CONTRIBUTED FROM NETHERLANDS: Hi Martin, There you have it: one of the Dutch left parties, Green Left, is proposing draconian wealth taxes based on Thomas Piketty’s book. See the link below. Some of the things they want: * A (maximum) 50% tax on capital for the super rich * Increase the tax on dividends from […]

QUESTION: Hi Martin, Thinking in terms of Capital Flows, would it be appropriate to say that gold & silver are falling because the dollar is rising, the Euro is falling and some states need to sell gold to cover their bond exposure? Best, -M ANSWER: Yes. The dollar is rising and this will have a positive […]

QUESTION: Hi Martin, You talk quite a bit about deflation in your comments, especially in Europe.  Can I assume you’re referring to monetary deflation arising from a slowdown in the velocity of money?  Which I’m guessing stems from banks using the plentiful money that’s available to them to purchase government bonds, using 30-1 leverage (as instructed by […]

QUESTION:  Hi Martin, I understand you negative opinion on Socialism & Communism, but I’m confused by you opinion on a Republic. On paper a Republic looks like an ideal form of freedom, where-as a democracy dictates majority rules and 50.01% can do a lot of damage to the remaining citizens. I understand that through history […]

About 100,000 Hungarians rallied on Tuesday night to protest at a planned tax on data traffic and the broader course of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government they saw as undermining democracy and relations with European Union peers.

  The greatest threat we face is the political elite.They are typically failed lawyers and that training makes them believe they possess some magical power to write law and therein it shall be. The reason why we must crash and burn is linked directly to this very bad quality found at the core of the […]

The EU Commission is demanding that Britain pays them almost £2 billion pounds because their economy has boomed while that controlled by the Commission has imploded. An angry David Cameron was on a collision course with the European Commission this afternoon as he flatly refused to agree to a demand that Britain hand over an […]

  Mario Renzi of Italy has taken criticism from the EU over his budget for 2015. In the flake that is erupting, the tensions with Brussels are rising throughout Europe. Renzi has said he will now publish a list of EU PALACES where they squander money on themselves.

Monte dei Paschi shares were suspended twice throughout today. At one stage down 22% currently trading down 18%. Peripheral bond markets behaving themselves only Italian BTP’s were wider by 7bp’s. The European banking crisis is still in full bloom. What the ECB will not admit is that the design of the Euro lacking a single debt […]

With the Economic Confidence Model peak in 2007.15 (February 26th, 2007), that turning point marked the very day of the high in the Case-Shiller Real Estate Index. However, it also market the precise day of the infamous sale at the top of Goldman Sachs’ notorious ABACUS 2007-AC1 $2 billion Synthetic CDO. Indeed, Goldman Sachs was later […]