The Free Mensch

The unrepentant left: 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Alexander Blay — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:53:01 +0100

We have seen in the past days the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall. It might appear to everyone not utterly corrupted that communism was a horrible regime; a regime against which some countries had to fight...

Every day a Saturday

Sandy Mount — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:10:05 +0100

A fabulous parody of current economic thinking... 'The Gallup poll has discovered (HT: Catherine Rampell) that Saturday is the day of the week that consumers spend the most money. In a brilliant policy innovation, President Obama has decreed that from...

A different sort of property crash

Sandy Mount — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:25:15 +0100

( Link )

Mises in the Mainstream?

Gasman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:26:28 +0100

Maybe not just yet. But I never thought I would see the day that the War street Journal published an articulate rendering of Mises insights. Thanks to Bob Murphy for the find.

Listen to the Nobody's

Sandy Mount — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:53:29 +0100

As the pernicious consequences of attempts to save the financial system are leading to familiar excesses in financial markets, there is little evidence the nobody's have been or will be taken seriously: 'In summary, numerous people, including well respected economists...

MARGINAL UTILITY AT WORK

Alexander Blay — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:06:29 +0100

How much would you pay for some heating? Or, put it otherwise, what’s the value of heating? Has it an intrinsic value? Or its value depends on the subjective preference of the consumer? Austrians (and Scholastics) know that value is...

Churchill wasn't all bad

Sandy Mount — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:58:48 +0100

'A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.' Winston Churchill Substitute economist for politician?

Gasman's Theory Of Everything Revisited

Gasman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:48:55 +0100

Now that I have more data I can confidently predict that interest rates (basis the AAA corporate bond yield) will peak at 8.6 % in May 2010. Of course if the gold commodity ratio advances again that 8.6 % may turn out to be only a way station.

Bravo Mr Shostak!

Sandy Mount — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:06:25 +0100

'Contrary to popular thinking, it is not a fall in credit as such that is the key to deflation, but a fall specifically in credit created out of thin air. It is this type of credit, which commercial banks have...

Dead government walking

Sandy Mount — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:18:06 +0100

'Hemingway wrote that a man goes broke "slowly, then all at once". We believe the same sentiment can be applied to governments. If fiscal abuses continue unabated, confidence eventually erodes until investors just stop lending. It happened famously to Lehman...

One of our U.S. GDPs has gone missing

Sandy Mount — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:16:52 +0100

Is Bill Gross turning Austrian?

Classic Higgs

Sandy Mount — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:39:14 +0200

Beautifully written and with humility.

US may face financial Armageddon. So says Julian Robertson

Alexander Blay — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:49:04 +0200

While always trying to remain skeptical and I don't take outside opinions at face value, I tend to give more credence to the opinions uttered by successful people than those sputtered by our phony politicians (professional fakers of reality). In...

The Great Wall of worry

Sandy Mount — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:52:53 +0200

In a note to clients, Pivot Capital raises a litany of problems with the bullish case for China. Bull markets are said to climb a wall of worry but how about a Great Wall? It's a long piece but to...

Analyse this

Sandy Mount — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:52:49 +0200

'As Mr. Swensen (Yale endowment's CIO) put it when asked about the most important attributes for selecting fund managers, "The most important thing is character and the quality of people. That‟s also the second most important thing and the third...

'Wonderful theory. Wrong species.'

Sandy Mount — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:27:11 +0200

'Politics, both for better and for worse, is an expression of biology. Mankind’s inherent nature has not varied perceptibly over the last century. Our politics, however, have completed regular cycles of production and parasitism. We have re-entered that phase in...

Big Brother via CCTV

Sandy Mount — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:19:44 +0200

'The internet is about to get a new reality game, known as Internet Eyes, that already has civil rights groups up in arms on account of the fact that you’ll be cast as a ‘remote snooper’ who’ll get paid cash...

A rather sobering table

Sandy Mount — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:01:46 +0200

'The following table compares the technical recommendations from a prominent and exhaustive survey of African problems headed by Lord Hailey in 1938 to those of the UNMP in 2005. African Problem to be Addressed African Research Survey, 1938 UN Millennium...

G-20 Reaches Agreement on Bakers’ Pay

Murray — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:25:17 +0200

Sept 24, 2011 World leaders are poised to crack down on baker pay as they seek to temper the commodity speculation that helped trigger the worst Inflation and Food Crisis in a generation. Following a period which saw a ten-fold...

A Greek Tragedy

Sandy Mount — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:50:05 +0200

The Spiegel has an interview with William White, the former chief economist of the BIS which is worth a read. He was ignored as a Cassandra despite his position whilst all the attention and accolades went to those with power...