Last Updated: Mar 25th, 2013 - 16:46:15 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Thought for the Day They say, about advertising that there are only two head-lines guaranteed to attract everyone's attention. One is "Free Money", and I forget what the other is. Never mind, this week it is all about money. Slowly the real story is getting out into the newspapers and serious magazines. The internet provides great information from a wide range of sources. What is true and what is wishful thinking or propaganda may be hard to tell but a solid base of REAL Economics does help to sort out the sheep from the goats. We will be very lucky if our politicians get to understand what is happening. Fortunately John Key has had the REAL training and should know the difference between REAL Money and the monopoly kind! Nov 21, 2008, 12:08 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Quantitative Easing Has Begun "Quietly, without fanfare, the Federal Reserve has turned on the printing presses. The central bank is flooding the market with enough excess liquidity to refloat the banking system -- and hopes to generate an upturn in both economic activity and inflation in the next 12-18 months to prevent the economy falling into a prolonged slump." So begins the great inflation! We haven't even really begun to experience the great deflation. As we expected the politicians, given the choice, have opted for inflation over deflation and the Central Banks hasten to get on with the job. This is happening here in New Zealand too - with just a bit of a lag. Prices down for six months then boom away into the next inflationary boom? Time will tell. Nov 21, 2008, 10:27 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 The Second London Gold Pool Is Dying How long have we got? Nov 20, 2008, 14:29 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 The Golden State, not so golden If you would like a newish large home in California then now's the time to buy - well almost. This film clip shows the real and sad side of the bust in the boom/bust cycle we are in - due to government's love of paper money. Will it happen here? [ Visit Website ] Nov 20, 2008, 12:19 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Stable Money Is The Key To Recovery You may recall my discussions some time ago about standards for weights and measures. How difficult it would be if the kilogram varied by 10% or more or less as time went by. How if the kilometre kept changing we would suddenly find that Auckland was 10% closer this year or perhaps 20% further away and how confusing that would be. Yet we do it with money. And with devastating results. What does 3% GDP growth mean when the money supply changes by 15% over one year? What does 5% growth in CPI mean? Can we really determine any valid conclusion from this information? The world is economically and financially at sea and the results are becoming very disturbing for us all. Serious people are starting to ask serious questions. What answers will our leaders bring to us? We cannot do nothing. Nov 17, 2008, 15:26 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 The G-20’s Secret Debt Solution More ideas about what is afoot. The plot thickens. We are in the midst of the biggest bust since the 1930s depression. Maybe the biggest bust ever! In the 1930s Roosevelt confiscated all the privately held gold in the USA for $20 per ounce and then re-priced it at $35 per ounce. Why did he do that? Will it happen again? [ Visit Website ] Nov 17, 2008, 15:03 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Forget Bretton Woods II - We Need A New Gold Standard Is the re-introduction of a gold standard becoming main stream thinking? Walker Todd, an economic consultant with 20 years' experience at the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland, discusses this question. Nov 17, 2008, 14:38 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Mini Nuclear Plants To Power 20,000 Homes While the Greens are panicking us into spending billions on "global warming" the real world is getting on with it - providing cheap and efficient energy, that is. £16m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry. How about that? [ Visit Website ] Nov 17, 2008, 14:24 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 China Reported Planning Big Shift Of FX Reserves Into Gold Western Central Bankers have been printing paper money and selling gold for quite a while now. The theory is that gold is a barbaric relic and no longer useful. Interesting that China is talking about increasing their gold reserves. Why can that be? What effect will that have on the markets? The money wars are heating up! Nov 17, 2008, 12:58 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Can Friedman's Money Rule Stabilize the Economy? Printing paper money is called counterfeiting except when governments do it - then it is called providing liquidity. The effects however are the same. An increase in money supply comes on the market from the banking system and those who can get it early in the cycle are able to do things like buy properties before the resulting inflation works its way around the economy. Thus the new profession of House Flippers, and other non-productive efforts flourish. This leads to the bubble economy and the eventual bust. But Milton Friedman proposed that this would not happen if the money supply was increased in a nice steady way at a lower percentage. Would this stop the boom/bust syndrome that bedevils our society? Read on . . . [ Visit Website ] Nov 13, 2008, 11:30 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Apocalypse Now The people of the world are going to go through relatively hard times in the next few years. Just to get a sense of perspective I thought you might like to read this little piece from Bill Bonner. Sustainability seems to be the most recent buzz word from the new Greeny religion and I have to say that sustainability sounds like a really good idea. The problem is that with the Greens in charge the golden goose of capitalism would be strangled to death and sustainability would be unachievable. Maybe John and Rodney can forge a sustainable future for New Zealand. But to do that they will need to stop this continual boom and bust economy from disintegrating. No easy task! Anyway, read Bill's story - we don't have it too bad. Nov 11, 2008, 10:32 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Gold and The Lessons of History Why should we interest ourselves in gold? Modern money men smile indulgently at gold and call it "that barbaric relic" as Keynes did in the 1920s. In the USA they had a gold standard for most of the time between the late 1700s until 1913 and over that period they also had stable prices. No inflation. However things changed with the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank. Not for the better. Nov 10, 2008, 12:24 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 21 November 2008 Quote for the Week Lack of money is the root of all evil. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) Nov 9, 2008, 12:06