Rolling the Dice!

We’re All Speculators Now!

One of the most perverse consequences of the central banks "saving the world" (i.e. saving banks and the super-wealthy) is the destruction of low-risk investments: we're all speculators now, whether we know it or acknowledge it. 

The problem is very few of us have the expertise and experience to be successful speculators, i.e. successfully manage treacherously high-risk markets. Here's the choice facing money managers of pension funds and individuals alike: either invest in a safe low-risk asset such as Treasury bonds and lose money every year, as the yield doesn't even match inflation, or accept the extraordinarily high risks of boom-bust bubble assets such as junk bonds, stocks, real estate, etc. 

Record global debt: What it means for the next crisis

In 2016, global debt hit a record 225 percent of world wealth, according to the IMF’s Global Debt Database, which tracks 190 countries from 1950 to the present day. That figure measures debt taken on by companies, governments, you and me. 

Debt is a double-edged sword. It’s fueling global growth at a time of stagnant wages. But as the 2008 financial crisis illustrated so painfully, when a bubble does eventually burst, the losses ripple far and wide and we just don’t know enough about how all that global debt is linked.

DYI:  High debt levels and insane asset prices is a prescription for disaster.  When??? That of course is the all-encompassing question that unfortunately no one knows!  Will it be the huge melt down like 1929 to 1932 or will we go Japanese from 1990 to 2009 with a 20 year bear market?  Who knows?  What we do know future returns will be dismal at best and worst there will be losses even with holding for the next 10 to 15 years. 

EU Does Nothing to Stop US Meddling into Its Elections

The hackneyed old stories about the threat of Russian “meddling” in the elections of other countries have gone stale. Since no real evidence has ever been presented, they don’t attract much public attention anymore. It is generally believed that poor Europe is not ready to stop Russia, but it should be, as the European parliamentary election scheduled for May 2019 is drawing closer. Warnings have been issued, alarm bells sounded, and recommendations presented by think tanks. Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned about the “Russia threat” as far back as last March. As there was nothing to substantiate his statement, one can only assume that the former official has been endowed with the gift of clairvoyance. 

No, the EU leadership is not dismayed enough to raise a hue and cry over the scandalous remarks made by US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. It sees no need to do anything about it. In June, the ambassador did not shy away from openly promising to use his office to help far-right nationalists inspired by Donald Trump take power across Europe! In an interview with Breitbart News, Richard Grenell said he was “excited” by the rise of far-right parties on the continent and wanted “to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders.” Those were his literal words! 

If that’s not interference, then what is? But no, no warning has been issued about the danger of US meddling in Europe’s May elections. Just imagine what would happen if a Russian ambassador to an EU country publicly said such a thing! Mr. Grenell did not see anything wrong with praising the Austrian government coalition, which includes the Freedom Party that was formed in the 1950s by a former Nazi officer. He actually lectured the Germans about what their government should look like. It seems like times have changed and intervening in European politics on behalf of far-right leaders has become the norm, at least for the ambassadors of the United States.

DYI:  The U.S. has meddled in elections all over the world and it continues to this day.  To say we are the good guys pushing for democracy the world over has unfortunately become a very sick joke!  Once the CIA was formed in 1947 it was off to the races for controlling more and more countries.  The CIA interferes in domestic elections as well.  If you want your country back to Constitutional constraints we can begin by doing away with the CIA/FBI along with cutting in half all military spending.  That would be a great start.

DYI