Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 5, 2009, 7:31 am
There is a major flaw in Soros’ justification for spending $50m on a new think-tank. He derides “unchecked free markets” when in fact no such thing exists. You either have free marke...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 1:31 pm
Here’s a short brief (link) by The Economist on effective tax rates around the world. At a stunning 55 percent effective tax rate on annual gross earning of $100,000, Slovenia is the most heavil...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 10:21 am
On Tuesday major auto manufacturers indicated that their October sales rebounded significantly following a weak September. The increase to the US annualized sales rate was nearly 20 percent better th...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 7:14 am
American populist angst has been rising for some time now. The optimist in me hopes that the Tea Party movement, and with it the rekindling within Americans of the vision of the founders and the defen...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 3, 2009, 12:59 pm
The economy continues to rebuild itself and the manufacturing sector has now grown for three consecutive months. According to the Institute for Supply Management, their PMI registered 55.7 percent. Th...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 3, 2009, 9:53 am
Edgar Allen Poe’s most widely circulated story was ‘The Gold Bug‘ where William Legrand appears to go insane after being bitten by a bug he thinks is pure gold and embarks on a search for mythic...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 3, 2009, 6:51 am
Tom Slee has written a book entitled No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart. The introduction of the book ends with “why we need to rely on collective action rather than individual choice to take us ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 2, 2009, 12:48 pm
Sanjeev Sanyal in Business Standard : Building cities for 21st century India, Delhi (which leads you to delhinullahs.org), and Calcutta. Also see: The Sustainable Planet Institute. Why ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 2, 2009, 10:35 am
Last week, we learned that industrial production rose yet again in Japan clocking in at 1.4% month-on-month in September after having increased by 1.6% in August. Companies said they planned to incre...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 2, 2009, 6:32 am
An open letter from Colorado Governor Bill Ritter: Here in Colorado, we’re seeing encouraging signs of success and reason for optimism. Last week we learned Colorado’s unemployment rate ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 30, 2009, 10:04 am
Thursday we got another indication that the U.S. economy is returning to strong growth. The government’s first estimate for the third quarter came in at a 3.5 percent annual pace. Again most ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 30, 2009, 7:04 am
The first message to ever travel between two computers connected via the ARPANET, the computer network that would become the Internet, happened on 29 October 1969.  The Internet just turned 40.  And...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 29, 2009, 1:25 pm
Nick from www.sharelynx.com shared some quotes with me that I’d like to pass on. They are from a book written in 1939 by Graham & Whittlesey called Golden Avalanche: “Before leaving the subje...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 29, 2009, 7:10 am
The recent gold bull upleg is in the midst of a predictable slight correction and consolidation.  When that finishes it is highly probable, based on seasonality and technicals, that the next part of ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 29, 2009, 6:24 am
The US Sentate is currently considering a bill designed to pay people to be unemployed, and to penalize any private parties that still employs people. Well, that’s not exactly how the bill is w...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 28, 2009, 11:55 am
Early this week a survey release by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) provided new evidence that the U.S. recovery is solidly under way and will be sustained well into 2010. The ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 28, 2009, 8:50 am
The policy of credit card companies charging an annual fee for those cardholders with solid credit is a good proxy for the state of the nation, and also a microcosm of both the progressive (read socia...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 27, 2009, 1:05 pm
In my view, we should expect the rules of a good society to have the assent of nearly everyone but that does not mean that these rules are good for everyone. In particular, the law of liberty – prev...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 27, 2009, 10:03 am
Sorry for the hiatus, but I am preparing a large note on the ECB, whether it is conducting QE or not, what QE at the ECB is, and finally what the prospects of an exit strategy is. This has taken most ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 27, 2009, 6:59 am
This past week Warren Buffett said that is is now very clear that the low point in the US economy has already passed, with “enormous” progress being seen over the past year. Buffett attri...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 26, 2009, 1:14 pm
As a puny yet honest attempt to show you that I actually read other things than plain economics I thought that I would share this piece with you on declining nomadism amongst Americans; it is written ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 26, 2009, 10:09 am
On 22 October 2009 Reuters reported that Korea National Energy Corporation will purchase Harvest for C$1.8B or C$10 per unit.  On 12 December 2008 I wrote, “For these reasons Harvest appears to be ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 19, 2009, 1:23 pm
I just cringe whenever I hear Obama or his minions talking about how they created or saved N jobs. As an economist, I’m trained to look for the other side of the coin. Yin and Yang. The coin ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 19, 2009, 10:21 am
Shilpy Sinha and Swapnil Mayekar have a story in Business Standard offering some optimism about the corporate bond market. They point out that in the six months from April to September...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 19, 2009, 7:14 am
On 9 October 2009 I was interviewed by Business News Network, Canada’s premier financial channel, live from the NASDAQ in Times Square New York about the rise of gold. BNN HOST:  A note that caug...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 16, 2009, 12:53 pm
Who does not like a good argument? I for one do, especially when it comes to economics. A lot of water has already gone under the bridge relative to the note published a couple of weeks back by Varian...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 16, 2009, 9:50 am
“There has to be a counterweight to the malevolence of the insurance industry.” So says Senator Jay Rockefeller said to mop-topped interviewer Al Hunt of Bloomberg. Malevolence? What’s nex...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 16, 2009, 7:49 am
from Marketwatch: General Electric profit slumps 44% Financial business being run down rapidly, industrial business, a basic GDP play, seeing 8% lower revenues from the year ago period. The pre-emi...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 15, 2009, 12:04 pm
This one should really go on Beta.Sources, but I thought that it deserved attention over and above the fold too. It is a couple of years old, but still well worth a look; hat tip (an old BW blog post)...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 15, 2009, 8:46 am
As a Q3 positive earnings season rolls on, JPMorgan Chase and Intel ignited the markets on Wednesday. Later in the day, minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting reaffirmed our convictions tha...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 14, 2009, 1:37 pm
The World Bank has recently released the latest Doing Business 2010 report, measuring the level of business and economic regulation around the world. In spite of the financial crisis and the global re...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 14, 2009, 11:33 am
David Oakley reports on Brazil having made it to investment grade. This is their payoff to the immense progress that took place in the last decade in terms of fiscal, financial and monetary in...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 14, 2009, 8:08 am
What follows is the reason that last week was completely quiet here at Alpha.Sources. Essentially, I was working away on a detailed look at the ECB’s balance and the related question of whether ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 13, 2009, 1:20 pm
... be used to this. One of the main interesting things about the notion that aging might be related to export dependency is that while it enjoys little, if any, support in the academic literature ....
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 13, 2009, 10:01 am
This year’s Nobel prize in economics goes to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson (link). Elinor Ostrom received the prize for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons while...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 13, 2009, 7:01 am
It seems that we got a good IIP number today? Here’s what the year-on-year growth of IIP Manufacturing says: Mar 2009 -0.30 Apr 2009 0.39 May 2009 1.84 Jun 2009 7.82 Jul 2009 7.41 Aug 2009...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 12, 2009, 1:20 pm
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of focus on the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar. In an opinion piece in Financial Express today, I point out that the US dollar has fluctuated consid...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 12, 2009, 10:30 am
United States legal tender nickels present an almost completely risk-free investment.  Getting a large 5 gallon bucket and tossing in the nickels from your daily change is an excellent way to preserv...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 12, 2009, 6:48 am
Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLC is one commentator I have been following for many years. His latest one on the Commitments of Traders Report is essential reading: “The bottom line is gold futures act...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 9, 2009, 1:35 pm
I should immediately reassure my readers that I am not going to re-account or even continue Macro Man’s story of 2007 in which Sherlock Holmes was looking for a vanishing bid in risky assets. Al...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 9, 2009, 10:00 am
Recently released data from OECD Economic Outlook (link) suggest that the recessionary period is likely ending as the output in world’s major economies is reversing the trend of the past year. I...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 9, 2009, 6:58 am
Paul “MIT wants its PhD back” Krugman is at it again. Chen government action causes an economy to go bust, people need to adjust their spending (recalculating). This includes employers ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 8, 2009, 1:46 pm
Much pomp and circumstance was certainly made in relation to the fact that Japan actually grew in the second quarter at a full annualized 3.7 percent in the second quarter of 2009. Yet, the underlying...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 8, 2009, 10:43 am
To quote Nancy Reagan, “just say no”. Specifically, just say no to this:nder my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 8, 2009, 7:29 am
While skeptics remain, Q3 earnings season kicked off on Wednesday with almost all those announcing earnings surprising to the upside. Alcoa, the firm which much earlier in the year pegged the global ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 7, 2009, 1:14 pm
Robert Barro and Charles Redlick wrote an op-ed in WSJ (link) on their original paper (link) where they discuss the macroeconomic effects of fiscal stimulus and construct long-term time-series on U.S ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 7, 2009, 9:00 am
I am not an ardent watcher of the Australian economy so I shall leave it neatly to the side of whether this was expected or, Bloomberg so famously puts it, unexpected. Australia’s central bank unex...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 7, 2009, 6:45 am
The world economy is incredibly intertwined.  For example, a butterfly flapped its wings in the Amazon resulting in typhoon after typhoon hitting the Philippines.  This has interrupted the work flow...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 6, 2009, 11:40 am
On Sep 17 Jeff Nielson posted an article on SLV. I took issue with his belief that ETFs’ management fees were unrealistically cheap and thus another indicator they were a scam. Below is the exch...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Oct 2, 2009, 7:50 am
Roger Wiegand of Trader Tracks Newsletter finally says what I always figured: “Cash for Clunkers was a real clunker. One out of four auto buyers using this program is having buyer’s remorse as the...
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