It sounds strange to a lot of people that both deflation and inflation are being talked about right now as if they could possibly happen at the same time. If inflation is rising prices, and deflation is falling prices, how could they happen at the same time? In fact, there
Category: Economics
Total 31 Posts
Cryptogon is an excellent news site which I highly recommend to anyone who would like his news pre-filtered for importance. In a recent post Cryptogon expresses surprise that the Fed might start buying treasuries. In fact, most of us have been wondering why the Fed HASN’T been buying treasuries, since, in fact, this is what the Fed does
I’ve decided to start a new category called “The Basics.” When someone asks me a question that is basic to the libertarian political philosophy, to objectivist ethics, or economic principles, I’m going to try to write an article that answers their question and post it here online for those who
At this point, it’s worth taking a look at what happened in 1929. If you’re not yet familiar with this chart, let’s just say that you probably will become familiar with it over the next few years. This chart is from Yahoo. Click the image to go to Yahoo’s Finance
A few weeks ago I was worrying over commodities. They had totally crashed (and are still crashing). Friends of mine in the market weren’t worried. All I could think was with gold falling like a rock, the stock market wasn’t going to be long behind. (Dow/Gold Zoom remember?) When the
This is just priceless: From Reuters: BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the “atrocious economic policies” of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Carter told reporters on a stopover in Brussels that “profligate spending,” massive
The idea that the government can bail out everybody seems to have given the market a kick. Personally, I think this is a whole lot of frantic short covering related to the attempt by the government to fix the prices of certain securities. In my humble opinion this can only
If you are worried about what’s going on with gold and silver prices, don’t be. The price decline is the result of leverage and will eventually right itself. The Dow/Gold Zoom is still on track (and today’s bloodbath in the market will right it somewhat). Remember, you haven’t lost a
I found it instructive to look at the stock market (Dow) and gold separately during the previous boom/bust cycles. In the 20’s and 30’s the United States was on a gold standard, meaning the value of a dollar was “tied” to gold. This tie to gold stopped the Federal Reserve
Note: if you are searching for the Austrian Business Cycle and landing here, you might be interested in The Dow/Gold Zoom, which is a chart that shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced in gold. This might help you to get an idea where we are in the “cycle”. The
There is often talk in the financial papers about the “savings rate.” You’ll often see pundits making moral judgments about how Americans spend too much and save too little implying that the average American is a spendthrift, wasting resources, and living on borrowed time. On the flip side, there are
Here I’ve adjusted the prices of gold and silver to the M2 money supply figure. Note the spike in the price of silver relative to gold in 1979. This chart is in pdf format. Silver and Gold M2 Adjusted
In any study of economics, it’s important to remember — all prices are ratios. That means that they are always in flux as the values of one or the other or both commodities change, whether one of those commodities is used as money or not. This is, of course, a
Just how high is the price of oil? The CPI is a rather suspect inflation indicator, so here are oil prices adjusted for the M3 money supply. As M3 has been discontinued, this chart will no longer be updated. I may consider publishing a version of it using M2 or
It is often pointed out that the Federal Reserve is a “private” corporation. In fact, it is very much a government entity. For that reason, it is worth getting a look at the the money supply in relation to the Federal Reserve chairmen and the presidents. As M3 has been
