a medium of exchange that is…
Depressions. Recessions. Panics. Booms and Busts. Business Cycles. Many names have been given for these events in history, but does anyone understand what truly causes these cycles, and does anyone have a workable idea of how to get out of one or prevent one? Are they “fixable,” or, as according to Marx, are they just…
When it comes down to it, the potential economic conflict between the US and China can be described only in one way: MAD. MAD is a term that came about during the height of the Cold War – Mutually Assured Destruction. Both economic titans have a grip around each other’s throats. Both are in a…
Many people assume that China has the US “over a barrel” because it buys so much of our debt, with the presumption that China doesn’t owe the US anything. But this is not true. Between 1913 and 1942, the Chinese government, through various banks, issued Chinese government bearer bonds in Europe and the United States.…
There has been a lot of concern lately over China and the fact that it holds so much of the US debt. These concerns vary, depending on the source, ranging from the US having to “sell” come of itself to repay the debts, China gaining a direct influence over political processes in the United States,…
Shade Tree Economist 