News & Analysis

Derivatives reform? We hardly think so ... First of all, nobody knows how big the derivatives market is and no one knows how many dollars are at risk. Those involved in making ...

Money printing works in ways that central bankers need it to work. More money is inflationary in a mathematical sense. That doesn't mean it can be quantified, but we can watch ...

According to this editorial at USA Today, good intentions can triumph over power. We are supposed to ignore the insight that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts ...

Is this more evidence that monetary policy is merely made up as it goes along? Now we have the spectacle of three of the largest central banks in the world expanding money ...

We learn in this short article that billionaire investor George Soros is betting on mining stocks. "Very bullish," for gold, the article tells us. Here's more: The Soros ...

We have a lot of trouble taking this at face value but first we should provide the background. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez is in discussions with Chinese ...

Another economist who was an early commentator on the euro-treaty has abandoned the idea of a currency union. The article is written by Wolfgang Kasper, and here is a short bio: ...

This article gives us a concise insight into the theories of three great minds regarding the much discussed and maligned business cycle. Of course, these minds are "great" in a ...

On Saturday, we published an editorial with a title very similar to the one in this current Reuters editorial: "Scandal: And They Shall Eat Their Own ..." The difference between ...

This article tells of changes in China based in part on Internet exposure. It has become ubiquitous in the alternative media community to explain that the Internet is merely ...

Since it has been speculated that Britain is headed back into a recession, this article raises questions for us. At the same time, it is quite predictable. Let's look at why. ...

In the dominant social theme, above, we've tried to illustrate the animosity that often accompanies the analysis of the "generations" in the US and abroad. Generations are ...

In the US legislative system, elected officials decide who comes and goes throughout the country. It didn't used to be this way, though. The passport and visa system is only a ...

The repression of the gold price has turned into a timely dominant social theme, in our view. The lines are clearly drawn and insiders are signaling that the trend is down. They ...

In the pantheon of absurd Economist articles, this has to rank as one of the most ridiculous. There is a reason why Africa is poor but it has little to do with this outrageous ...

The drums pound and a new global monetary pact moves closer. This is how it works way up in the rarified air of Big Money where top globalists dwell. This article is bylined by ...

Even top execs at JP Morgan dread the "unwinding" that Ben Bernanke has always said the Federal Reserve is capable of. We don't believe it. Just as Fed bankers don't know how ...

Every now and then the mindset of Alexander the Great reemerges and people offer the simplest solution to the most complex of problems. This is one such case. Alexander the ...

When global markets collapsed in 2008, it must have been quite a shock to the financial world's rating agencies, as many prestigious institutions teetering suddenly on the edge ...

This is something of a novel concept. The IRS was correct to scrutinize Tea Party and conservative nonprofit applications more closely because these entities were anti-tax. ...

A leading hard-money economist of the modern era has just written an eloquent analysis about why what we call the Internet Reformation must inevitably have its day. We've never ...

In this editorial posted at Reuters we can see clearly how statists utilize the great mind of Austrian F.A. Hayek to buttress the modern Leviathan. Leaving aside the melancholy ...

David Cameron, Prime Minister of England, is panicked about the emergence of the libertarian UKIP in Britain and the votes it is removing from the Tories. The conservative Tory ...

So gold is being shipped around the world – kinda' desperately, it would seem. We don't know for sure whether this report is true but for purposes of analysis we will take it at ...

The Bank of England's Mervyn King is leaving but he wants everyone to know that England has turned the proverbial corner on his watch. The nation has slipped into a third ...

We're puzzling about why fracking has been applied now by the industry when the basics of fracking have been fairly well understood since the 1940s. We have an idea, and it is ...

In today's lead article we discuss the idea of whether fracking is undermining the petrodollar and aiding the birth of long-awaited global money. But there are other ...

It will not be much noted by the mainstream press that this week's meeting of the G7 has attempted to harmonize tax collection worldwide. As we follow dominant social themes, we ...

London Mayor Boris Johnson claims he wants a referendum on whether Britain is to stay in the European Union, but his rhetoric is lukewarm. This has been a problem all along for ...

We continue to chart the downturn of the mainstream news media. In this case, it is the upfront ad fees that are slumping for television companies. But in the past, we have seen ...

Is gold headed down in the long term? Possibly so. That doesn't mean it's a bad investment however. Perhaps if you want to make a quick profit it is a bad investment. And if you ...

We long ago identified the anti-usury/pro-central banking movement as part of a larger globalist messaging. Now it's hitting the big time – see above excerpt ... For lack of a ...

This analysis over at the UK Telegraph is probably accurate as far as it goes. Spain is technically broke and, more importantly, it seems something of a broken society. The ...

Here is an interesting little article that sums up the idea of gold as an untrustworthy investment. Bear in mind that gold and silver have been looked on as money metals for ...

So the US is worried about Japanese debasement? This is a little bit like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. The US has been printing money heavily some five years ...

Are those who are uninvested missing out? From our point of view, as indicated elsewhere in this edition, there is a kind of war being waged between the global system of fiat ...

In an article entitled, "Barack Obama's Visit to Mexico: The Unmentionables," The Economist magazine makes an astounding claim – via a third-party to be sure – that addressing ...

Something important is stirring in the United States that could have a big impact around the world. Drugs are being legalized. Or at least marijuana. The banning of marijuana ...

Kim Dotcom has turned from a potential felon into a symbol of intellectual freedom. This will likely complicate US extradition efforts ... as the case is gradually turning into ...

A scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, has written about India's noted Gleevec case that has spawned such headlines as "Gleevec as an attack on ...

This article is written by Wall Street Journal veteran Frederick Kempe and in it he seems to be sounding a slightly new subdominant social theme ... that Europe has failed ...

Hardly anyone exhibits what we have called Europe's "immovable rigor" more than Jose Manuel Barroso. Barroso, a socialist and communist in his youth, is one of Brussels's top ...

This article makes sure to remind us that Warren Buffett is the world's fourth richest man. But wealth does not necessarily create wisdom. We remember when Buffett was ...

So we see again that Reuters celebrates the political at the expense of the marketplace. If Italy is on the brink, it is because of a series of political decisions that have ...

The reason the stock market is going up is because central banks have launched an unprecedented money-printing binge. But you wouldn't know that reading this Reuters headline. ...

Free-Market Analysis: We've often pointed out that a national socialist (Nazi) meme is gaining strength in the West. It is promoted by often charming individuals like Ellen ...

Well, it didn't take long for this meme to make considerable headway. We've been tracking it for years, since noticing the popularity of Web of Debt. Since then we've watched ...

The Daily Bell is pleased to offer another valuable FREE benefit to our Members. Anthony Wile's fourth edition of High Alert: How the Internet Reformation is causing a financial ...

Did you know that gold and oil have similar trading characteristics? Oil has been in use about 100 years from an industrial perspective and gold for several thousand years – ...

Are the rats removing themselves from the ruins of the EU? This one rat, the "German euro founder" according to the UK Telegraph is jumping ship. We call Oskar Lafontaine a rat ...

We have titled this article "The Long, Slow Slide Toward Prosperity" even though that doesn't seem to make much sense, certainly not in the context of this Bloomberg article. ...

Is the Fed loosening or tightening and how do they know? Wouldn't the top bankers at the Fed need forward-looking indicators to be most successful? In other words, once an ...

We are not fooled by this emergent meme. It sounds reasonable but it is really intended, in our view, to flood with the West with other cultures and other ethnicities. In ...

We don't believe for a minute that the oil and gas industry suddenly "discovered" fracking, etc. From what we can tell, these technologies have been around a long time. So why ...

When leftists speak about the redeeming qualities of Swedish communitarianism, they don't mention that Sweden has an inbred, titled elite. This is very interesting and might ...

From an investment and business standpoint this is bad news. We were led to believe by the US government itself and supporters in Iraq that the new government would increase ...

This is a disturbing story based on research that shows quite clearly how the US's premiere national police force is contributing to what we might call the "terrorists among ...

John Stossel is surely a token libertarian, one that the major US media tolerates ... perhaps because he is photogenic and perhaps because he has perfected the art of dissenting ...

Tracking elite memes is an art form not an econometric analysis. We do the best we can, and we're fairly convinced that Mexico and the US are on the menu as part of a larger ...

Another day, another analysis focusing on minority income inequality. The New York Times editors love these articles because they can position the old Gray Lady as beating her ...

The globalists who are doing their best to eradicate so-called tax havens have apparently discovered that about a billion Chinese like doing business in cash. Presumably, China ...

It seems official now ... Ben Bernanke is leaving at the end of his term. He is said to be exhausted by the past seven years of economic implosion and subsequent quarrels about ...

This is an unusual article to appear in Bloomberg, especially given the headline. But unfortunately, it promises more than it delivers. It would be nice to read a real ...

This Bloomberg article has an oddly celebratory tone. But we are not so interested in celebrating the demise of tax havens as we are in drawing the appropriate lessons from this ...

What the heck is The Conference Board and why does it matter? Well, according to Wikipedia, The Conference Board is a pretty big deal. The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) ...

Whoops, there goes Lars Christensen running his mouth again. Christensen is one of the founders of the idiosyncratic Saxo bank, which began life online, apparently as an ...

We have been noting the spate of adulatory articles appearing in the mainstream press regarding central banks and central bankers. It really is quite amazing. Reuters has run ...

The bad news goes on and on. From the Economist magazine we learn that some 300 million young people are out of work in emerging markets. We suppose this does not count the tens ...

This is a terrific analysis provided by Standard and Poor's about the problems caused by old people and how leaders will struggle with this grave crisis. Of course, in writing ...

We've written about many of the farcical elements of Green industry in the past and identified Fisker as one of the most egregious offenders. Unfortunately, the resurgence of ...

Barry Diller has buyer's remorse, as we can see from this video. He comes across as cogent and even eloquent about the changes in the news media ... and yet one wonders why he ...

Presumably we are supposed to feel better because there is now a hawkish woman of integrity voting against accommodative Federal Reserve policies. We're not actually especially ...

Excuse our cynicism. This all looks to us like a kind of monetary passion play. The outcome is predictable and the drama is being presented for the gratifications of the rubes. ...

Here's an interesting article in the Washington Post explaining how US fiscal austerity needs to be offset by Federal Reserve pump priming. We would argue, not to put too fine a ...

Like you, dear reader, we were very happy to see that the US had the most energy efficient economy in US history. But unlike the Energy Information Agency (EIA), we don't ...

Since we just finished being a bit mean to the AEI in another article in this issue, perhaps it's only fair to write one that gives them a bit of a pat on the back. This ...

The United States is usually portrayed as a place where – unlike corrupt countries like the former Soviet Union – laws are obeyed, taxes are paid and a grateful nation takes its ...

Just the other day we wrote about ways that the plan to combine Canada, the US and Mexico into one super state was advancing. And now we read that US law enforcement agents are ...

We continually calibrate the clash between globalist dominant social themes and what we call the Internet Reformation. Which side is winning? What does the outcome mean for ...

This is a funny article because it begins by addressing significant issues seriously (see above excerpt) and then abruptly veers off into an analysis of European stocks and then ...

Central banking is fundamental to the current crippled economic model of the West. It is a new model, always expanding, always changing. Basically, central bankers fix the value ...

The argument that the head of Business Insider Henry Blodget is making is that cutting government benefits and pursuing monopoly privatization doesn't help economies grow. Only ...

Ironically, at the same time that the influential website Business Insider is running an article by editor Henry Blodget (see other article, this issue) blasting austerity, it ...

Another day, another editorial in Reuters about central banking superheroes. Are you convinced yet that this is a dominant social theme? And how exactly does this work? Is it ...

Thump, thump, thump. The North American Union is being born right under your eyes. The globalists running Washington, DC have clearly stated in many ways that Canada, Mexico and ...

This is an interesting argument from an intriguing mind. Bruce Bartlett, the author, once worked as a staffer for libertarian conservative Ron Paul, yet he is also known as a ...

For as long as we've been analyzing elite dominant social themes we've been reading these sorts of articles and commenting on them. The thickest, most resonant of these sorts of ...

The previous article in today's issue, also from Bloomberg, explains to us that "luck" is what determines socioeconomic status and that because luck is inevitably unfair we need ...

We would like to be able to write otherwise, but we don't believe much that comes out of Western political systems these days. That's not to say every particular evolution is ...

Like the leaders of Germany's pre-war National Socialist Party, the leaders of the European Union have maintained an implacable rigor when it comes to the restatement and ...

This editorial is frustrating because it refuses to treat people as individuals but instead refers to them collectively as "Greece." We would submit when this sort of analysis ...

Here is yet one more example confusing regulation with monetary matters. People won't question the logic of these articles, but truly they are, well ... flawed. Consider: In a ...

Suddenly, the reality of carbon investing is sinking in. According to this Bloomberg article, "banks, funds and institutional investors are seeking clarity from government and ...

In our lead article, we discussed the way government regulation and market forces were being manipulated to pressure corporations to self-regulate when it came to potential ...

Okay. So now we know. The reason the US is in a Great Recession is because there are not enough people (see excerpt above). From our point of view, the failure of the US economy ...

We've run a number of articles now explaining the African meme. Comes now The Economist (again) to reinforce our perception on this matter. Hopefully, dear reader, you see what ...

Keynesianism doesn't work. Printing oodles of debt money does not inflate the real economy but merely further distorts it. While the above excerpt was posted in February, things ...

We know it is okay because CNN has commissioned a poll of around 1,000 people in the US and many of these believe the US is "running well" according to Reuters, which profiled ...

We've been writing on this theme for a long time, and to see similar reporting being provided by the quasi-libertarian Business Insider is gratifying in a melancholy way. ...

So here is the conundrum: There are reports from all around the world that it is difficult to buy physical gold and silver. Yet the price of gold has plunged by hundreds of ...

Anyone who disputes our perspective regarding dominant social themes just has to look at articles like this on Reuters to find confirmation of promotional efforts. This dominant ...

The Fed may "stay put" but Ben Bernanke seems to be on his way out. We've written about this previously – as Bernanke himself has taken to saying that no one man is ...

In this issue we've already written one analysis of a central banking meme showing just how deliberate certain monetary promotions are. The globalists who run them and place ...

This seems to be an issue for analyzing the emergence of long-time dominant social themes. We've already written about the godhead of the Federal Reserve, the deification of Ben ...

Der Spiegel interviews Harvard economist Carmen Reinhart who has the novel idea that central banks are acting like the "adults" in the room by cleaning up after spendthrift ...

Claude Erb and Campbell Harvey figured out the ratio between the price of gold and the stated price inflation from a historical perspective and determined gold was over-priced ...

We often write of directed history, the idea that powerful forces create conditions for the policies that they want to implement. When it comes to money metals, the idea would ...

We cannot figure out if this is satire or a cynical but blunt analysis of what is ailing the United States. Maybe it is a little of both. But in either case, we disagree with ...

For those of us who spend time documenting various globalist themes designed to convince us that global centralization is preferable to disparate power centers, George Soros is ...

Market sentiment can shift, even in a day, and perhaps it was merely market sentiment that has been driving the price of gold and silver and has resulted in recent crashes. But ...

Lawrence H. Summers, former US Treasury Secretary and current Reuters blogger, believes the United States demos is not broken but that the US suffers from a lack of vision. This ...

We've run articles fairly regularly on China and the problems of running a full-bore industrial economy in a world of falling demand. We've tried to cover a variety of issues ...

It is getting more difficult to live, isn't it? We only need to look at this example in Hamburg, Germany to understand that living in a modern home is an undertaking of a ...

The mainstream media is filled with reports of stock markets moving up and precious metals moving down. One would think the bad times were over and the good times had begun ...

It is a big conundrum for those holding gold and silver. Buy more, hold what you have or sell now ... We know that Europe has not recovered, that the US recovery is a technical ...

Everyone knows that China is going to take over the world but ìs such an event going to be the result of a "long march" or a short one? The current numbers on the economy show ...

Here's an innovative idea ... let's print a lot of money and then declare it worthless. This seems like a Western trend these days. At least the "worthless" part. Turns out that ...

We have wondered recently why the US has not acted more forcefully as regards North Korea's various "provocations." One theory being floated by certain more "far out" aspects of ...

It is Austrian economics that underlies much of what passes for the mainstream economic conversation. Austrian free-market economics was always the underlying target of the ...

People don't seem to realize that a Greek-style austerity is being imposed on the US. It is actually an International Monetary Fund oriented solution. Taxes and regulations ...

We are not surprised that China imported more than it exported in March. The idea that has gained in currency in China is that since the West can no longer be an engine of ...

Globalists hate gold. Those who want to expand internationalism find it much more convenient to do so via fiat money than in any other way. Central bank fiat-money expansions ...

The Guardian is probably correct in its analysis that Margaret Thatcher's free-market policies made Britain a less fair and socially equitable place to live. But that is only ...

Is it really getting better? And how long can top EU officials keep warning people about Eurozone instability? Now it appears that France is being drawn into the mess that is ...

Ashley Mote is a convicted felon, but also a prolific freedom-author, and he seems to have written an interesting book. The book is based on his experiences from 2004 to 2009 as ...

This Reuters editorial brings up two points and provides us with two separate conclusions. Theoretically, we are much averse to the argument that government needs to provide ...

What the hell is happening at Bloomberg? How did an article like THIS ever get published by that august purveyor of statism, rational planning and "experts"? Actually, we do ...

The Kohl administration actually donated funds to French politicians to influence French domestic opinion. And now it turns out that Kohl himself confesses he "acted like a ...

In an article yesterday we suggested that the reason Japan was embarking on a massive attempt at Keynesian-style stimulation was to promote the efficacy of Keynesian economic ...

This Economist article actually maintains that the Federal Reserve is doing a better job of making a US recovery happen than the ECB. Economist writers and editors ought to ...

Are we really supposed to believe that only large statist institutions can provide economic stability? That's what this article argues, anyway. It is curious that it appears at ...

Free-Market Analysis: We think we can recognize a dominant social theme when we see one. This sudden emphasis on eradicating tax havens is just such a theme. It is a ...

Sir Harold Evans is married to Tina Brown, one of our bête noirs ... a fabulously talented writer who long ago turned into a gunslinger for British imperial interests and ...

The Economist magazine's reporting is often fantastical. It treats countries as if they were people and politicians as if they were important. This "analysis" of Kenya's ...

Free-Market Analysis: On the heels of the Cyprus offshore banking bustup comes this vast "investigation" of offshore individuals and corporations. It surely constitutes a ...

We wrote about this recently but wanted to return to the topic because it is turning into some sort of litmus test for Keynesianism itself. Keynesianism (really ...

This is the fundamental fault line between freedom and statism and one reason we've spent so much time writing about it and have been subject to so many attacks. The meme – and ...

Time magazine asks whether globalism is falling apart but the article is really just another excuse to rebut Stockman's book. We've already covered the controversy over David ...

We wrote about this Saturday in an editorial but want to return to this topic today – and this Washington Post article gives us the opportunity to do so. Our contention is that ...

Vox posted this long and scholarly article that calls for more EU centralization. You would think since the current level of centralization has worked so badly that its ...

This rebuttal to DeGraw's book is not entirely timely, as the book in question was actually posted and printed (we assume) quite a while ago. We didn't properly double-check the ...

Steven Horwitz, once interviewed by the Daily Bell, has written an article in US News (see above) on ending the Federal Reserve. Horwitz is a Mercatus Center Affiliated Senior ...

Here's a modest proposal: Let's wipe out the national debt. Much of the West's national debt is owed to various central banks. Columbia Professor Michael Woodford, called "the ...

This is a fun article/interview to analyze because unlike Greenbackerism it doesn't aspire to any kind of faux-sophistication about finance or maliciously distort the truth to ...

But a degree is NOT ... not anymore. With Western economies in collapse, it is probably wiser to gain a trade than a degree. People who realize this are sensible and tending to ...

No ... the greatest of all modern, libertarian thinkers, Ludwig von Mises, has won. The reputation of sycophantic socialist John Maynard Keynes lies in ruins (among those who ...

The book excerpt by David Stockman that appeared recently in the New York Times (entitled "The Great Deformation") has badly rocked the chattering classes (see other article ...

The New American has done us the favor of pointing out the particulars of the BRICs' recent announcement regarding the formation of a developing world version of the ...

Gradually, the nonsense about North and South Europe will fall away. It is true the cultures are different and no one would accuse Greeks, in aggregate, as valuing the kind of ...

Almost every week in the European – British – press we are treated to yet another optimistic forecast about Britain's economic condition. And yet it keeps deteriorating. This ...