Last Updated: Mar 25th, 2013 - 16:46:15 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Thought for the Day A bumper Easter edition. Dr. Cullen talked a lot of talk in this morning's paper and one of the buzz-words was "sustainable". Apparently he has arranged the economy to be sustainable. This despite the obvious observation that we have just become two places poorer down the OECD wealth table and are now in the bottom quarter with Serbia and Turkey instead of in the top half with Australia and Sweden - as Helen required in 1999. It is well past time to "walk the walk". We have lost $1 billion on the share markets overseas and the Cullen Fund has arrived on the international scene just in time to greet the biggest boom busting with horrendous implications for us all. The Australian national anthem is "Advance Australia Fair"; New Zealand's is about entreating "Our God of Nations" for help. Do we have the wrong mindset? Happy Easter. Mar 17, 2008, 14:27 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Bailouts Better Than Returning To 1930s Nobody says it quite like Ambrose. We are starting to see the "Crack up Boom" in its final phase. As Ludwig von Mises said: "There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner...as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion; or later...as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." Looks like the Fed has opted for LATER. Mar 20, 2008, 14:44 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Foreign Investors Veto Fed Rescue As feared, foreign bond holders have begun to exercise a collective vote of no confidence in the devaluation policies of the US government. The Federal Reserve faces a potential veto of its rescue measures. [ Visit Website ] Mar 19, 2008, 15:30 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Rescue Me - Fed Bailout Crosses a Line What are the consequences of a world in which regulators rescue even the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed helped create the titanic credit mess we are in? Will the consequences be an even weaker currency, rampant inflation, a continuation of the slow bleed that we have witnessed at banks and brokerage firms for the past year? Mar 18, 2008, 15:09 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Here Comes The Worldwide Currency Debasement Ambrose tells a good story - he can say it much better than me, and his sources for information are very good. Bernanke and the banks seem to be out of their depth. What will happen here in New Zealand? Have Cullen and Pollard got things under control? Time will tell. Mar 17, 2008, 15:22 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Bear Turns Out To Be Worth Just a Fraction Of Its Office Building Baron Phillipe Rothschild once exclaimed that the time to buy was "when there is blood in the streets." Earlier last year Bear Stearns was worth US$170 per share. This week saw JP Morgan buy it for US$2 per share. Maybe there is now blood in the streets of New York. Mar 17, 2008, 13:30 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Are America's Banks Being Nationalized By The Fed? Banking is not very well understood by the general public. Hopefully over the next few years we will develop a better appreciation about Commercial Banks and Central Banks. This will come about as we understand just how they propose to control the money system as it threatens to bust apart at the seams due to continual inflation - that is banks increasing the money supply. Central Banks and Governments like to give the impression that they have control over the economy and the money supply. Unfortunately the evidence is that they do not. History shows that all paper money systems eventually collapse. Our current money system is showing signs of immense strain at the moment and it is not certain that the Federal Reserve can maintain the status quo. As they provide more and more cheap money so the money entrepreneurs will work to develop more sophisticated instruments to engender larger profits. This cannot be stopped and is the reason that eventually the system will collapse under the weight of paper promises. Remember that the world Credit Derivatives market is now at US$512 trillion. Let us hope that they do not start to unravel. Mar 17, 2008, 13:27 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 What the Price of Gold Is Telling Us If ever there was a time to get a handle on what sound money is and what it means, that time is today. Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas. [ Visit Website ] Mar 16, 2008, 08:10 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 Moody's, S&P Defer Cuts on AAA Subprime, Hiding Loss Just how much is a AAA rating worth? [ Visit Website ] Mar 15, 2008, 13:39 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 March 2008 At Least There's SOMETHING in Ethiopia's Gold Vault What's in ours? Mar 14, 2008, 15:20