Submitted by: ButtCracker — Following the recent clashes between the alt-right and the group antifa, some libertarians have debated which group they should support. The answer is simple: neither. The alt-right and its leftist opponents are two sides of the…
President Donald Trump’s demands for loyalty from the individuals in his administration have been a hot topic for weeks in U.S. media. But what the media has yet to explain is how so many law partners from global corporate law…
Last Monday, Thomas Hoenig, the Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), sent a stunning letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. The letter contained information that should have become front page…
Now that US President Donald Trump has been in office for six months, we can more confidently assess the prospects for the US economy and economic policy making under his administration. And, like Trump’s presidency more generally, paradoxes abound. The…
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as of March 31, 2017 there were a total of 5,856 banks in the U.S. operating under its Federal deposit insurance umbrella. But according to government financial researchers, five of those banks…
Submitted by: ButtCracker — The dollar bill, that long-time rival of credit-card giants, is under attack once again. After years of fighting to get their cards accepted in stores, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are stepping up efforts to get merchants…
Submitted by: ButtCracker — America’s renewed desire to escalate military tensions is a front for America’s continual financial war, this time directed at North Korea, Syria and possibly Iran. This is likely to be the opinion of China’s strategic advisers.…
Welcome to debt-serfdom, the only possible output of the soaring cost of living for the unprotected many who are ruled by a hubris-soaked, subsidized Protected Elite. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation is bogus on a number of…
Submitted by: ButtCracker — The GOP-led Federal Communications Commission this week released the first details of its long-anticipated plan to roll-back Obama-era net neutrality protections. The good news for net neutrality advocates: You can already voice your official displeasure on…
I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is successful primarily because it can impose the majority of the costs associated with its economic activities on outside parties and on the environment. In other words, capitalists make profits because their…
Increasingly, under the mantra of liquidity, trading activity on Wall Street that would have resulted in criminal charges in another era is yawned at by regulators. The week that Donald Trump shocked markets around the globe by getting himself elected…
Submitted by: ButtCracker — Protecting internet privacy should be a bipartisan issue, right? After all, Americans seem united in their dislike of the phone and cable behemoths that dominate internet service in the US. More importantly, the principle of protecting…
The S&P 500 Index and CBOE Volatility Index have historically moved in opposite directions about 80 percent of the time, but that’s changed recently… As Bloomberg reports, both gauges are heading for declines this month, after the two rose in…
The Trump kleptocrats are political arsonists. They are carting cans of gasoline into government agencies and Congress to burn down any structure or program that promotes the common good and impedes corporate profit. They ineptly have set themselves on fire…
Nobody yet can tell whether Donald Trump is an agent of change with a specific policy in mind, or merely a catalyst heralding an as yet undetermined turning point. His first month in the White House saw him melting into…
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists. ― Hannah Arendt People living in the United States…
By Justin Gardner The second state in less than a month has made a direct challenge to the Federal Reserve monopoly on money, by forwarding a bill that would “eliminate capital gains taxes on gold and silver specie.” The Idaho…
One. Big. Squeeze… It was quite a week for ‘uncertainty’ as Europe’s VIX crashed to record lows, and FX and Rate vols plunged after the Fed move and Dutch elections.. benefits. Discover the strength of Legg Mason…
In the shadow of Donald Trump’s spree of controversial actions, the European commission has quietly launched the next offensive in the war on cash. These unelected bureaucrats have boldly asserted their intention to crack down on paper transactions across the…
Submitted by: ButtCracker — The Senate voted strictly along party lines Friday morning to repeal a regulation requiring disclosures for the payments that energy companies make to foreign governments. The measure passed 52-47 in a pre-dawn vote. The Securities and Exchange…
