Category Archives: Economics

Rio Tinto Mine Landslide – US Just Lost 17% of Copper, 10% of Silver Production

A billion ton landslide at Utah’s Rio Tinto mine has shut down mining. Rio Tinto is the world’s biggest copper mine and produces 17% of US copper. Tam points out that ammo, already hard to get, will just get that … Continue reading

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Gold and Silver Hit Multi-year Lows

Massive $20 Billion Paper Gold Sell Orders Trigger Stop Loss Selling And Unfounded Panic I had staggered stop loss orders in place that sold almost all of holdings on the way down, so I’m still in the black, but it’s … Continue reading

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Stockton, CA Declares Bankruptcy

Stockton bankruptcy can move forward, judge rules: The $900 million Stockton owes to the California Public Employees Retirement System to cover pensions is its biggest debt -– as is the case with many cities in California. Stockton slashed its police … Continue reading

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Infographic: All the World’s Gold

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“Why Most Rappers are Broke”

Some of it is bling. Some of it is the lifestyle. Some of it is that most artists in any genre don’t make money off of their records, due to record companies being pretty much pure evil. Part 1: Part … Continue reading

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Central Banks Buy Most Gold Since 1964

But remember, gold is a barbarous relic with no function in the modern world of finance: Worldwide gold demand in 2012 was another record high of $236.4 billion in the World Gold Council’s latest report. This was up 6% in … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

“Preposterous Keynesian fallacy at work. It presupposes that money allocated to some project via the political process is more likely to create a ‘multiplier’ than market driven uses of that money… and it assumes that the money taken by the … Continue reading

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Russia Biggest Gold Buyer in Past Decade, China #2

Bloomberg – Putin Turns Black Gold Into Bullion as Russia Out-Buys World: Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of … Continue reading

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Matt Yglesias’s Very Bad, No Good Idea for Perpetual Government Bonds

Matt Yglesias in Slate – Don’t Repay the National Debt – It’s time to revive a British financial innovation from the 18th century: perpetual bonds. In 1752, Prime Minister Henry Pelham converted the entire outstanding stock of British debt into … Continue reading

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Dow Hits Record High in Dollars, 20 Year Low in Ounces of Gold

New York Sun – The Fiat Dow: As the Dow Jones Industrial Average edges close to 14,000 let us just remark on the value of the famous index in ounces of gold. It may be that 14,000 is nearly twice … Continue reading

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Good News, California!

Illinois’ credit rating downgraded; state drops to worst in the nation.

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How Many Olympic-sized Swimming Pools Would It Take to Hold All of the World’s Gold?

You often hear that all the world’s gold would fit into a certain number of Olympic-sized swimming pools. One and two seem to be the most popular numbers. Agustino Fontevecchia at Forbes did a calculation and came up with a … Continue reading

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Germany and Holland Want Their Gold Back

First Germany,* then Holland. And that’s not counting Venezuala. Actual first world countries with functioning democracies no longer trust other countries to keep their gold for them. What’s up with that? * To be fair, it looks like Germany is … Continue reading

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U.S. Debt as a Household Budget

Worth repeating: Debt ceiling debate in a nutshell … or two * US Tax Revenue. $2,170,000,000,000 Federal Budget. $3,820,000,000,000 Deficit. $1,650,000,000,000 National Debt. $14,271,000,000,000 Recent budget cuts. $38,500,000,000 Now, let’s remove 8 zeroes from the above, and use it as … Continue reading

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Did Cash for Clunkers Hurt the Environment?

Whoops—’Cash for Clunkers’ Actually Hurt the Environment Drudge linked to that piece as a study, but it’s actually quoting facts from this article at E Magazine. So we’ve got some facts, but calling it a study is a stretch. That … Continue reading

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