In London, copper prices climbed for the second day on Wednesday due to speculation that Chinese demand will increase. State Information Center chief economist Zhu Baoliang reported that after hitting a low this quarter, Chinese growth should slowly accelerate during the remainder of 2012. By 9:27 AM on Wednesday, London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month delivery ... Read More »
October 18 will signify either a salvation or a prolonged suffering for Greece. The euro-zone leader’s summit, set for the 18th in Brussels, will complete the modifications to the European Financial Stability Facility, the bailout fund used to save Portugal and Ireland last year, to have the extended funds and power to bail out Greece. ... Read More »
Greece never should have joined the EU in the first place. Doing so tied the nation down, pushed them into a world of easier credit, and flooded the country with cheap exports. When Greece joined the EU, they signed away economic sovereignty and prosperity. Debt: Greece’s Original Sin Ever since the founding of modern Greece ... Read More »
The price of natural gas has been pretty cheap since the financial crisis a few years ago — much cheaper than many predictions and forecasts have concluded. There are plenty of reasons for this that anyone considering energy investing should understand. If your goal is to invest in energy at all, then you should read this. ... Read More »
As companies have felt the economic squeeze during the past three years, due to the recession, valuable lessons can be learned from the manufacturing sector. Any entrepreneur should learn what manufacturing companies are doing to compensate for these hard times. First, however, many argue that people place too much emphasis on manufacturing as the primary ... Read More »
In the last few weeks, I’ve been posting less for two reasons — first, I’ve been enjoying learning about economics, investing, and finance on an online membership training program. I’ll be writing about this sometime this week to explain how you can join to learn as well. Second, I’ve actually sold my main gold website, ... Read More »
Yesterday, it was reported that US GDP growth slowed during this past quarter from 3.1% to a new low since last spring: 1.8%. Naturally, people responded to this statistic negatively. Consumer confidence dropped for the first time in a month as US household’s 6-month outlook was hesitant. However, contrary to popular opinion, this slowed GDP ... Read More »
Is copper going to be the next gold? Some people say yes — including the world’s biggest gold mining company. Gold is breaking records in terms of price but it may be copper that wins the prize. In a surprise move, the top gold bullion producer in the world, Barrick Gold Corp., recently bid for ... Read More »
As I’ve written about repeatedly in the past, the government routinely changes how it reports inflation in order to make the new larger numbers look smaller. If we reported inflation now the way we used to report it in the 70s before some of the major “changes” in reporting protocol, we’d see that for february, ... Read More »
Japan, the second largest foreign government that effectively owns the US debt, has been hit with a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. This probably means noticeably higher interest rates across the board for Americans over the next year or so as they rebuild and start selling US gov securities in order to pay for their reconstruction. ... Read More »
In 2007 when the housing bubble collapsed, it was widely recognized that perhaps the key factor in the rapidly collapsing financial sector was the artificially lowered mortgage rates. Since 2000, the Federal Reserve had been carefully cultivating a housing bubble by manipulating the industry to create unprecedentedly low interest rates. This caused banks everywhere to ... Read More »
Massive inflation is going to hit the United States and most of the western world. It’s unavoidable. Over the last few weeks, I’ve written all about what inflation is, how it works, who it hurts, who it helps, and how to prepare for it. You can read the other articles here in the inflation course. ... Read More »
Over the past few days, I’ve received emails from readers around the world who are scared about the food riots, concerned about the world economy, and looking for direction. My life is still comfortable in America, but inflating food and energy and commodity prices around the world are leaving people hungry and unprepared. We just ... Read More »
Moody’s Investor Service is one of the leading credit rating agencies in the world. When they rate a company or government’s credit score, it typically is pretty dead on. If a government gets a bad credit score, then the government suddenly starts having to paying a higher interest rate. Unfortunately, Bloomberg News reports that Moody’s ... Read More »
It’s happening, it’s on the news, and it’s a scary as it gets. The UN just reported that food prices are the highest in recorded history. Just a few months ago, we explained that food and commodities in general were already exploding. Well, now we’re seeing the results of the inflation, and the world is ... Read More »
Despite so much focus on the policies of the Fed, its operations remain somewhat of a mystery to most investors — in no smaller measure, due to their complexity. So, we put together a free resource for our Club EWI members: a 35-page report that explains the Fed, its goals and, very importantly, its limitations ... Read More »
As the conventional and cheap oil and gas start to dry up in the Middle East… a bigger, even better opportunity seeks to replace it. For many who aren’t familiar with the region, the Middle East comes across as an updated version of Lawrence’s Arabia, only with lots of oil. But this mosaic of cultures ... Read More »
Amid the fierce debate over our tottering Social Security program, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Social Security isn’t just an entitlement for those over the age of 65. It’s also a government-run disability insurance program for over 152 million American workers. And not surprisingly, it’s a government program that is poorly ... Read More »
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, just announce that he’s thinking about printing even more than the $600 billion that was flooded into the economy in the last few months. Considering economists and investors across the board absolutely blasted the last round of printing money, the Fed is making it clear that they’re ... Read More »
While there are some small signs that the American economy may be slowly easing its way out of the Great Recession, across the pond economic turmoil remains. The Ireland fiasco is only a small part of the economic woes sure to hit the EU in the coming months, and the viability of the Euro itself ... Read More »
As the possibility for a second Korean War looms and tens of thousands of people suffer from cholera in Haiti, it can be refreshing to hear some positive news, especially about the economy. Economic indicators are looking positive, though a more careful reading into the figures show less hope than initially indicated. According to the ... Read More »
Like a slow train finally pulling into the station, the question of what to do with the Bush tax cuts has arrived before congress. While policymakers bicker over the specifics, it is amusing to see how importantly some are treating these tax rates to our nation’s long term economic health when, in reality, the national ... Read More »
This is probably one of the most powerful videos of recent news events I’ve seen. It’s a speech by Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party. He’s also a member of the European Parliment, meaning he gets to speak his mind to the other members of the European Union’s parliament. A few days ago, he ... Read More »
We’ve talked a lot about the collapse of the dollar, the rise of inflation, and how the federal reserve wants to weaken US currency. Just the other day, it looks like something else happened which should have been expected to anyone who questions the wisdom of the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the President. China and ... Read More »
The Fed is a corrupt and powerful institution, and Chairman Bernanke is making the global crisis worse. His new speech given last week in Europe was terribly misguided and will upset markets as the Chinese and Germans won’t ignore his challenges. Bernanke’s interpretations of the markets have been wrong since before he was appointed to ... Read More »