Greenspan Revisionism From Samuelsson and Boudreaux

After Greenspan’s departure from the Fed, there have been a number of reviews of his era. Some, like The Economist, have largely agreed with my negative assessment of Greenspan’s era while others have been more neutral. Then there have been others who have really been remarkably misleading, most notably those from Robert “No relation to Paul” Samuelsson of Newsweek and George Mason University Professor Donald J. Boudreaux.

Credit Agricole Issues Gold Report

Cheuvreux, the brokerage arm of the French Credit Agricole, has issued a report on the gold market. The Cheuvreux report cites Mises in three places (pages 4, 41, and 43). The report endorses the research of GATA, an organization that has been alleging central bank manipulation of the gold market. The major conclusion of the report is that the western central banks have sold a larger fraction of their gold reserves than they acknowledge in their offical statements.

Fiscal Schizophrenia

Fiscal Schizophrenia

As reported in The New York Times of today, Feb. 4, 2006

 

Headline of The Times’ main story on page one:

Bush to Propose Vast Cost Savings in Medicare Plan— $30 Billion Over 5 Years”

 

Headline and some text from a separate story on page 8:

“Bush Urges Study of Math and Science”

 

Does the widening US trade deficit pose a threat to the economy?

Most economists are of the view that the ever-growing US trade deficit and the subsequent expanding foreign debt pose a threat to the well-being of Americans. What is then required, so it is held, is to set in motion policies that will help curtail the widening trade imbalances between the United States and the rest of the world. Focusing on the trade deficit as the supposedly major problem of the US economy only diverts the attention from the real culprit, which is the US central bank. FULL ARTICLE