Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- EU Court Strikes Down Spain’s Eviction Law; Was This a Good Ruling?
- Massive Ships 12-Miles Offshore to Provide Floating City for Entrepreneurial Start-Ups; Launch Date Q2 2014
- Can We Fix What's Wrong With Banking?
- Rand Paul Says "GOP of Old has Grown Stale and Moss-Covered"
| EU Court Strikes Down Spain’s Eviction Law; Was This a Good Ruling? Posted: 15 Mar 2013 05:52 PM PDT Inquiring minds note that EU Court Strikes Down Spain's Eviction Law. Campaigners in Spain hailed a rare legal victory over the country's banks and government when Europe's highest court struck down a draconian foreclosure law that had come to symbolise the brutal fallout from the eurozone's debt crisis.Was This a Good Ruling? Regular readers I am a big proponent of walking away if the situation presents itself (click on link for numerous articles). But what is the situation here? The situation is people paid silly prices for merchandise of dubious value. They also did so knowing there was not an option to walk away with no recourse. I can sympathize with preposterous default interest rates of 18.75%, but I wonder what interest rate Mr. Aziz can afford to pay. I suspect Aziz can afford to pay 0% and nothing on principal. With that in mind, this EU ruling is likely to keep people in their homes interest free (and payment free) for years. Is that a good thing? For who? It is certainly a good thing for the likes of Mr. Aziz. It is a horrendous thing for taxpayers who will ultimately have to pick up the tab for everyone in this situation. It will also encourage everyone in a similar situation to stop paying their bills whether they can afford to or not. In the US, banks knowingly entered into such contracts. In Spain they didn't, and that is probably why Spain's housing bubble was even bigger than the bubble in the US. Spain's banking insolvency issue is going to get a lot worse. Those who were prudent will soon be majorly-screwed to help bail out those like Mr. Aziz who overpaid. All things considered, this was not a good ruling. Nonetheless, expect socialists to cheer it. Also expect the prudent to pay through the nose to bail out not only the banks, but those foolish enough to throw caution to the wind. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 15 Mar 2013 10:59 AM PDT A company named Blueseed is a year away from offering entrepreneurs an inexpensive place, near Silicon Valley, in which to develop their products. "Blueseed will station a ship 12 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco, in international waters. The location will allow startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or grow their company near Silicon Valley, without the need for a U.S. work visa. The ship will be converted into a coworking and co-living space, and will have high-speed Internet access and daily transportation to the mainland via ferry boat. So far, over 1000 entrepreneurs from 60+ countries expressed interest in living on the ship." Here is a sampling of images from their page of Concept Vessels.    Who's Going to Blueseed? Blueseed will be welcoming 1171 entrepreneurs from 368 startups in 66 countries.  Motivation Factor
This is exceptionally cool stuff. Floating offshore hospitals and schools cannot be far off. I wish Blueseed well. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Wine Country Conference I am hosting an economic conference on April 5 in Sonoma, California. Proceeds go to the Les Turner ALS Foundation (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Please see My Wife Joanne Has Passed Away; Stop and Smell the Lilacs for my association with the disease. To learn about the economic conference with world-class speakers including John Hussman, Michael Pettis, Jim Chanos, John Mauldin, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Chris Martenson with guest moderator Lauren Lyster and other Special Guests, please visit Wine Country Conference April 5, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Can We Fix What's Wrong With Banking? Posted: 15 Mar 2013 09:28 AM PDT I was asked a few days ago by Zócalo Public Square, a not-for-profit daily Ideas Exchange, to contribute a brief comment to coincide with their upcoming event "Can We Fix What's Wrong With Banking?" I was specifically asked to address the question "should we have bailed out the banks?" Here is my response: No, we should not have bailed them out. That's the easy question. Now that we have bailed them out, however, here's the important question: "Will we fix what's wrong with banking before there is a global currency crisis?" On that score I have my doubts. The simple fact of the matter is we have a massive mountain of debt everywhere you look: Federal debt, State and local debt, student loans, housing, unfunded liabilities in Medicare and Social Security, and untenable pension promises at every level of government. Most agree that is a problem. Unfortunately, that's where the agreement stops. Yet, before we can address the debt crisis, we have to understand how it happened. The source of the debt crisis is two-fold:
Everything else is a sideshow, but few realize it. Symptoms vs. Problems The symptoms of the debt-bubble are slack demand, a lack of jobs, and stagnant growth. Most policymakers are hell-bent on attacking those symptoms, not the problem. Many point to the end of Glass-Steagall, rating agencies, "too big to fail," bank bailouts, and excess spending by governments. There are screams for more regulation in nearly every corner. The unions want more handouts. The socialists want to redistribute wealth. Those on fixed income want bigger Social Security checks. The Keynesians and Monetarists want to attack the symptoms with more government spending and more central bank printing. The average 8th grader can see how foolish most of those ideas are, but the average economist can't, and the average government bureaucrat does not want to be told he has to stop spending. Decades of Foolishness The notion that a nation can spend its way to prosperity has been disproved time and time again. The U.S. housing bubble was a direct result of the Fed bailing out banks in the wake of the dot-com bust. Japan, once the world's largest creditor, now has a debt-to-GDP ratio approaching 250 percent, the highest in the industrialized world. It took three decades of foolish spending for Japan to achieve that debt-to-GDP level, and Japan believes it failed because it did not try hard enough. Central banks blow bubbles of increasing amplitude over time. And every step of the way they bail out banks that get into trouble. This is the legacy of central banks, and especially the legacy of the Greenspan and Bernanke Fed Income Skew I have written before why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (see Top 1% Received 121% of Income Gains During the Recovery, Bottom 99% Lose .4%; How, Why, Solutions) In response, a Reader Asked Me to Prove "Inflation Benefits the Wealthy" (At the Expense of Everyone Else) Please see the article for the evidence. Then, once you understand what the Fed is doing, the solutions should be easy to spot. Solutions The solution to the symptoms of massive income disparity, a dearth of jobs, and lack of growth is not wage caps on executive pay or hikes in the minimum wage or a return of Glass-Steagall. The real solution is elimination of the Fed, elimination of fractional reserve lending, and a return to sound money policies that do not benefit the already wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Can we fix the problem? Of course we can. I just outlined how. But if it's so easy, then why don't we do it? The answer to that question is remarkably easy. All you need to do is figure out who benefits from inflation. I addressed that in detail in Inflation Targeting Revisited; Three Major Fed-Sponsored Bubbles; Who Benefits From Inflation? Here's the short answer: the banks, the wealthy, and the politicians are the ones who benefit from inflation, and they are also in control of the system. So, are we going to fix what's wrong with banking before there is a global currency crisis? I am betting against that idea, holding gold as my method. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Wine Country Conference I am hosting an economic conference on April 5 in Sonoma, California. Proceeds go to the Les Turner ALS Foundation (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Please see My Wife Joanne Has Passed Away; Stop and Smell the Lilacs for my association with the disease. To learn about the economic conference with world-class speakers including John Hussman, Michael Pettis, Jim Chanos, John Mauldin, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Chris Martenson with guest moderator Lauren Lyster and other Special Guests, please visit Wine Country Conference April 5, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rand Paul Says "GOP of Old has Grown Stale and Moss-Covered" Posted: 15 Mar 2013 12:49 AM PDT Properly laying it on the line, Senator Rand Paul says GOP of old 'has grown stale and moss-covered' Fresh off his filibuster that captured the hearts of libertarian conservatives, Sen. Rand Paul told attendees Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference that the Republican Party has become "stale" and must return to basic constitutional principles if it wants to ignite a political revolution.Real Clear Politics has a Rand Paul video as well as additional commentary. The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. If we're going to have a Republican party that can win, liberty needs to be the backbone of the GOP. We must have a message that is broad, our vision must be broad, and that vision must be based on freedom.I stand with Rand. We need a fresh face and a breath of fresh air. Rand Paul offers both. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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