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The International Unit of Account

QUESTION: I only recently learned of your material and am still digesting it. I appreciate that you encourage critical thinking. I hope you find my questions of the same spirit. In your recent article “Are Two-Tier Monetary Systems a Possible Tool?”, you illustrated how South Africa’s experience could provide an example for nations wanting to […]

Market Talk – June 4, 2019

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: The U.S. reacted to China’s claim that the “U.S. [is] applying too much pressure” to the deal by stating China is playing a “blame game” by misrepresenting the trade talks between the two countries. The U.S. Department of State head Mike Pompeo released a press statement attacking China over their handling of […]

Swiss Occupational Pension Plan Turns Out to be a Ponzi Scheme?

  In Berne, Switzerland, there has been a redistribution in occupational pensions which has revealed that it too is not a funded pensions plan as people previously assumed. For at least twelve years, pension fund monies have flowed from the employed to the pensioners. The amount has reached a tremendous scale with funds in the […]

Market Talk – May 30, 2019

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: China accused the U.S. of “economic terrorism.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the White House had “brought huge damage to the economy of other countries and the U.S. itself,” spokesperson Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing on Thursday. China has now reportedly stopped ordering soy from the U.S. over the trade […]

Corporate Buy Backs

Many people are confused as to why corporations have been buying back their shares in mass. The latest figures for 2018 are in and they demonstrate that the S&P 500 listed companies spent more on dividends and buybacks in 2018 than they actually made in total reported earnings ($1.26 trillion vs $1.1 trillion). What is […]

Fannie & Freddie to go Public in 2020?

QUESTION: Hi Martin ! always wondered What would be the outcome of Fannie/ Freddie going private ? they have been trying this for years, but now looks like they are giving it another try and may be successful under the guise of ” protect the taxpayer ” …. what do you think will be the […]

Yield v Reason

QUESTION: I see all of these people calling for a major crash of 50%+. With interest rates so low and the dividends on the Dow twice that of interest rates, does anyone look at yield anymore? PH ANSWER: I fully agree. The yield on the Dow Jones is 2.34%, which is about comparable the 10-year […]

Market Talk – May 16, 2019

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: After President Trump’s national emergency call over IT technology, China has threatened to retaliate against the US with sanctions. China sees America’s action as an attempt to restrict international trade by prohibiting the Chinese technology giant Huawei. There also seems to be a trend in China where people are calling for a […]

Market Talk – May 14, 2019

ASIA: As we reported yesterday, there are a lot of conspiracies emerging that China will be selling off their treasuries to punish the U.S. for their latest tariff hikes. Many analysts believe this is unlikely due to the massive risk of increasing worldwide interest rates and the probability of backfiring on China. Another question raised […]

QE & Its Failure

QUESTION: Dear Martin, During WEC in Rome I came to understand that the issue with QE is that it did not create any inflation in the USA. On the other hand, as you mentioned the inflation is being calculated in a different way that it used to be in the future. How come then the […]