…Calmly observing the changing world

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? Usually when there are rumors flying around the internet about commodity intrigue, with deliveries potentially causing a shortage and a subsequent price spike, we are talking about gold or silver.  In this, very unusual case, we are talking about… chocolate. An originally mysterious investor stood for delivery on a massive number [...]

More often than not, the Federal Reserve presents a united front in as many of their statements as possible.  So we should take notice when – like now – there is a high profile departure from the consensus opinion. “Monetary policy is a useful tool, but it cannot solve every problem faced by the United [...]

Welcome to the world of bullion coin investing, a business that has soared alongside the popularity of gold despite its disadvantages… MarketWatch (emphasis added liberally throughout) This certainly caught my eye.  I wondered, just what were the disadvantages?  Surely, I could read on and be informed of these. The coin craze is part of gold’s [...]

Modern economics’s ongoing failure in Japan is an especially intriguing spectacle to behold.  The country has an enormous debt – more than it could ever hope to pay off, and all efforts to revive the Japanese economy by the intellectual class have failed to do anything besides creating more debt. You might expect that after [...]

If your weather hasn’t cast a pall over June as it has here in the Pacific Northwest, the news and the economy surely have.  The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlights governmental incompetence, the G20 lacks unified economic policy, some place called Kyrgyzstan is a complete basket case, and currencies and markets gyrate [...]

Supposedly, countries around Europe are tightening their belts.  Gone are the days of reckless spending, they say.  The Tories are ruthlessly slashing services after taking power: Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced today a 25 percent cut in spending over the next four years, excluding overseas aid and the National Health Service. The move [...]

Retailers are struggling to turn out consumers.  It seems like they are only willing to spend money when they think are getting a good deal – imagine that. On Saturday, I was unwittingly part of such a consumer response myself.  My wife had strategically placed me in line at Old Navy with shirts (not men’s [...]

With the pace of economic news vastly exceeding the amount of time I currently have to dedicate to this blog, there is no point in trying to keep up.  Despite this, I’d like to quickly post regarding a comment made by Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble: “I’m convinced the markets are really out of control. [...]

It’s both heartening and unsettling to see one of MarkOnMarket’s key issues come to its initial fruition.  Greek bonds – never the bedrock of stability – have finally been shown to be worth just about nothing.  Interest rates soared passed double digits after S&P belatedly rated the bonds as “junk” which caused a wave of [...]

Across the country today (note to media: April 15th is not called the “Ides of April”), so-called Tea Parties were held to protest – well, to protest against a lot of things.  I was on site at the rally in Salem, Oregon.  If you’re a little lacking in your Tea Party knowledge (or if you’ve [...]