The Small Business Lending Fund was cleverly named by its authors last Congress. Since its implementation, however, it would appear a more appropriate name would be the Bailed Out Bank Refinancing Fund. When Barney Frank and other supporters proposed the SBLF, it was believed banks would leverage the fund leading to hundreds of billions in […]
The left continues to resist any suggestion of spending cuts right now. In their view, a depressed economy is no time to slash spending; that would only further weaken demand. The successful austerity policies adopted in response to the downturn of 1920, however, offer a clear rebuttal to this notion. And this is not an […]
The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City more than three weeks ago have now spread across the country. The choice of Wall Street as the focal point for the protests — as even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said — makes sense due to the big bank malfeasance that led to the Great Recession. While the […]
News reports say that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will sue about 12 major banks in order to recover some of the losses that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sustained on mortgage-backed securities the banks issued. The suits will seek to make the banks repay a share of about $30 billion in losses from […]
Iceland maybe the first true free nation, and it intends to remain so, as long as its citizens wish to remain autonomous of the foreign domination of her would-be masters — in this case, international bankers. On April 9, the fiercely independent people of island-nation defeated a referendum that would have bailed out the UK […]
Mises Daily: People often ask me, “What do you think the government should do instead of QE inflation?” My stock answer is that the government should not try to fight the depression with government spending and cheap credit. Trying to stop the market from correcting the errors of the past only delays the consequences and […]
(By Andrew Lilico) It is when, not if. Financial markets merely aren’t sure whether it’ll be tomorrow, a month’s time, a year’s time, or two years’ time (it won’t be longer than that). Given that the ECB has played the “final card” it employed to force a bailout upon the Irish – threatening to bankrupt […]
Even the baseline scenario in places like Las Vegas and Miami is grim, where Case Shiller projects a 21% decline in home prices from 2010 to 2012. But in one scenario it could be worse. 6.7 million delinquent mortgages are waiting to flood the market around the country — and with near-zero cure rates most […]
Gold prices surged last week to a new all time high of $1,463.70 per ounce, while silver prices soared to a new 31-year high of $39.785 per ounce. Silver is now up 129% since NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade on December 11th, 2009, at $17.40 per ounce. The gold/silver ratio […]
On Saturday, process won out over substance in the reaction to the agreement by leaders of the eurozone on measures to combat the European debt crisis. Since there was so much advance speculation that no agreement could be reached, the very fact that the leaders reached an agreement touched off a wave of financial optimism. […]
