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by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds that the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is Tyler Durden, founder and chief demagogue of the popular econoblog Zero Hedge. Zero Hedge's mission is to bring back a more critical, rigorous, and informed style of commentary and synthesis for the professional investing public. The blog has experienced explosive growth in it's two-year existence, due in part to its prolific coverage of financial events as well as its unapologetic (some say controversial) editorial approach, which is often highly critical of today's economic and political leaders.


 

1. What led you to start Zero Hedge? Was there a particular story or moment? For many of our readers, you have become the CNN of the Great Collapse (this is seen as a positive thing). Is this what you set out to be?

Zero Hedge was started two years ago in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crash, as coined by Bill Buckler, when we realized there is a substantial vacuum in information distribution, and to a lesser extent, processing. The financial media world was (and to a great extent still is) dominated by journalists who were learning finance on the job and thus were incapable of putting the dots together on most stories under investigation.

Straight Talk with Tyler Durden: The U.S. Is Free-Falling Into Bankruptcy
by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds that the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is Tyler Durden, founder and chief demagogue of the popular econoblog Zero Hedge. Zero Hedge's mission is to bring back a more critical, rigorous, and informed style of commentary and synthesis for the professional investing public. The blog has experienced explosive growth in it's two-year existence, due in part to its prolific coverage of financial events as well as its unapologetic (some say controversial) editorial approach, which is often highly critical of today's economic and political leaders.


 

1. What led you to start Zero Hedge? Was there a particular story or moment? For many of our readers, you have become the CNN of the Great Collapse (this is seen as a positive thing). Is this what you set out to be?

Zero Hedge was started two years ago in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crash, as coined by Bill Buckler, when we realized there is a substantial vacuum in information distribution, and to a lesser extent, processing. The financial media world was (and to a great extent still is) dominated by journalists who were learning finance on the job and thus were incapable of putting the dots together on most stories under investigation.

by Chris Martenson

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Executive Summary

  • Money supply (M2) has been steadily growing for a decade, and banks hold an unprecedented amount of excess reserves that could enter the market at any time.
  • Credit growth is flatlining.
  • Debt in the household & financial sectors (the big enchilada) exhibits the deflationary trends that are pre-occupying the Fed.
  • Federal government credit is exploding upwards as a result.
  • Corporate and state debt are increasing, but at more moderate rates.
  • Energy costs are high and getting higher = inflationary.
  • Confidence in paper currencies is plummeting = potentially hyperinflationary.
  • Forecast for the future…

Part I

If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.

Part II 

In Part I, we stepped through prices as useful indicators of whether we are in a period of inflation or deflation.  Because there’s no more important determination to make than to get an early read on whether we are facing a future of inflation or deflation, we are going to dive a bit more deeply into the evidence here to round out the story.

Let’s begin with….

Money

The classic definition of inflation or deflation is a “relative change in the amount of money compared to goods and services.”  Too much money and you have inflation; too little and you have deflation.

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand
PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

Don’t Be Fooled: Inflation Has The Upper Hand

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Executive Summary

  • Money supply (M2) has been steadily growing for a decade, and banks hold an unprecedented amount of excess reserves that could enter the market at any time.
  • Credit growth is flatlining.
  • Debt in the household & financial sectors (the big enchilada) exhibits the deflationary trends that are pre-occupying the Fed.
  • Federal government credit is exploding upwards as a result.
  • Corporate and state debt are increasing, but at more moderate rates.
  • Energy costs are high and getting higher = inflationary.
  • Confidence in paper currencies is plummeting = potentially hyperinflationary.
  • Forecast for the future…

Part I

If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.

Part II 

In Part I, we stepped through prices as useful indicators of whether we are in a period of inflation or deflation.  Because there’s no more important determination to make than to get an early read on whether we are facing a future of inflation or deflation, we are going to dive a bit more deeply into the evidence here to round out the story.

Let’s begin with….

Money

The classic definition of inflation or deflation is a “relative change in the amount of money compared to goods and services.”  Too much money and you have inflation; too little and you have deflation.

by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds that the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is Charles Hugh Smith, who has been an independent journalist for 22 years. His weblog, www.oftwominds.com, is a daily compendium of observations and analysis on the global economy and financial markets, as well as notable political, social, and cultural trends. Charles has authored a number of books across several genres, including the recent Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation.


1. Of the many forces at play that you write about within the economy, society, and politics, which ones do you see as the most defining for the future? How do you expect things to unfold?

CHS:  Clearly, demographics and Peak Oil are forces which cannot be massaged away by policy tweaks or financial engineering. I think the exhaustion of Global Neoliberal Capitalism and State Capitalism is apparent, as is the bankruptcy of the two ideologies that more or less define our politics. The reliance on expansion of credit and State power is a dynamic with only unhappy endings.

 

Straight Talk with Charles Hugh Smith: Why The Status Quo Is Unsustainable
by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds that the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is Charles Hugh Smith, who has been an independent journalist for 22 years. His weblog, www.oftwominds.com, is a daily compendium of observations and analysis on the global economy and financial markets, as well as notable political, social, and cultural trends. Charles has authored a number of books across several genres, including the recent Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation.


1. Of the many forces at play that you write about within the economy, society, and politics, which ones do you see as the most defining for the future? How do you expect things to unfold?

CHS:  Clearly, demographics and Peak Oil are forces which cannot be massaged away by policy tweaks or financial engineering. I think the exhaustion of Global Neoliberal Capitalism and State Capitalism is apparent, as is the bankruptcy of the two ideologies that more or less define our politics. The reliance on expansion of credit and State power is a dynamic with only unhappy endings.

 

by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds who you, the PeakProsperity.com audience, have indicated that you want to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is G. Edward Griffin — political lecturer, film producer, and author.  In his best-known book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, Griffin details how money is created and exposes the anything-but-boring history of how the Federal Reserve came into being. The book provides one of the best explanations of how our monetary system works, as well as a prescient foreshadowing of the Fed's bailout of the financial system at taxpayer expense.  


 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Practically everything that you outlined in your book The Creature From Jekyll Island has come to pass.  Bailouts, increased centralization of power, all of it.  Now what happens?  We are having a hard time envisioning the current debt-based fiat money system surviving for much longer (let alone forever).  If not fiat money, then what?   What are the next moves for those who might wish to see the continuation of their extremely lucrative franchise?

GEG:   What happens next also is portrayed in my book, and it isn't pretty.

Straight Talk with G. Edward Griffin: What’s Coming Next Isn’t Pretty
by Adam Taggart

"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds who you, the PeakProsperity.com audience, have indicated that you want to learn more about.  Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.

This week's Straight Talk contributor is G. Edward Griffin — political lecturer, film producer, and author.  In his best-known book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, Griffin details how money is created and exposes the anything-but-boring history of how the Federal Reserve came into being. The book provides one of the best explanations of how our monetary system works, as well as a prescient foreshadowing of the Fed's bailout of the financial system at taxpayer expense.  


 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Practically everything that you outlined in your book The Creature From Jekyll Island has come to pass.  Bailouts, increased centralization of power, all of it.  Now what happens?  We are having a hard time envisioning the current debt-based fiat money system surviving for much longer (let alone forever).  If not fiat money, then what?   What are the next moves for those who might wish to see the continuation of their extremely lucrative franchise?

GEG:   What happens next also is portrayed in my book, and it isn't pretty.

by Chris Martenson

It’s Official: The Economy Is Set To Starve

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Executive Summary

  • The age of conventional oil is over, but energy demand will continue to climb.
  • Natural gas is the “silver” of energy plays.
  • The inexorable onset of Peak Oil will drive natural gas much, much higher.
  • A tipping point of awareness approaches.
  • Prepare for extreme market volatility.

Part I

It’s the End of the Oil As We Know It…

Please click here to read Part I of this report.

Part II

Scouring the Globe for Fuel

Please click here to read Part II of this report.

Part III

Okay, so we’ve come to the conclusion that by the time the IEA, which has every incentive to underplay the timing and impact of Peak Oil, has publicly done everything but hand the world an engraved invitation on a silver platter that reads You are cordially invited to accept the reality of Peak Oil, it’s already past time to begin making whatever adjustments you are going to make.

Remember, it is my view that when the changes finally arrive in full force, their speed will overtake most people’s, countries’, and companies’ ability to react gracefully. (Click here for a recent report on this subject). Which means that the time to begin these efforts, if you have not already started, is now.

But we’ve gone over this in quite a bit of detail recently, and so I will not rehash those thoughts here and now. This report begins with the assumption that you have taken care of the basics: food, water, energy, and shelter. Further, you have gold and silver. You’ve got enough spare goods, parts, and necessities to take care of yourself, your family, and a few others besides. You’ve safely removed a comfortable portion of your wealth from the paper-based banking and financial systems. You are diligently working on building your local community.

Okay, so you’ve done all of that.  Now what?

It’s Official: The Economy Is Set To Starve
PREVIEW by Chris Martenson

It’s Official: The Economy Is Set To Starve

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Executive Summary

  • The age of conventional oil is over, but energy demand will continue to climb.
  • Natural gas is the “silver” of energy plays.
  • The inexorable onset of Peak Oil will drive natural gas much, much higher.
  • A tipping point of awareness approaches.
  • Prepare for extreme market volatility.

Part I

It’s the End of the Oil As We Know It…

Please click here to read Part I of this report.

Part II

Scouring the Globe for Fuel

Please click here to read Part II of this report.

Part III

Okay, so we’ve come to the conclusion that by the time the IEA, which has every incentive to underplay the timing and impact of Peak Oil, has publicly done everything but hand the world an engraved invitation on a silver platter that reads You are cordially invited to accept the reality of Peak Oil, it’s already past time to begin making whatever adjustments you are going to make.

Remember, it is my view that when the changes finally arrive in full force, their speed will overtake most people’s, countries’, and companies’ ability to react gracefully. (Click here for a recent report on this subject). Which means that the time to begin these efforts, if you have not already started, is now.

But we’ve gone over this in quite a bit of detail recently, and so I will not rehash those thoughts here and now. This report begins with the assumption that you have taken care of the basics: food, water, energy, and shelter. Further, you have gold and silver. You’ve got enough spare goods, parts, and necessities to take care of yourself, your family, and a few others besides. You’ve safely removed a comfortable portion of your wealth from the paper-based banking and financial systems. You are diligently working on building your local community.

Okay, so you’ve done all of that.  Now what?

by Adam Taggart

The second part of Chris’ interview with Ted Butler, noted commentator on the silver market, is reserved below for you, our enrolled members.

If you’ve not yet listened to Part 1, click here to do so.

Part 2 of the interview takes a deep dive into the mechanics of how the alleged manipulation of the silver price has been conducted, as well as Ted’s outlook on the future price for the metal.

Simply put, this interview (Parts 1 & 2) is a ‘must listen’ for anyone currently invested in silver or thinking about doing so.

Chris Interviews Ted Butler: The End of Silver Price Manipulation – Part 2
PREVIEW by Adam Taggart

The second part of Chris’ interview with Ted Butler, noted commentator on the silver market, is reserved below for you, our enrolled members.

If you’ve not yet listened to Part 1, click here to do so.

Part 2 of the interview takes a deep dive into the mechanics of how the alleged manipulation of the silver price has been conducted, as well as Ted’s outlook on the future price for the metal.

Simply put, this interview (Parts 1 & 2) is a ‘must listen’ for anyone currently invested in silver or thinking about doing so.

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