QUESTION:  Dear Mr. Armstrong- You seem to hint that Bernanke didn’t want rates to go up especially when there is a ceiling impasse. Yet, he talked about taper/untaper and torchured the market for 3 months to prepare investors for a smooth QE-reduction. Most investors I know were expecting a small taper that could have still been interpreted as […]

Finland is the latest country to illustrate that the Sovereign Debt Crisis is alive and well. The economy in Finland is in recession as is most of the Eurozone. For the first time, 2014, Finland will not meet the Maastricht guidelines as its debt ratio will exceed 60%. Their own accounting projects in 2014 the […]

  Detroit Abandoned Manufacturing QUESTION: Is there a “manufacturing renaissance in the USA.”    cr nz ANSWER: Yes. This is developing for two primary reasons. First: the 2011 law that has blocked Americans from starting businesses overseas. Second: many companies including auto manufacturers who rushed to Mexico to manufacture cars are coming back. Ford no […]

Of course the American commentators are hurling nothing but insults at Putin for his Op-Ed in the New York Times. They dare to say with chemical weapons being used in Syria, he has no moral standing. Putin rightly points out that there is a serious casualty here and that will be the United Nations. “No […]

Germany’s parliamentary elections  will be held on 22 September 2013 to determine the 598 (or more, if overhangs are produced) members of the 18th Bundestag, the main federal legislative house of Germany. The elections may by no means bring the expected calm and stability to Europe. Indeed, the elections may well usher in a period of […]

Bernanke is in a real box. He knows he needs to trim back the QE purchases, but at the same time he is concerned about the rising bond yields and interest rates. This can send the deficit much higher at a time when there is still a debt ceiling debate ahead. The question of will he […]

QUESTION: “I think that the parallel with the Gulf War or 1939-1944, or Afghanistan war IS NOT RELATING to the same scenario” ANSWER: The Gulf War is appropriate. World War I and World War II involved directly the European financial markets, whereas the other wars were remote including Korea and Vietnam. Capital flees from the […]

What the European Community did to Cyprus was a true crime. They had promised, swore even, that there would never be a default in the Euro. But Greece defaulted and that took down Cyprus. Even according to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and IMF, the Cypriot economy is expected to contract 8.7% in […]

Way too much evidence is showing that it was the Saudis who have supplied the rebels with chemical weapons not Assad. So why are the Saudis intent upon getting rid of Assad? The Saudis are planning together with Qatar a pipeline, which will run from the Gulf to Turkey. This will result in the Russian Gazprom having […]

The pension crisis is beginning to emerge as a real growing problem. The central banks have been keeping interest rates low for the primary reason of reducing the national debts. In Germany, they are beginning to notice that not merely are government pensions growing faster than private as public servants help themselves to our income […]