July 27th, 2010 by Alex

I thought it might be useful to compile a list of notorious Inflationists and Deflationists.

So, here it is. I might have missed a few names or have a few categorized wrong. If so, contact me.

Notorious Deflationists
Robert Prechter, Nouriel Roubini, Karl Denninger, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Gary Shilling, Kevin Depew, Mike Shedlock, Steve Keen, David Rosenberg.

Notorious Inflationists
Peter Schiff, Marc Faber, Jim Rogers, Gerald Celente, Ron Paul, John Rubino, Jim Sinclair, John Williams, Bill Bonner, Henry C.K. Liu, Robert Higgs, Eric Janszen, Robert P. Murphy, Jim Willie, Jim Puplava, James Turk, Martin Hutchinson, Steve Saville, Mogambo Guru, Puru Saxena, Howard Ruff, Paul Craig Roberts, Lew Rockwell, John Embry, Dan Denning, Alf Field, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Bob Chapman, Rich Toscano, John Simon, George Ure, Adam Hamilton, Kevin Phillips, Dmitry Orlov, Ned Naylor-Leyland.

Notoriously Both Deflationists and Inflationists
John Mauldin, Larry Edelson, Rick Ackerman, Mike Whitney, James Howard Kunstler, Michael Hudson, Chris Martenson.

July 5th, 2010 by Alex

This is a clip from CNBC back in April 2010 of Robert Prechter telling the people on the show Fast Money that the market is due to turn down. The best part is near the end where Steve Grasso says “To call out a fall off the cliff in May is ridiculous.” Don’t these guys ever get tired of being wrong? What I respect so much about Prechter is that he has a definite strategy based on what the Elliot wave numbers tell him. These CNBC guys just blow in the wind; they are bipolar traders.

Prechter is a deflationist. Back in 2008, I was a much bigger believer in inflation than I am now. Ever since the credit meltdown, I’m more willing to suspect that the deflationary pressure of the debt burden is too big for inflation to get far out of hand. But I don’t know. I’m personally hedged in both directions these days: inflation and deflation. I personally would prefer deflation; it is a much more honest path of cleaning up the economy, and the investment strategy is simple: hold on to cash. I think if we see another big terrorist attack, which is realistically inevitable, the economy will be so negative that inflation won’t be able to overtake the downward pressure.

Prechter is calling for a choppy downtrend in the market into 2016, at which point we’ll see a new low. During much of that time people may still be thinking we are recovering, but the mood will eventually turn very gloomy.

For more Prechter listen to this recent interview on the Financial Sense Newshour.

July 1st, 2010 by Alex

Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports: Walter Burien on The Alex Jones Show May 2010

CAFR1 Trailer – The Only Game in Town – The Way Our Government Can Be

Not only does the government collect taxes, but it also makes money by investing. That investment money is basically the government’s reserve money, like bank reserves. That reserve money exists on all levels of government and is evident in Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. Government budgets are not based on how much money is really available. The budgets are artificially low since laws restrict using that reserve money to meet the budget. Nonetheless, that reserve money is why the government hasn’t gone totally broke and totally collapsed. The government has enormous amounts of money invested in the so-called private economy. So, it is no wonder why things like car insurance are mandatory: government can get a big piece of that action by owning stock in those companies. The profitability of government investments is dependent on the health of the economy. So, bad economies are bad for government.  But nonetheless, government has plenty of excess money sitting in investments whether they are appreciating or depreciating. What governments should do with that money is use it to create public banks, not invest in the private (corporatist) economy. With public banks, governments could create their own interest free credit for things like infrastructure construction without taxation and the burden of interest-bearing loans.