“I’m sitting on cash,” Felix Zulauf said when he was asked in an interview where he was putting his money. With decades of asset management experience under his belt, he’d founded Zulauf Asset Management in Switzerland in 1990. But now he was worried—and has turned negative on just about everything.
Budget Hawks Till Something Gets Cut In Their Districts
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Budget Hawks Till Something Gets Cut In Their Districts
“Preventing future acts of terrorism” is the most critical foreign-policy goal for Americans. Next: proliferation of nuclear weapons, energy supply, trade policies, etc. Fighting off Soviet tanks rumbling towards Frankfurt didn’t make the list. Yet Congress, in its infinite wisdom, is still pushing weapons designed to do just that, whether the Pentagon wants them or not.
‘They Tell The French Illusions and Lies.’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on ‘They Tell The French Illusions and Lies.’
France is in upheaval. Arguments erupt live on TV, demonstrations block the streets, strikes shut down plants, and threats of mayhem are part of the show. The problem: an economy where businesses are suffocating under an obese public sector. Ever larger budgets have been the only source of economic growth. But now that model has run aground.
What Ferrari’s Glorious Results Tell Us About The World
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on What Ferrari’s Glorious Results Tell Us About The World
The announcement couldn’t have been more glorious in crisis-struck Italy: Ferrari booked records sales and profits in 2012. Dazzling in every aspect. Not a single cloud darkened the horizon. Except in Italy where sales collapsed. And in the rest of the world, where central-bank printer ink stained the records.
Facebook, Coolest Cutest Corporate Welfare Queen Of Them All
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Facebook, Coolest Cutest Corporate Welfare Queen Of Them All
Last year, the government extracted $1.1 trillion in taxes from us individual taxpayers. But now it will pay, along with the states, $429 million of our taxes to the coolest Silicon-Valley beauty queen: Facebook. In net tax refunds! Part of a vast package of juicy corporate welfare programs. Facebook isn’t just hogging our data; it’s gobbling up our money.
Now A Vast Political Espionage Scandal To Top Off The Sordid Corruption Scandal In Spain
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Now A Vast Political Espionage Scandal To Top Off The Sordid Corruption Scandal In Spain
Cyprus, ‘A Money Laundering Machine For Russian criminals’ – Amounts, Flows, and Mechanics
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Cyprus, ‘A Money Laundering Machine For Russian criminals’ – Amounts, Flows, and Mechanics
Russia’s booming underground economy with its dizzying flows of illicit oil money is at the core of an 84-page report by Global Financial Integrity. It advises the Russian government on how to tackle this problem. But buried deep inside is a gem: the flows and amounts of Russian “black money” into and out of Cyprus.
Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes. So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon.
Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France
Prime Minister Ayrault himself presided over Monday’s meeting of the National Anti-Fraud Committee. “A first for a head of government,” he said at the press conference, to hammer home just how important this was. But he wasn’t worried about run-of-the-mill fraud that might fleece an old lady of her life savings. He was worried about people not paying their taxes. And he had a remedy.
Wall Street Takes Over Its Regulator
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Wall Street Takes Over Its Regulator
“Former employees of the SEC routinely help corporations influence SEC rulemaking, counter the agency’s investigations, soften the blow of SEC enforcement actions, and win exemptions from federal law.” A damning report on how Wall Street insiders rotate in and out of the SEC—until Wall Street culture and personalities dominate the agency. Regulation and enforcement become a joke. A principle called, “Regulatory Capture.”