Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 9, 2012, 12:40 pm
Preserving wealth in a volatile political and financial world is a job for gold. Greg Weldon, publisher of Weldon’s Money Monitor newsletter and Grant Williams, a portfolio advisor at Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore, will share their insights at the Cambridge House California Investme...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 9, 2012, 10:00 am
Like this isn’t an attempt to split a non-existent hair: The segregation model predicts that as the society gets wealthier, the dollar cost of college will get higher. The signaling model would not necessarily predict that. In fact, it would predict that the market would try to find less expensiv...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 9, 2012, 7:30 am
At 8:30 AM Eastern time, the U.S. government will release its weekly Jobless Claims report. The consensus is that there were 370,000 new jobless claims last week, which would would be 3,000 more than the previous week. At 9:45 AM Eastern time, the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index will be rel...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 8, 2012, 2:55 pm
Princeton economist, Uwe Reinhardt, contributes regularly to The New York Times Economix Blog. Recently he wrote, in “Health Care Payers Push Back Against Costs“ that high U.S. healthcare costs are driven by several factors: American’s over-use of high-cost/high-tech services owing to some ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 8, 2012, 12:45 pm
Despite depressed natural gas prices, investors in master limited partnerships (MLPs) leveraged to natural gas liquids can expect both excellent income and share price appreciation, says Credit Suisse Senior Analyst Yves Siegel. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Siegel discusses...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 8, 2012, 6:55 am
The Mortgage Bankers’ Association purchase index will be released at 7:00 AM Eastern time, providing an update on the quantity of new mortgages and refinancings closed in the last week. At 10:30 AM Eastern time, the weekly Energy Information Administration Petroleum Status Report will be release...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 7, 2012, 3:15 pm
The JEE used to serve India well Many years ago, high school education in India worked in a twin track system: There were those who studied for the IIT JEE and there was everyone else who didn’t. The former studied good books (e.g. Resnick/Halliday (which is a college level book elsewhere in the ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 7, 2012, 12:45 pm
The market isn’t rewarding fundamentals just yet for precious metal miners, according to Byron King, editor of Daily Resource Hunter, Outstanding Investments and Energy & Scarcity Investor. But in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, King maps out when rising gold prices will actually l...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 7, 2012, 10:00 am
I think not: The wages of federal workers are 2 percent higher than similar private-sector workers, on average. The benefits of federal workers are 48 percent higher than similar private-sector workers, on average. The total compensation (wages plus benefits) of federal workers is 16 percent high...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 7, 2012, 7:30 am
At 7:45 AM Eastern time, the weekly ICSC-Goldman Store Sales report will be released, giving an update on the health of the consumer through this analysis of retail sales. At 8:55 AM Eastern time, the weekly Redbook report will be released, giving us more information about consumer spending. At 10...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 6, 2012, 3:00 pm
I suppose that the original intent of financial aid—most particularly scholarships—was to attract good scholars who would be likely to become famous and thus increase the prestige of the university. By offering intelligent, driven individuals an opportunity to be educated for reduced rates or fo...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 6, 2012, 12:15 pm
So I lied. I did. But don’t expect much more this week. Anyway we are getting there..  albeit slowly.  Read the PG piece today carefully please: Allegheny County reassessment favors properties with higher prices, review finds…. and the penultimate comment. :-0 Seriously though, I would ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 6, 2012, 9:40 am
Economics and politics. Accretion and repletion. Mergers and acquisitions. Joe Mazumdar, senior mining analyst with Haywood Securities, sees all of these as catalysts for a rebound in the junior gold space in 2012. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, he reveals the names of companies he expe...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 3, 2012, 3:00 pm
More of a silver bug, actually. But a metal bug. I like having the real stuff, and I particularly like having it already broken down into known increments that are reasonably spendable (or will be, as more and more people decide that precious metals make more sense than paper backed only by “the...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 3, 2012, 12:35 pm
In an axiomatic sense, wealth is always distributed in some way. Likewise, any transfer or exchange of wealth is a redistribution of wealth. Redistribution of wealth comes in two forms: coercive and voluntary. The former method of redistribution is associated with socialism and, more generally, any...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 3, 2012, 10:00 am
With the winter warmer and drier than previous years, natural gas companies are suffering from depressed prices. However, Raymond James Analyst Luc Mageau identifies liquids-rich companies that can create profits with or without a natural gas price rally. In this exclusive interview with The En...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 3, 2012, 7:50 am
The Monster Employment Index for January was released today, and the index moved down 7 points from last month to a value of 133, but is 9% higher than last January’s value. At 8:30 AM EDT, the Employment Situation report for January will be announced, and the consensus for non-farm payrolls is a...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 2, 2012, 3:00 pm
A while back, I asked if libertarian political theory was an ex post rationalization used simply to justify the cause of freedom without actually explaining why it worked. It seems reasonable to ask a similar question of socialism: is socialist political theory* simply a rationalization for pursuing...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 2, 2012, 12:55 pm
GoldMoney Founder and Chairman James Turk knows how to find great deals on gold and silver. He claims that the 2012 bottom for gold came during the first week in January. If the year’s low is already history and if his projection that gold will hit the $2,000/oz mark within three months is on ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 2, 2012, 10:00 am
On 22nd December 2011, we purchased petrol worth Rs.100 from an Indian Oil fueling station in Bombay using an ICICI Bank debit card. The receipt suggested that we could have saved a fuel surcharge of 2.5% had we used an Indian Oil Citibank credit card. Upon seeing this message, we asked the cash...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 2, 2012, 7:45 am
The monthly Chain Store Sales report will be released today.  This report on sales in chain stores gives a look at the health of stores that make up about 10% of all retail sales. The Challenger Job-Cut Report will be released at 7:30 AM Eastern time, providing an estimate of the number of layoff...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 1, 2012, 3:05 pm
OK..  I can’t resist this one.  It’s just floating up there. EPR has this story on County Councilman Matt Drozd upset over the valuations of 4 vacant properties he owns in the city. Their inconsistent valuation is evidence that the whole assessment is kaput. He really seems to say that his ne...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 1, 2012, 12:40 pm
I have a new post up at In Mala Fide. An excerpt: To be honest, this sounds like a lot of pious baloney. As Michael Beckley points out in a new article in International Security, “The United States is not in decline; in fact, it is now wealthier, more innovative, and more militarily powerful comp...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 1, 2012, 9:50 am
Powers Energy Investor Editor Bill Powers doesn’t shy away from microcaps; he embraces them. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, he explains why triple-digit oil is here to stay and how the best-positioned companies will be sitting pretty when natural gas prices rise—as will i...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Feb 1, 2012, 6:55 am
The figures for motor vehicle sales for January will be released today.  The consensus estimate is that 13.6 million autos were sold last month, which would be the same as the previous month. The Mortgage Bankers’ Association purchase index will be released at 7:00 AM Eastern time, providing an ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 31, 2012, 3:05 pm
After a tough year in 2011, there is definitely a good selection of underpriced junior resource stocks available for astute investors to focus on before the rest of the herd finally wakes up and smells the gold. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Matthew Zylstra, mining analyst at...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 31, 2012, 1:00 pm
How else to explain this nonsense: The anti-SOPA crowd argues that this is a matter of basic liberty. But it’s not. In a free society, you don’t have the freedom to steal your neighbor’s property. And that should include intellectual property. Moreover, it is the function of the state to enfo...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 30, 2012, 3:10 pm
Kwong-Mun Achong Low, an analyst with Northern Securities in Canada, thinks that copper and gold juniors are in for a better run this year. He’s ferreted out the juniors with the most promising management and assets that are on a path to production—not to mention rising stock prices. In this...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 30, 2012, 1:00 pm
Karl Denninger: Make no mistake, the problem does not lie with The Fed per-se.  The Fed’s “low interest rates” are there to permit the profligacy of the government, yet the longer it goes on and the more the government abuses this deadly embrace the further into the coffin corner The Fed and...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 30, 2012, 10:10 am
So this is interesting and no, this isn’t really about assessments. I mean, it is about assessments, but there are so many bigger issues rolled into this new legal development. In the new litigant a week merry-go-round in Judge Wettick’s courtroom (it really must be getting crowded), the lates...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 30, 2012, 7:52 am
At 8:30 AM Eastern time, the monthly Personal Income and Outlays report for December will be released. The consensus for Personal Income is an increase of 0.4% over the previous month and the consensus Consumer Spending index change is an increase of 0.1%. Join the forum discussion on this post - ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 27, 2012, 3:00 pm
Worth reading this response by Victor the Cleaner in FOFOA comments to this question: “At the moment, in order to influence the Gold price downwards, all that needs to be done by the authorities in LBMA and COMEX, is to raise the margin requirements.” This is complete and utter nonsense. LBMA i...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 27, 2012, 12:40 pm
The lithium market is currently dominated by a handful of major producers, but investors naturally look to smaller junior exploration and production (E&P) companies for the real growth. Economist Daniela Desormeaux of Santiago, Chile-based signumBOX takes a global macroeconomic view of the lithi...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 27, 2012, 9:50 am
Reportage by Robin Harding and Michael Mackenzie in the Financial Times: The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee predicted low interest rates until late 2014 and set a formal inflation objective of 2 per cent, reflecting chairman Ben Bernanke’s long-held goal of providing greater transpare...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 27, 2012, 7:50 am
At 8:30 AM Eastern time, the advance GDP report for the fourth quarter of 2011 will be announced.  The consensus is an increase of 3.1% in real GDP and an increase of 1.5% in the GDP price index. At 9:55 AM Eastern time, Consumer Sentiment for the second half of January will be announced.  The co...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 26, 2012, 3:10 pm
The debate Roughly one decade ago, there was a strong debate in India about how we should tackle the problem of education. There were two views: Intensification On one side were those who felt that nothing was fundamentally wrong; all that was needed was more money. So we should just continue bui...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 26, 2012, 12:35 pm
Fayyaz Alimohamed, CEO of Altair Ventures Inc. and publisher of the Acamar Journal, offers historical perspective and predictions on the global economic crisis. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, he foresees a “mania” in junior mining stocks and recommends holding physical gold outside t...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 26, 2012, 7:40 am
At 8:30 AM Eastern time, the U.S. government will release its weekly Jobless Claims report. The consensus is that there were 370,000 new jobless claims last week, which would would be 18,000 more than the previous week. At 8:30 AM Eastern time, the Durable Goods Orders report for December will be r...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 25, 2012, 3:05 pm
... has an asset that doesn’t have any economic information tied to it, it’s very easy to ... the company is exploring the use of a new technology—the Cambridge process—which could potentially convert Verde’ ... near-surface vis-à-vis the sylvinite layer. The technology that it ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 25, 2012, 12:50 pm
OK… listen up.  Nabobs especially.   Latest job counts are out and for December we again have a peak in terms of the highest December job count for the Pittsburgh region ever. Only May and June of 2001  showed a higher job count than the 1,164,000 raw number just out. So the middle of constr...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 25, 2012, 9:55 am
A while back I theorized that government intervention in the market causes labor disruptions in that it pulls demand for technology forward in order to reduce the costs of unskilled labor. It turns out that I may be on to something: Parlier earns about $13 an hour. She’d like to become one of the...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 25, 2012, 6:55 am
The Mortgage Bankers’ Association purchase index will be released at 7:00 AM Eastern time, providing an update on the quantity of new mortgages and refinancings closed in the last week. At 10:00 AM Eastern time, the FHFA House Price Index for November will be released, providing more information ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 24, 2012, 3:05 pm
Annie Zhang, an analyst with Toronto-based investment bank Octagon Capital, is expecting some good stories to come out of Argentina and Canada this year. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, she targets several exploration and near-term producing companies with burgeoning results on t...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 24, 2012, 12:40 pm
My inner energy futures trader is mesmerized by what is happening in the natural gas markets of late.  If you do not wake up at night wondering if natural gas will flip from contango to backwardation then I will make it simple..  the price of natural gas is plummeting faster than anyone predict...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 24, 2012, 9:50 am
Karl Denninger: In many ways the monetary policy issue is even more important, simply because we are running out of rope on our national debt-addiction rappelling adventure and the floor is still 100′ down.  That’s a serious problem — and “gold standards” do not (in fact cannot!) fi...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 24, 2012, 7:30 am
At 7:45 AM Eastern time, the weekly ICSC-Goldman Store Sales report will be released, giving an update on the health of the consumer through this analysis of retail sales. At 8:55 AM Eastern time, the weekly Redbook report will be released, giving us more information about consumer spending.
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 23, 2012, 3:00 pm
The University of California wants to enslave students: The students’ proposal fits right in. Instead of paying tuition – currently at $12,192, not including mandatory fees, room, board or books – the “UC Student Investment Proposal” would require that students commit to paying 5 percent ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 23, 2012, 12:30 pm
The 200 day moving average acts like the pull of gravity on prices. The FRN$ is currently very expensive while gold, silver, platinum and palladium have presented great buying opportunities. As the fiat currency and precious metals reassert their positions based on the 200 day moving average it will...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 20, 2012, 3:10 pm
... not necessarily the miners. JS: Absolutely. It’s the California Gold Rush all over again, except it’s the global energy ... think in terms of other commodity themes that are working well, certainly Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX:NYSE) would be a great name—that’s on the c...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Jan 20, 2012, 12:30 pm
Steven Levitt: If you want to feel like the smartest person in the room, often a good way to accomplish this is to be the only economist. Frequently, the one economist will say things that make a lot of sense that no one else would ever come up with. When I am that one economist, I sometimes feel l...
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