Japan no longer a ‘saving power’
The Daily Yomiuri reports that the Japanese savings rate is converging toward the US savings rate, which is approximately zero. The incredible willingness of Japanese to defer present satisfaction in favor of investment in productive capacity was one of the major factors in their rapid economic growth from an impoverished nation as recently as the end of World War 2 into one of the world’s wealthiest nations.
Backgrounder on Freddie
For an overview of the GSEs and the mortgage boom: see Christopher Mayer’s outstanding piece from the May 2001 issue of The Free Market. He writes: “Less well-known, the GSEs enjoy subsidies. (See “Freddie, Fannie Subsidies Up Sharply, Lawmaker Says” by Kathleen Day and Sandra Fleisman in the January 5, 2001 Washington Post.) The Post reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac receive about $10 billion per year in federal subsidies.
The Bubble and the Needle
Criminal investigations into Freddie Mac, one of the main airhoses into the housing bubble.
Dinar News Grows Ever Stranger
As Lew Rockwell notes, the US’s printing of Saddam’s money is poignant symbol of the failure of the occupation. Now we learn from the Washington Times that:
Beige Book!
The Fed’s Beige Book is out, and (as usual) tells us what we already know.
Health Care for All!
Government cannot create something from nothing. But the premise of universal health care is that the government can bestow benefits upon members of society that it had not created for itself. It imposes on the economic body something that did not come from within its own means, or by its own choice, meaning the choices of the many individuals that make up the economy.
Lend me your Ears (and anything else you can spare)
A small excerpt from a recent piece (Read Here) on the latest US Flow of Funds report:
‘During the Bear Market, households have increased debt by $9.38 for every extra $1 of wage or proprietorial income earned – a degree of distress leverage 3.3 times worse than anything previously employed.
Put Everyone on the US Payroll!
US rebuilding Iraqi economy: MSNBC: ’’Creating jobs now is our first priority, we need to get the economy turning over,’’ [U.S. Administrator Paul] Bremer said. ‘’One of the things that is already creating jobs is the fact that we’re paying salaries to almost two million civil servants.”
More Fascinating Dinar News
Tremendously interesting story from Bloomberg. Some choice passages:
