Saving Money is Bad for the Economy: Personal Savings Rate Higher, Consumption Slightly Up, Banks get new American Express, and Markets Begging for Money.
Last month the savings rate hit the 5 percent mark. That makes two months over 4 percent and for the first time in a decade that Americans have actually saved more than 4 percent for two consecutive months. Saved 4 percent of what? Of their personal income. You would think that most people would be […]
Banking Transparency Gone: The Federal Reserve has been Slowly Moving to more Archaic Forms of Creating Credit. New Plan Will Subsidize Casino Loans for Investors with Taxpayer Money.
While the public is exercising a Freudian fixation on the A.I.G. scandal, misguidedly thinking that A.I.G. is an American company in the sense of G.M. or Ford (it is not although many Americans see a Rorschach American company), the Federal Reserve just decided to increase its balance sheet by $1.2 trillion. This unprecedented action was […]
The Long Depression of 1873: Parallels and Comparisons. Are we Missing Economic Information from an Important Piece of American Financial History?
There have been many comparisons to the Great Depression with our current economic crisis. Massive speculation, rampant problems in the banking system, and exponential jumps in unemployment. Yet we may have a lot to learn by looking at the former Great Depression known as the Long Depression. The Long Depression lasted 65 months starting in […]
The Red, White, and Blue Queen’s Race: The Economy Reverts to Historical Inflation Patterns: Stock Market and Real Estate Fall back in Line with Inflation. Working Harder Just to Stay in the Same Spot.
The Red Queen’s race is a situation that appears in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass where one has to run faster and faster just to remain in the same spot. Imagine a treadmill that increases in speed every 10 minutes yet you don’t burn calories at the higher rate. Many Americans are feeling as if […]