The Publisher | January 3, 2010
Is this the New Money of the North American Union? If so, when will it hit the street? When will you be required to exchange the old notes for the new ones - and at what rate? A reader took note that instead of saying NOVOS ORDO SECLOREUM, it says, NOVOS ORDO MUNDI. ( [...]
The Publisher | November 29, 2009
An ancient saying has it that “gold doesn’t stink.” A modern corollary might be: “Investors do.” Well, at least I’ve caught a whiff of something: A short-term fall in the price of gold, soon.
A subset of investors have gone perhaps a bit too whole hog, and the price of gold is now racing upwards at [...]
The Publisher | November 28, 2009
MANY REQUESTS FOR REPAYMENT: Matching claimants to certificates a mighty task
The seemingly endless stacks of filing cabinets inside a West Virginia warehouse could hold the answer to an unsolved mystery: Who owns nearly $17 billion in lost government bonds?
The unclaimed treasure represents the amount of U.S. bonds that have matured but not been redeemed. Many [...]
The Publisher | November 15, 2009
You will recall that, shortly before the end of the 2008 political campaign, the White House announced a threat to the entire financial system and called on Congress to enact emergency spending powers. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was enacted on October 3, 2008.
Just eighteen days earlier an event occurred that slid under [...]
The Publisher | November 13, 2009
Advances in technology, increasing focus on reducing human interaction with bacteria, and tracking goods and people are all good news for silver and the price of the industrial metal, which has lagged for so long, says Jessica Cross, CEO of VM Group.
Long regarded as the poor cousin of gold, the metal, which is mainly used [...]
The Publisher | November 4, 2009
The visits had a ritual quality. Three times a year, a coalition of Chicago community groups met with the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to warn about the growing prevalence of abusive mortgage lending.
They began to present research in 1999 showing that large banking companies including Wells Fargo and Citigroup had created subprime businesses [...]
The Publisher | November 3, 2009
November 3rd, 2009 - Interest rates. The Fed does not need slinky women in plunging necklines to peddle money. All it needs is low interest rates. When rates are pushed lower than the rate of inflation, the Fed provides a subsidy for borrowing. This is not as hard to grasp as it sounds. If I [...]
The Publisher | November 3, 2009
Investors are bidding up stocks, gold, and oil to dizzying heights. It’s déja vu all over again.
For the past several months, investors have been acting like it’s 1999, the first year when the Dow crossed 10,000, and stocks took off in complete disregard for reality. Yet the atmosphere then and now couldn’t be more different. [...]
The Publisher | July 21, 2009
U.S. National Debt Clock: Real Time
The Publisher | July 19, 2009
July 20, 2009 - From the ninth floor of a downtown office building on Wilshire Boulevard, Jack Soussana delivered staggering numbers of mortgages to homeowners during the real estate boom, amassing a fortune.
By Mr. Soussana’s own account, his customers fared less happily. He specialized in the exotic mortgages that have proved most prone to sliding [...]
