B.B. sent this Reuters article: Big U.S. firms hold $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes: study o o o An interesting price comparison chart: Gasoline prices, worldwide. (Venezuela has the lowest price, at just $0.06 per gallon!) Items from The Economics Team: It’s Time to Start Talking about RECESSION Fed Seems Ready to Deploy Negative Interest Rates in the Next Crisis The Worst Slump in Commodities Prices Isn’t Over
I suspect most of us who are interested in self-reliance are preparing on a budget. While it would be great to order a year’s worth of food at a time, and rotate them by donating them to the local food bank, that is just not practical for most of us. Likewise with equipment, tools and other survival needs. It would be easy to just go to Amazon and order whatever we want, but I for one will need to wait until I win the lottery first. The Internet is full of places you can buy supplies, tools, food and anything …
The drop in the labor force is coming from prime-age Americans, not aging retirees: Examining the 94.6 million Americans not in the labor force o o o RBS sent this: The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared o o o Anthony Wile: Let’s Get This Show on the Road (The Daily Bell) Items from The Economics Team: FOMC Minutes Confirm Economy Not Ready For Rate-Hike This Year, Worried About Inflation, “Global Risk” It’s Time For Negative Rates, Fed’s Kocherlakota Hints
Video is now available from the recent Mises Institute’s seminars on Political Correctness. o o o House votes to lift 40-year-old ban on US crude oil exports o o o Items from The Economics Team: Pimco Placing Its Bets: Emerging Market Currencies Set for Further Losses U.S. Consumer Confidence Flat in September (Gallup)
G.G. flagged this: Red flag: Insiders aren’t buying stocks o o o Also from G.G.: Dollar Death Sentence Items from The Economics Team: Deutsche Bank Preannounces Massive 3rd Quarter Loss (Zero Hedge) BanksMay Have $100 Billion in Exposure to Glencore (Market Watch) The Burden on Renters to Increase (MyBudget360)
Veteran content contributor B.B. suggested this piece at Zero Hedge: How and Why Banks Will Seize Deposits During the Next Crisis o o o Mac L. spotted this in The Wall Street Journal: Once the Biggest Buyer, China Starts Dumping U.S. Government Debt o o o $3 trillion corporate credit crunch looms as debtors face day of reckoning, says IMF Items from The Economics Team: If you don’t like who I am, you won’t like what I do! (Zero Hedge) $45 Billion in Chinese Construction Projects Delayed (Reuters)
Silver Coin Premiums Soar Above 50% o o o Coming Soon: QE 4 o o o German Central Bank Publishes Gold Bar List. JWR’s Comment: I find it curious that while at the same time that governments and central banks berate gold as a “barbarous relic” that is entirely disconnected from their monetary policies, they seem quite concerned with keeping big piles of it, under lock an key. Items from The Economics Team: Greece Could Return to Bond Markets Soon After a Restructuring of its Debt, Tsipras Says (Wall Street Journal. Subscription required for full text) Question: What does Tsipras …
Inflation Watch – Butter Prices Hit All-Time Record High o o o Record 94,610,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Lowest in 38 Years Items from The Economics Team: How Bad Can It Get? …and How Fast? (Zero Hedge) World’s Largest Shipowners Looking to Get Out of Greece (Zero Hedge) Government can’t tax an economy into prosperity! Chinese Execs Feel the Chill (Reuters) Is China growing at 7%? Really???
Just like clockwork, Spot Silver is emerging from the regular summer doldrums. It is noteworthy that the physical market is now very far removed from the spot and futures markets. There is a huge shortage of silver coins and small bars, and dealers are commanding huge premiums above spot. With spot silver now around $15.60 per ounce, you will be lucky to find even generic one-ounce rounds selling for less than $22 each, and U.S. Mint American Eagles are a couple of dollars more. o o o Record ATM Fees Rise Toward $5 o o o Jim Willie: Checkmate! In …
Vegas Casinos Fight to Buy Their Own Electricity o o o Ron Paul predicts a monumental crash in interview on Russia Today: Bubbles are all over the place. (Video.) Items from The Economics Team: 7 Ways to Sample Living with Less (Becoming Minimalist) Investors Brace for Market Fall (Reuters) U.S. Currency Laundered by Mexican Drug Cartles through the Middle East (Breitbart) The System Designed to Prevent Financial Crisis is Likely to Fail (MarketWatch) Asian Markets Fall as Fears Deepen Over China Slowdown (The Guardian) A reminder: In an economically interconnected world, there is no “containment”!
Reader Emily G. suggested this interesting New York Times article: Trading Meat for Tires as Bartering Economy Grows in Greece Items from The Economics Team: ConAgra Foods Lays Off 1,500 (Salt Lake Tribune) Chesapeake Energy Lays Off 740 (KFOR News Channel 4) Whole Foods Lays Off 1500 (CNBC) 20 Largest U.S. Layoffs in 2015 (ZeroHedge)
Simple version: Gold is good. Sovereign debt is bad. The world has added approximately $60 Trillion in debt since 2007, much of it sovereign debt created from deficit spending on social programs, wars, and much more. In that time the world has mined perhaps 30,000 tons of gold, or about 950 million ounces, worth at September 2015 prices a little more than a $Trillion. It is easy to create debt – central banks “print” currencies by borrowing those currencies into existence. Debt increases, currency in circulation increases, and until it crashes, life is good for the financial and political elite. …
India Versus COMEX: Physical Silver Demand Will Destroy Paper Rigged Markets o o o There are Five Times More Claims on Dollars Than Dollars in Existence (Zero Hedge) Items from The Economics Team: Glencore Could Spark a Lehman Moment for Miners The More Americans Know Congress, the Worse Congress is Rated Atlanta Fed Slashes 3rd Quarter Estimates for Growth (Reuters) U.S. Factories Vulnerable to Chill in Global Economy (Reuters) Investment Banking Business is a Horror Show (Business Insider) Demand for Physical Silver through the Roof (Zero Hedge)
Municipal Bankruptcies and more on the way o o o Paul Caron: 2015 International Tax Competitiveness Ranking: U.S. Is 32 Out Of 34 OECD Countries o o o Dr. Housing Bubble reports: Chicago overtakes Detroit as the worst performing housing market: San Diego outperforms while Los Angeles hits a snag. Items from The Economics Team: Ron Paul Rages “They” Refuse To Learn From Their Mistakes – Put perfectly… (No surprise that this is from Ron Paul.) Year End Government Spending Spree – Spend It or Lose It Leads to Government Waste of Taxpayer Dollars American Manufacturing is in Recession
Why US Rates Can Never Rise: In 1 Awkward Chart o o o The Mises Institute Podcast interviews Bill Bonner o o o At The Blaze: You Might Have Gotten a New Credit Card With a New Chip Embedded in the Front — Here’s What You Need to Know About It Items from The Economics Team: UBS Is About To Blow The Cover On A Massive Gold-Rigging Scandal Swiss Regulator Names Seven Banks in Precious Metals Probe Understand and Prevent Identity Theft