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jhooper

jhooper
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  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has announced plans to pump Y2.8 trillion (US$28 billion) into money markets on Friday to try to stem the rise. The BoJ appears surprised by the selloff in JGBs over the last few sessions, since the Yen/USDollar cross broke 100. The trend is a reversal from the initial reaction, which saw global yields rally as BOJ buying was expected to crowd out traditional buyers of JGBs, sending them into international markets. The selloff in JGBs corresponds to a rise in breakeven rates, suggesting that the BoJ’s attempt to build inflation expectations is working. "
    May 16 09:19 AM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "5-year Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) are now trading wide of 5-year German Bunds for the first time in 20 years. The selloff in JGBs is spilling over into other G10 markets, as both core European sovereign bonds and US treasuries are wider for the month as well. We note that USTs and French bonds have become highly correlated over the past 6 weeks."
    May 16 09:19 AM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "Greece was upgraded to B- from CCC+ by Fitch based on improving prospects for the economy. Greek 10-year bonds are in 56 bps to 5.82%, their lowest level since June 2010, and the Athens stock market has risen 80% over the last year. "
    May 16 09:18 AM | 3 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "The Eurozone’s current recession is officially the longest in the common currency era at six quarters, outpacing the 5 quarter dip from 2008-2009. That means that the Eurozone has been in recession 11 of the past 20 quarters. On a country-by-country basis, France is back into recession, Italy continues to contract, while Germany managed to swing back to slight growth. "
    May 16 09:17 AM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • S&P Target 2000: Air Pocket Ahead - Part IV [View article]
    When you say qe ends, do you mean just stopping the growth of the Feds bal sheet, or shrinking it?
    May 14 06:02 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • 2013: The Year Of Printing Money [View article]
    You could just eliminate all expropriation taxes. They don't fund the gov anyway, and just let inflation be our tax.
    May 10 12:15 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • How To Identify Market Distortions Caused By The Fed [View article]
    "All my silver is available to be poured into my bullet molds"

    I've already done that.
    May 8 04:21 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    All they would have to do is have the most competitive wage laws in Europe, the most competitive regulatory markets, the lease amount of welfare, and the least amount of taxation. If they already do, then they establish these policies in relation to the world.

    In short, if they had the most Federalized system, where the govs only worked to protect property rights and nothing else, what you would get is a market for govs that only protect property rights, which would mean competition between the lower levels of gov as to who could be the most efficient in protecting property rights.

    By doing this, they would become the worlds haven for capital and labor, and oil would become a tiny sliver of their economy. They aren't educated to think this way, so they will just have to be happy wasting their oil money on some price blind gov scheme.
    May 8 12:16 PM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "As Norway is so far north I'll put that under sarcasm."

    Yes. I used to live in North Pole, Alaska. In summer the days were long, but the light was very weak, although it did get into the 90s sometimes. In December the sun would come up around 10:30, skirt along the horizon and then be gone by 3:30 or so.

    You had to plug your battery in during the day in the winter, because the gold would kill the chemical reactions. I wonder how the EVs hold up in the cold. I'm thinking its time for a class action lawsuit against the EV mfgs for false advertising against the hapless consumer.
    May 8 10:45 AM | 3 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    "Norway is dipping into its oil fund to support its economy, a surprisingly expansionary move considering Norway’s economy is expanding and one of the best in Europe. Norway is spending NKr125billion ($21.4 billion) or 3.3% of its sovereign wealth fund to try to lessen Norway’s dependence on the oil industry. That said, it is still surprising to see a country with a growing economy try to stimulate it further. "

    I would not be surprised to see them invest it in solar panels. Norway would be a great place for that.
    May 8 09:39 AM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • How To Identify Market Distortions Caused By The Fed [View article]
    "The market implosion of 5 years ago was a consequence of financial engineering by the banks."

    If you are including the cartelized banking system driven by the Fed Res, there is something to that. In general a central bank is a consumption subsidy. That means one area of the economy will inflate and another will deflate. Nature will not tolerate this situation forever because the inflation is not supported by increases in income to support the inflated asset price. Thus, all it takes is some macro shift, often brought about by the Fed itself, to cause the inevitable correction.

    http://onforb.es/17xyIDT
    May 7 04:12 PM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Surviving And Prospering Over The Next 4 Years Of Economic Darkness [View article]
    Indeed.

    This...

    http://bit.ly/X5QcTf

    Leads to this...

    http://bit.ly/XUvuD8

    Which leads to this...

    http://bit.ly/YKTfQb
    May 7 09:26 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    People still think corps pay taxes. People pay taxes, and when the money medium is monopolized with a central bank, inflation is your tax. The only thing income taxes do is just send fed notes to the treas where they are cancelled and can no longer be used to bid up assets prices in the economy. New income taxes would sink the equities markets.
    May 4 06:20 AM | 3 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Stability Of The European Union (19) April 18, 2013 To  [View instapost]
    Munger must working some rule change to get gov to make him richer and the rest of us poorer the way buffet promotes estate taxes. He definitely has the populist rhetoric down pat. He sounds just like Toohey.
    May 4 06:16 AM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Surviving And Prospering Over The Next 4 Years Of Economic Darkness [View article]
    "productivity is increasing and as a result markets are going up."

    You have to add, "with additional stimulus from monetary policy that is providing a consumption subsidy for equity prices."

    That last bit is critical, because if you don't understand that impact, then you won't be able to understand that neither BB or Yellen don't understand it either. So they can pull the subsidy out from underneath of you, like they did in 2006, and you could get caught without a chair when the music stops.

    What you are also missing is Bastiats seen and the unseen. This makes you vulnerable to specious reasoning. So you will say, "see we have the current regime and markets and productivity are going up, ergo its the current regime causing that".

    When in reality, its the current regime holding the markets and productivity back from what they could be, thus making the stimulus from the Fed necessary to get equity prices to where they are. What would happen instead in a freer market is equity prices would be double what they are, productivity would be double what it is, and your standard of living would also be double.

    That's your problem with your definition of utopia. You have defined it as a situation as perfect production. Utopia for a coercion free market, is operating at the peak of the production possibilities frontier. That doesn't mean we have perfect production knowledge, but it does mean we operate PERFECTLY at what we can because we are as PERFECTLY sensitive to prices as we can be.

    So, yes that means the perfect extreme of a completely coercion free market would never exist, because you will never have perfect production knowledge. Just as a totally coerced market can never exist. That would make you totally blind to prices and everyone would starve in short order.

    What you want is to perfectly produce as best you can based on being as perfectly sensitive to prices as you can be.

    Assuming that coercion can somehow find happy medium between no productivity and operating perfectly at the peak of the production possibilities frontier is a specious assumption that doesn't stand up to logical and reasonable scrutiny.

    That is just something the people that don't understand the role of coercion in life will have to live with.
    May 3 11:24 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
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