Economics and Investing:

Wondering how “Too big to fail” came about? You need to see this graphic: The Instrument of Our Enslavement – JFJ

o o o

The War on Cash: A Country by Country Guide

o o o

Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Taxpayers to IRS: Fix the Debt Yourself(Washington Examiner) Taxpayers’ donations to debt reduction are drying up. Maybe they finally realize that their contributions haven’t made so much as a dent in the debt, nor have their contributions changed the behaviors of a spendthrift government. Excerpt: “Taxpayers have been able to donate money to reduce the national debt since 1961, when Congress passed legislation allowing the practice. But in recent years, the idea has become quaint in an era of annual budget deficits in the range of several hundred billion dollars, or even more than $1 trillion under President Obama.”

Warning! Feds Now Foresee $30T in Debt (Washington Times) Excerpt: “The federal government will be flirting with $30 trillion in debt within a decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, blaming an aging population, new spending and tax cuts approved on Capitol Hill, and the growing burden from Obamacare for erasing the progress Washington had made over the past few years.” …and with this in mind, now seems like an especially appropriate time to recall the US Debt Clock.

Is Infrastructure Spending a Good Investment?(Waste Fraud and Abuse) Excerpt: “It is also a mistake to assume that it’s the role of the federal government to pay for roads and highway expansions.” Although Hillary Clinton clearly has a different view. Yes. Hillary Clinton is calling for the creation of an Infrastructure Bank (Bloomberg).

International News

Brazil’s Easy-Money Problem (Mises) Excerpt: “… we must pay attention to the fact that “the attempts to lower interest rates by credit expansion generate, it is true, a period of booming business,” which in Brazil’s case occurred mostly between 2006 and 2013. “But the prosperity thus created is only an artificial hot-house product and must inexorably lead to the slump and to the depression. People must pay heavily for the easy-money….”

Free Lunch: China Capital Flight Goes Mainstream (Financial Times) Will China proactively move toward a floating exchange rate? Or put in place ever more Draconian capital controls? We’ll see.

Europe’s Banks Still Weighed Down by a Trillion Euros in Bad Debts (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “On average, European banks have twice the level of non-performing loans as their US counterparts…”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

How I Paid Off My Student Loans Early (Market Watch) Excerpt: “After three years of paying only the minimum on my student loans, I realized I wasn’t making any progress. In fact, one loan balance had actually increased because of interest. It was time to get serious.”

3 Questions to Ask BEFORE You Use Your Emergency Fund (Dave Ramsey) Excerpt: ” So what classifies as a true budgeting emergency? It all boils down to these three simple questions…”

o o o

SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.