Category Archives: News/ Lessons

My letter to the NY Times re: Wrong definition of success for the Irish

Re: Hardships linger for a mending Ireland and Re: E.U. ministers stagger toward banking deal Dear Sirs: In her recent report on the so-called recovery in Ireland Ms. Liz Alderman makes the mistake of defining success in terms of saving … Continue reading

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My letter to the NY Times re: Free Market Capitalism Works Every Time

Re: Dwindling Tools to Raise Wages, by Eduardo Porter Dear Sirs: Economic law is a deductive and not empirical science, meaning that market research cannot determine the effects of raising the minimum wage.  We know by the laws of logical deduction … Continue reading

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My letter to the NY Times re: You Call This Success?

Re: US Ends Bailout of GM Dear Sirs: Mr. Bill Vlasic and Ms. Annie L. Lowrey report that “Taxpayers lost about $10 billion on their $49.5 billion investment in (GM).”  Their story is full of pride in achievement all the … Continue reading

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More destructive socialism of the European banking sector

From today’s Open Europe news summary: Germany cedes ground on eurozone banking union The FT Weekend reported that, at a meeting with other eurozone decision makers on Friday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble ceded ground on banking union plans. Officials … Continue reading

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Why doesn’t the EU just eliminate its import duties?

Re: EU seeks “time for reflection” after Vilnius summit failure I found this statement by EU Commission President Manuel Barroso to be particularly insightful: “This Agreement would save Ukrainian business some €500 million a year just in  import duties,” Barroso … Continue reading

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Hyperinflation a real possibility if foreigners drop the dollar

Re: Jim Rickards: Decline of the Petrodollar System is Good for Gold Any event that diminishes the value of the dollar as a reserve currency can trigger hyperinflation in the US as trillions of overseas dollars are repatriated to the … Continue reading

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Turning the Proper Role of Government Upside Down

Re: End cruel delusion of cheap money and reckless spending http://www.cityam.com/article/1386034054/it-s-time-end-cruel-delusion-cheap-money-and-reckless-spending Many thanks to Michael Jose of UKIP for forwarding the above link in his daily blog:  http://euroskept.blogspot.be Steve Baker makes excellent points. But I take exception with one of … Continue reading

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My letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer re: youth unemployment

Dear Sirs: Mr. Mark Zandi says the following in his latest OpEd titled “Ways to help a generation in economic distress”: “Most obviously, we need to focus on raising educational attainment.”  He goes on to say that tax money should … Continue reading

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Why only Europe? Why not the entire world?

Re: This is the Common Market Europe Needs, by Iain Martin Dan Hannan will present the draft statement of a proposed “pan-European Free Trade area open to all states on the European continent.” Wonderful!  But why limit the free trade … Continue reading

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Capital Injections Will Solve Nothing

From today’s Open Europe news summary: European banks face a €280bn capital shortfall in 2014, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has warned. In its report labelled “De-leverage take 2”, it notes that this is because banks’ capital reserves will face three pressures next … Continue reading

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