Unlike Detroit, which will run out of cash next month, Japan prints its own money, so bankruptcy in the Detroit sense is not in the cards. But they do have two things in common: depopulation and a ballooning stock of abandoned houses. For Japan, it’s an issue that even the most prodigious money-printing binge cannot resolve.
Russia’s Plan For The BRICS To Dismantle The Dollar System
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Russia’s Plan For The BRICS To Dismantle The Dollar System
Contributed by Valentin Mândrăşescu, Editor of The Voice of Russia’s Reality Check. Former commodity trader, economist, journalist. Nomadic lifestyle. When not in Moscow, he can be found travelling across Eastern Europe. The status of the US dollar as the world reserve currency gives the US a number of advantages over other countries. The world’s most…
Every President His Bubble – And Its Aftermath
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Every President His Bubble – And Its Aftermath
During their second term, Presidents become obsessed with “legacy.” One of the yardsticks to measure success is the stock market. Many people can relate to it. Retirement depends on it. It’s mentioned even on NPR several times a day. Outside of a few shorts, everyone wants it to go up. But President Obama must now be biting his fingernails down to the quick.
When Flight Safety Gets Outsourced To China
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on When Flight Safety Gets Outsourced To China
Aircraft maintenance was a highly paid blue-collar job that required education, training, manual skills, and brains. It was one of the perfect American middle-class jobs with generous healthcare, retirement, and vacation benefits; and free flights! They were working for icons like Delta, American Airlines, Continental, TWA, or Pan Am. Icons indeed!
The EU’s Out-Of-Control Intelligence Services That Everyone Pretends Don’t Exist
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The EU’s Out-Of-Control Intelligence Services That Everyone Pretends Don’t Exist
Officially, the EU doesn’t have an intelligence service. It’s dependent on the national intelligence services of its members. Officially. In reality, it is building an intelligence apparatus of six services, populated already by 1,300 specialists, some operating overseas, with vast databases at their fingertips. Much of it beyond any kind of democratic control.
The Next Big Thing: The Fear Of Climate Change
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Next Big Thing: The Fear Of Climate Change
The last big thing was green tech – from wave-power generators to the smart grid. Hyped in the bipartisan stimulus bill, it promised gobs of jobs, billions in revenues, and untold riches. Private investors plowed in billions too. It ended up in a massive pileup of capital destruction. Fatalities were everywhere.
“The Mother Of All Shorts”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on “The Mother Of All Shorts”
The Dow and S&P 500 are stumbling like drunken but determined sailors from one all-time high to the next, despite lousy employment and economic data, and declining corporate revenues. Bonds have done the same, and their 100-year graph has assumed the terrifying shape of open crocodile jaws, worse even than in 1999 and 2007.
The Infallible Fed At Verge Of (Not) Admitting Failure
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Infallible Fed At Verge Of (Not) Admitting Failure
“Labor market conditions are affected by factors outside a central bank’s control,” admitted Richmond Fed President Lacker as the employment report bounced around the world. Yet for years, the Fed has proclaimed that the heroic motivation for its selfless money-printing mania was the deep desire to improve the unemployment fiasco for average Americans.
Class-Action Lawsuits Come to France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Class-Action Lawsuits Come to France
In theory, a class-action lawsuit allows the little guy to stand up to a big corporation and seek redress. Alone, the little guy wouldn’t have the means. Justice comes down to money, and class-action lawsuits add leverage. In theory. It’s a world-famous American product, infested with flaws. And it’s about to be imported by … France!
Abenomics Tries To Make Sure Japan Is Going Down Swinging
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Abenomics Tries To Make Sure Japan Is Going Down Swinging
Anecdotal evidence has been piling up. Lamborghini sales hit the highest level in 14 years. Ferrari sales jumped 40%. Luxury retailers forecast fat profits. They ascribed it to Abenomics. “The sudden improvement in the stock market led to a big rise in sales at our department stores for luxury brands,” one of them said. But there is a price to pay.