Dissolving Dollars

Peter Schiff at Yale 2/4/10

Alex — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:18:08 +0000

A good and long talk given by Peter Schiff at Yale.

January Unemploment Hits 10.6%

Alex — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:52:54 +0000

The headline January jobs number reported that unemployment dropped to 9.7%. But if you take out seasonal statistical adjustments, it rose to 10.6%. Sometimes the seasonal adjustments make the number higher, sometimes lower. Net job losses increased from 14.7 million in December to 16.1 million in January due to a downward revision to previous reports. The number of discouraged workers who dropped out of the stats also rose, passing the 1 million mark. If those people were included the rate would have risen to 11.2% seasonally unadjusted. Also, seasonally unadjusted, the total unemployment number including underemployed and discouraged reached 18%. Basically, the only people hiring are health care and the federal government; two sectors that drain wealth instead of create it. So, that is the real story behind the January jobs numbers. And how real and reliable those numbers are to begin with is itself questionable.

Keynesian Track Record

Alex — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:19:20 +0000

Thomas E. Woods talks at the Mises Circle in Houston, January 23, 2010 about the poor predictive track record of Keynesian economics relative to Austrian economics. Related Link: The Great Depression of 1946

Marc Faber Predictions for 2010

Alex — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:36:18 +0000

Dissolving Dollars Book Now Has New 2010 Edits

Alex — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:04:40 +0000

I made a few minor changes to the book for 2010. The main thing I changed was the section titled “Fractional Reserve Lending” on page 64. What I put in that section originally, I put in for the sake of simplicity because I didn’t want to have to get into the subject of capital requirements (especially since those kinds of details are subject to change). However, I broke down and chopped that section up and now talk about the total capital requirement of 8% of total risk-weighted assets (loans) imposed by the the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks). Since modern banks don’t really loan out deposit money, the 8% capital requirement is the primary limit on bank money creation. The only other notable change is on page 111. I now talk about how infrastructure dollars could first be implemented by states. All states would have to do is create their own banks (like North Dakota has) and make their own interest-free credit to fund infrastructure. I also updated a few charts, but that is about it.

The book should become a bit more widely available within a few months.