High-Frequency Trading Now Involves Time Travel? [View article]
This universe was calculated according to the second law of thermodynamics. Might as well get used it. Once the speed of light is acquired, it's all downhill from here. The bears win in the end, while the SEC stands, wondering what happened, as they always have.
Krugman's War Cry Won't Avert Depression [View article]
God forbid that this should happen in the USA. Constitutional freedoms and free enterprise must be healthily maintained and utilized from MainStreet, grassroots, small business levels all the way up through the conscientious directorships of public corporations. In this freedom-exercising environment, hostile corporate-quasi-govern... takeovers will never force a fascist takeover of our American heritage. That legacy requires a generation-to-generation cultivation of ever-developing regenerative free enterprise, free assembly, and free expression. Its important that the the Federal and the Corporate not be allowed to wrest our freedoms away. Therefore, we must accept the pain of economic correction through which we now suffer. Only through such free-market purging can we generate the innovations necessary to carry our liberties into this next century of decent prosperity.
The federal reserve note is, after all, only a piece of paper. Perhaps we should revert to the pound as a standard of value--a pound of food. Or a pound of electrons, which are the true currency of 21st-century commerce.
Maybe the Japanese should contract with natural gas explorers, to have the earth beneath Japan fracked. Then the uber-hot stuff would seep down into the earth's core. Surely it cannot get past the core itself, and the Falklands are as safe as they've ever been. And all of us earth-dwellers are no more at risk than we've been since August, 1945. Seriously, though, I think its high time some enterprising gas people engineer new means for extracting natural gas without fricking/fracking the earth. The Union of Concerned Scientists has been warning about nuclear power since the 1970s. While this Fukushima problem may not become the "big one," its precarious indicators should serve as another, more urgent incentive toward developing alternative sources in he long run. Where's the Henry Ford of energy development? Where's the enterprising innovator (or team of innovators) that can devise a techie breakthrough to put an efficient solar generator on "every roof" instead of fossil-burning model-T in every garage? And make a profit to boot--where is the company that can do this? And how much is their stock price? You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full for Our Economy? Is It Even the Right Size? [View article]
This is a perceptive, helpful analysis. Thank you. 1.)Your initial point, involving a comparison between unemployment and the stock market, elicits this response: For those who are unemployed, the glass is half empty. For those who have enough resources to invest in the stock market, the glass is half-full. Those are two very different groups of people, but they both live in the USA at the same time, which is why we have contradictory indicators. The situation is, however, based upon a very common circumstance, and there is nothing new about it. In fact, its as old as commerce itself: some have, and some have not. 2.) Your observations about the overgrowth of our financial industry make a point well-taken. What it amounts to is that when America ran out of sources for true productivity, we started passing money around like when we were kids playing monopoly, and called it wealth. 3.) The boiled-down truth of the matter, BJ, is that yes, the glass will be dropped on the floor and shattered. This is because we are not making real stuff in America any more, like we did a hundred years ago. There is very little Real (multiplier) Value in what we are now doing. 4.) We've got to start over--build a new post-industrial, post- '08-bubble, economy (business for the investors) and infrastructure ( busyness for the workers). There will be, therefore, lots of opportunity for those who are venturesome, energetic, and paying attention. And there's your real glass half-full. Are you ready for these changes? Prosperity is not determined by what happens to us, but by our response to what happens. Carey Rowland, author of Glass half-Full, www.careyrowland.com
QE Addiction: Exonerating Chairman Bernanke [View article]
Re: "...many private investors' typical holding period may be weeks/months where they are looking to unload the bonds at higher prices each time the Fed steps in with more QE."
This little speculative stratagem is what has converted our formerly productive American experiment into a 30-year bubble.
What ever happened to investing in a company or nation because the premise for its activity is qualitatively and quantitatively productive? Does the fundamental dynamic of capitalism even exist in the US any more? If it does, it must be surviving in the trenches and gutters of Main Street, because it is no longer discernible in the Wall Street "portfolio."
1.)Your phrase, "inflation being too low" is Fedspeak for <i>we'll do anything to kill deflation</i>, n'est ce pas? 2.) Well of course the National Retail Federation forecasts strong holiday sales. That's part of their job description. 3.)Re: "The biggest risk is doing nothing and conditions get worse." That's an accurate assessment, Marc. Thanks for the cogent analysis. Let's hope Americans find something constructive to do with the next batch of greenbacks. CR, author of Glass half-Full
The Bastard Child of the Mother of All Bubbles [View article]
The "post-work" scenario will probably involve boomers taking up work of a different sort--requiring a hoe and cultivation of veggie-bearing plants in the back .40 acres, instead of the hydrocarbon-intense lawn that previously occupied that space. Maybe even a few chickens. What would the neighbors say?
And debt-forgiveness on a massive scale, like Ben standing on the stage at Woodstock saying: "It's a free concert, man!" Not to mention the slickest gov't-issued debit cards the world has even known.
The U.S. Economic Glass Isn't Half Full - It's Cracked [View article]
While gold and silver may become "wealth preservers," the only storehouse of ultimate value we have is the resourcefulness of the American people. When the great wheels of our native commerce and industry grind to a near-halt a year or two from now, then the people of all three glasses will be required (necessity is the mother of invention) to forsake their couch-potato habits and their entitlement ways, and get busy once again building wealth from the ground (literally) up again. CR, author Glass half-Full
Graham, your graphic analysis makes a good argument that inflation and deflation are coexisting. The contradictions of this world do not conform to our desire to put everything neatly into boxed explanations. The folks out on Main Street might say it this way:
Stuff you need is going up in price, and you can get good deals on stuff you don't need.
Business Owners' Glass Half-Full, For Now [View article]
High-Frequency Trading Now Involves Time Travel? [View article]
Corning: The Glass Is Way More Than Half Full [View article]
Krugman's War Cry Won't Avert Depression [View article]
Is It Time to Give Up Yet? [View article]
Fed Stimulus Leads to Stagflation [View article]
Or a pound of electrons, which are the true currency of 21st-century commerce.
Nuclear Knee-Jerk Reaction [View article]
Seriously, though, I think its high time some enterprising gas people engineer new means for extracting natural gas without fricking/fracking the earth.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has been warning about nuclear power since the 1970s. While this Fukushima problem may not become the "big one," its precarious indicators should serve as another, more urgent incentive toward developing alternative sources in he long run.
Where's the Henry Ford of energy development? Where's the enterprising innovator (or team of innovators) that can devise a techie breakthrough to put an efficient solar generator on "every roof" instead of fossil-burning model-T in every garage?
And make a profit to boot--where is the company that can do this? And how much is their stock price?
You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
Parallels With Egypt: When Will the Tipping Point Occur? [View article]
Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full for Our Economy? Is It Even the Right Size? [View article]
1.)Your initial point, involving a comparison between unemployment and the stock market, elicits this response:
For those who are unemployed, the glass is half empty. For those who have enough resources to invest in the stock market, the glass is half-full. Those are two very different groups of people, but they both live in the USA at the same time, which is why we have contradictory indicators. The situation is, however, based upon a very common circumstance, and there is nothing new about it. In fact, its as old as commerce itself: some have, and some have not.
2.) Your observations about the overgrowth of our financial industry make a point well-taken. What it amounts to is that when America ran out of sources for true productivity, we started passing money around like when we were kids playing monopoly, and called it wealth.
3.) The boiled-down truth of the matter, BJ, is that yes, the glass will be dropped on the floor and shattered. This is because we are not making real stuff in America any more, like we did a hundred years ago. There is very little Real (multiplier) Value in what we are now doing.
4.) We've got to start over--build a new post-industrial, post- '08-bubble, economy (business for the investors) and infrastructure ( busyness for the workers). There will be, therefore, lots of opportunity for those who are venturesome, energetic, and paying attention. And there's your real glass half-full.
Are you ready for these changes? Prosperity is not determined by what happens to us, but by our response to what happens.
Carey Rowland, author of Glass half-Full, www.careyrowland.com
QE Addiction: Exonerating Chairman Bernanke [View article]
This little speculative stratagem is what has converted our formerly productive American experiment into a 30-year bubble.
What ever happened to investing in a company or nation because the premise for its activity is qualitatively and quantitatively productive? Does the fundamental dynamic of capitalism even exist in the US any more?
If it does, it must be surviving in the trenches and gutters of Main Street, because it is no longer discernible in the Wall Street "portfolio."
A Look at a Half-Full Glass [View article]
2.) Well of course the National Retail Federation forecasts strong holiday sales. That's part of their job description.
3.)Re: "The biggest risk is doing nothing and conditions get worse." That's an accurate assessment, Marc. Thanks for the cogent analysis. Let's hope Americans find something constructive to do with the next batch of greenbacks.
CR, author of Glass half-Full
The Bastard Child of the Mother of All Bubbles [View article]
Maybe even a few chickens. What would the neighbors say?
And debt-forgiveness on a massive scale, like Ben standing on the stage at Woodstock saying: "It's a free concert, man!"
Not to mention the slickest gov't-issued debit cards the world has even known.
The U.S. Economic Glass Isn't Half Full - It's Cracked [View article]
CR, author Glass half-Full
Google Unwillingly Joins the World of Patents [View article]
Deflation vs. Inflation [View article]
Stuff you need is going up in price, and you can get good deals on stuff you don't need.