Thomas Woods, Jr., PhD, Prepared Testimony in Support of HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, House Financial Services Committee, September [...]

Why shouldn’t someone walk away from overbearing consumer, student or mortgage debt, so long as it is non-recourse? I can’t think of any reason to keep servicing debt if you have no hope of repaying the principal. What good is a high FICO score if you don’t want to run up another credit card balance [...]

For your amusement, here’s Bernanke a couple of years ago doing his best to downplay our problems:

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To the dismay of many a fair-minded observer, Bernanke the Fool has been nominated for another term as Fed chairman. My comment is, so long as there is a Fed, who cares who runs it? The chairman, like the [...]

Graphite here. Mike has asked me to join up as a guest blogger, and since I’ve always loved the spirited mix of finance, politics, and righteous anger of The Sovereign Speculator, I’m happy to come aboard.
If you needed another sign that this deflationary crash is just getting started, take a look at this blog post [...]

There are still a lot of people out there who didn’t absorb last year’s course on the credit cycle, particularly the chapter on inflation and deflation. To remedy this gap in your elementary economic education, before buying resource stocks or saying that any market will go to the moon on Fed-powered rockets, you are required [...]

Hendry is the founder of Eclectica Asset Management.

“Who is going to pay the debt that that building is resting on? …A building with no tennants. Half a billion dollars of someone else’s liabilities.”
“…very expensive, empty building where the developer went bust.”
“I haven’t seen any sign of a manufacturing base anywhere close to here.”

(thanks again to zerohedge for finding this video)
I remember when I first discovered a speech by Ron Paul back in boom-time 2005, and was shocked that a Congressman was so eloquently warning of the dangers of fractional reserve lending, the Federal Reserve system, and welfare/warfare deficit spending. It was the first time that I could [...]

Mises Foundation founder Lew Rockwell interviewed blogger Mike “Mish” Shedlock on his podcast series:
Link here.
Topics include bailouts, ’stimulus’ plans, the benefits of deflation, and Mish’s campaigns to end bailouts and abolish the Fed.
Mish is really pushing hard politically. I’m 100% behind him, but I worry a bit about how the gangsters might respond to him [...]

GOLD AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM
by Alan Greenspan, 1966

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense – perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent [...]

The Journal has a story about a venture-funded alternative lender called On Deck Capital that extends credit to small businesses, many of whom don’t qualify for bank loans at the moment. Interest is high, at 18+ percent, but that sounds about right considering the risks of lending to small companies in this environment.
This business model [...]