Generally, reader and writer are of one mind. But once in a while, we are at odds — especially when ‘politics’ are involved. There have been three major waves of dissension, dissatisfaction, and disenchantment among our readers. Each time, the incoming mail was so emphatic…so riled up and outraged…it made us wonder. Had we let the saints down? The first came just as we were getting the hang of it. In the late ‘90s, there was a bubble in ‘dot.com’ stocks. Information, it was said, greatly reduced the need for real capital investment. Now available for free on the internet, information was suppo ..read more

Today is my final contribution to Daily Reckoning Australia. On 1 December 2023, retirement beckons. Thoughts of ‘what would this final article be about’, have occupied my mind for the past week. Markets? Economy? Cryptos? There is plenty to discuss on all fronts. Wall Street may have ‘rebounded’ overnight, but don’t be fooled. This was a ‘dead cat’ bounce. Global share markets are in for a torrid time ahead. Bitcoin has rallied. Again, don’t be fooled. In a fiat world, monetary metals (gold and silver) are the only true stores of wealth. However, it was a chance meeting with an out-of-State f ..read more

Coming on the back of last week’s howler that the Albanese government might define coking coal and iron as ‘critical minerals’ for the energy transition, the government’s next shocker is its plan to double subsidies for ‘critical minerals’ mining and refining projects to $4 billion. The low-cost loans from the government will supposedly target projects that are struggling to get financing from banks. This will create jobs and help propel the energy transition by giving America’s Inflation Reduction Act funded projects the resources they need to go green. Or something like that… But all these g ..read more

Given that the jackassery of the last 23 years was unprecedented in US history, so we can imagine that the correction will be also unparalleled. Already, we have seen more losses in the bond market than ever before. As described yesterday, bonds have been going down in value since July 2020, with losses for the 10-year US Treasury bond of about 26% so far. That reflects losses from inflation (in the sense that the threat of inflation reduced bond prices)…but to get actual purchasing power losses for bond owners, you have to take off another 16% (that’s how much consumer prices have gone up sin ..read more

In fact, the face behind the ESG movement — Blackrock’s CEO Larry Fink — recently backtracked on using this word as he recognised the negative publicity associated with it. As Larry pointed out, ESG has been weaponised to turn what was once beneficial to society into a politically charged issue that divided society. Perhaps the most contentious issue that ESG is associated with is climate change. For one, it’s divided society. The scientific community are at war accusing each other of ‘climate alarmism’ or ‘climate change denialism’. I believe that it doesn’t matter who ends up being right. Gl ..read more

And then, all of a sudden…he’s yesterday’s news…a warm-up act…getting second billing. More about him later. Today….we write about France. We spent the summer there, as we’ve done for the last 27 years. We don’t write about it often; it has become too familiar. Is that true of other things? Do deficits become so habitual that they are scarcely worth mentioning? Are US politicians so preternaturally stupid and dishonest that there is no longer any point in saying so? Friction is painful to the tender, innocent hand. Later, after the calluses appear, the hand feels nothing. Nevertheless, we pass ..read more

There’s always calm before the storm Everything goes along just fine…until it doesn’t. In 2023, the narrative has been… Low unemployment. Inflation pressures easing. Damage from rising rates has been contained. Any troubles in the US banking sector will be short-lived thanks to the Fed and US Treasury. And, no price is too high for anything remotely related to AI. Repeated warnings about the US commercial property market going over a cliff have been largely dismissed (reminiscent of how concerns over subprime lending were batted away in 2007…we were assured any problems would be contained…yeah ..read more

Environmentalists really are their own worst enemy. Just when they’ve managed to prevent carbon emissions-free nuclear power from becoming our dominant source of energy, they discover that carbon emissions are the next big threat on their agenda. Just when they seem to have saved the whales, their favoured offshore wind turbines are accused of beaching them. Just when they’ve established Germany’s Energiewende as their idol, Germany’s energy system fails miserably and the country demolishes a wind farm to get at the coal underneath. Just when they succeeded in preventing hydropower projects be ..read more

Last Saturday was a pivotal moment for Australia in many ways. The referendum on ‘The Voice’ revealed a resounding ‘No’, as almost 61% voted against proposed changes that would effectively remove the separate sovereignty rights of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and provide them with additional rights as Australian citizens in return. Interestingly, none of the six states had a majority of voters supporting change. Only one territory, the Australian Capital Territory, delivered a majority of ‘Yes’ votes. The table below showed the results as of Wednesday at midday: Source: Aus ..read more

We doubt this record for borrowing will hold for very long. Ms. Janet Yellen says the US can afford to back the Ukraine on the Eurasian Steppe and Israel in the Levant — at the same time. Business Insider: ‘The nation’s top treasury official said the US does not have to pick and choose between aiding Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing military conflicts. ‘It’s been just over a week since Israel officially declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after the group attacked several towns in southern Israel. Since the war began, President Joe Biden and US lawmakers ..read more