Those who have visited Michigan recently or the Mahoning Valley of Ohio in the 1980s can recognize the symptoms of a rust belt. A hitherto prosperous industry, paying high wages to its employees, has been overtaken by market changes and is forced into harsh downsizing or even bankruptcy. As a result, the lives of many […]

As the $1.19 trillion forecast 2009 US budget deficit combines with the forthcoming $825 billion (and counting) stimulus package, observers seem convinced that for some mystical reason US Treasuries are a “safe haven” – endlessly attractive to Asian and Middle Eastern central banks and therefore able to yield considerably less than the expected rate of […]

According to the Congressional Budget Office the US budget deficit for the year to September 2009 will be $1.19 trillion, 8.3% of Gross Domestic Product, the largest in history. To this monster President-elect Barack Obama wishes to add a two-year stimulus of $800 billion or so. Broad money supply is rising by 20% per annum […]

With an unpopular war, a deepish recession, an irresistibly growing public sector, excessively rapid money supply growth that may spark off inflation, a dangerously large payments deficit and a workforce excruciatingly vulnerable to international competition, the United States is today in a similar position to that of 1970-71. The current objective must surely be to […]