Economics and Investing:

The Subprime Auto Loan Meltdown Is Here – Sent in by RBS

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Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Are Driving up Sales of Safes – Sent in by G.P.

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Central Banks Should Stop Paying Interest on Reserves (Mises) Excerpt: “In 2008, the Federal Reserve began paying interest on reserve balances held on deposit at the Fed. It took more than seven decades from the US leaving the gold standard — in 1933 — for the fiat regime to do this and thus revoke a cardinal element of the old gold-based monetary system: the non-payment of any interest on base money.”

Texas Business Bankruptcies May Double: “The Carnage is Going to be Terrible” (The Dallas Morning News) Excerpt: “Texas business bankruptcies jumped significantly in 2015, but lawyers and financial experts say last year’s increase is nothing compared to the tidal wave of corporate failures headed this way.”

North Dakota’s Oil Bust Shatters, Shifts Dreams of Illinois Transplants (Chicago Tribune) Excerpt: “But the floor dropped out from under Turco in the middle of 2014, when an oil glut led to a plunge in gas prices that delighted drivers but indirectly put an estimated 250,000 global oil and gas employees out of work, including Turco. He returned home to the Midwest and self-destructed.”

US Oil Industry Buckling Up for Biggest Production Cuts (CNBC) Excerpt: “The talk of a possible freeze by the world’s largest oil producers has helped push oil prices higher, but it is also being met with skepticism, since it does not include any cutbacks in output. The other issue is that Iran has said it supports the deal but has not said it would agree to go along.”

International News UBS: Globalisation is Collapsing Around Us (Business Insider) Excerpt: UBS… “Economic pressures may be local but economic principles are generally universal. Political risks are, however, far more parochial in their nature. Understanding political risk requires a greater investment in time and resources than does understanding economic risk. As political risks rise investors are likely to keep money closer to home (where familiarity breeds reassurance).”

Europe’s Banks Fear the CoCo Market is Dead (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “If prices stay at these levels, no bank will be able to issue and you end up with an unsustainable capital structure….”

There Will Be Another Crisis. It’s Just a Question of When. (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “Bubbles always burst. But some grow a little larger and float a touch longer on the breeze before they do. The question, therefore, is not ‘if’ but ‘when’. One wrong step by the world’s central banks and that could be sooner rather than later.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

99 Cent Solutions: Easy Ways to Save Thousands of Dollars (Reader’s Digest) Check Amazon for great savings and affordable prices on used copies of this handy resource with lots of ideas designed to help save you money!

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