Daily Readings 02-29-2012
I Tried to Open a Lemonade Stand
Want to open a business in America? It isn’t easy.
Before Ice Cream Shop Can Open, City’s Slow Churn
Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the restaurant, due largely to the city’s morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open.
I am the 50.5 percent.
I am, according to the Heritage Foundation, part of the lucky half of Americans who pay federal income taxes, so that the other half (technically the remaining 49.5 percent) can pay nothing.
Half of us are paying the whole bill. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair. Folks like Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama agree. They think we should pay more.
Buffett: Higher gas prices won’t derail economic recovery - HA-HA …recovery?
Sometimes Even Warren Buffett Gets It Wrong - Seems like some big mistakes
Just pick through Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders of his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. His pronouncements are eagerly anticipated by investors around the world. But sometimes even the Oracle gets it wrong.
With seemingly every day bringing more bad news from Europe, many are beginning to ask how much longer the United States has before our welfare state follows the European model into bankruptcy. The bad news is: It may already have.
G20 to Europe: show us the money
Leading economies told Europe it must put up extra money to fight its debt crisis if it wants more help from the rest of the world, piling pressure on Germany to drop its opposition to a bigger European bailout.
If everything goes right for China, it will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy, in current dollar terms (and more quickly in real terms), by 2021. Its per capita income will reach that of today’s lower tier of high-income countries. But, despite its forward momentum, the Chinese economy faces looming risks in the coming decade.
The Fed’s Anti-Recession Effort May Unleash 15% Inflation
Even at the current lending rate, the money supply has been growing faster than the economy. In December 2011, M2 — the money supply measure that includes currency, checking accounts, savings accounts, money-market mutual funds, and traveler’s checks — grew at a year-to-year rate of about 10%. The U.S. economy during this period grew at 2.8%.
Assuming no changes to the financial or payments system, this translates to a potential inflation rate of 7.2% (10% less 2.8%). This is basic monetary policy arithmetic. But it only considers money currently in circulation. Given the current volume of bank reserves, more money is certain to enter circulation, increasing the risk of even higher inflation.
John Williams: Warning – Monetary Base Spikes to Historic Level
John Williams just issued a warning regarding the Monetary Base vaulting to a historic high. Williams, who founded ShadowStats, also stated the reason for the expansion is directly related to a deepening systemic solvency crisis. Here is what Williams had to say about the situation: The seasonally-adjusted St. Louis Fed Adjusted Monetary Base just jumped to an historic high level in the two-week period ended February 22nd, as shown in the (above graph). The movement here largely is under direct control of the Fed’s Federal Open Mark Committee (FOMC) and is suggestive of a deepening systemic solvency crisis.”
How the Government is Robbing Pension Plans
Reinhart is the toast of economic circles these days for speaking out about the newest way Western governments are using financial repression to liquidate their debts, particularly after a financial crisis. They’re doing this on the backs of savers, including pension funds, according to economists. In practice, financial repression can lead to “the rape and plunder of pension funds. Financial repression consists of very low nominal interest rates combined with captive lending by large banks or pension funds to a government. The low, stable interest rate facilitates the servicing costs of large public debts. Sometimes modest inflation is added to the mix. This results in zero to negative real interest rates that reduce government debt. Hence, broadly defined, financial repression is a wealth transfer from savers to debtors using negative real interest rates — with the government as one of the key debtors.
S&P Warns Student Loans May Be The Next Bubble To Burst In US Economy
Thought the mortgage crisis was a rough ride? Buckle up for the next financial crisis.
Student-loan debt may be the next major U.S.-asset bubble to burst, according to Standard & Poor’s.
The problem: colleges and universities are hamstrung with lower endowments, while students have increasingly lower prospects of ever paying back their loans. Student debt now outpaces credit-card debt, approaching $1 trillion for the first time.
Why College Aid Makes College More Expensive
Two new studies offer clues on why. One measures the degree to which some colleges reduce their own aid in response to increased federal aid. The other suggests federal aid is helping to push college costs higher.
More bad news: U.S. water bills to triple
First high gas prices, now water. A shocking new report about the nation’s crumbling drinking water system says that Americans should expect their bills to double or triple to cover repairs just to keep their faucets pouring. That means adding up to $900 a year more for water, nearly equal the amount of the newly extended payroll tax cut.
Credit Card Debt Nears Toxic Levels
More American households are falling back into the debt hole, this time without the safety net of home values to help bail them out, the New York Post reported Sunday.
Last year, total US consumer debt reached its highest point in a decade, according to a credit card industry observer.
Geithner and the ‘Privilege’ of Being American
The Founders argued that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were rights that preceded government—not things to be granted by it.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Buffett is “the” FIRE-economy cheerleader.
Keep up the good work TCE.
-LW