I was on the Jay Taylor Show again, to talk about the the Swiss franc. No, the headline was not of my choosing. Adam Caroll gave a Ted Talk about how people behave differently when money isn’t real. And gets into a discussion of how kids will click to spend on their parents’ phones without […]
This is a textbook case. Well, it would be if there was a textbook that presented the dynamics of the rising and falling interest rate cycles. Costco is spending over a quarter billion dollars, to make a capital investment in chicken processing. This is not the typical entrepreneurial investment, which seeks to increase margins by serving […]
Trouble in Swiss Employment This story from Switzerland will be ignored, lest it generate cognitive dissonance. The mainstream looks at a few carefully curated statistics. I encourage you to do a Google search on “marginal productivity of debt”. My articles are all over the first page of results. This is not because I am such […]
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet famously dismissed gold. “Gold has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative.” I have recently written about how a government with gold mining tax revenues can use gold. The benefits of issuing gold bonds include reducing risk, and getting out of debt at a discount. Pretty useful, […]
There’s a story about JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, from the Panic of 1873. Carnegie was a client of the Morgans, with $50,000 on deposit plus some stocks. After selling his $10,000 interest in a railroad, Carnegie supposedly came by the office to pick up a check for $60,000. To his surprise, JP Morgan handed […]
New York City has a thriving food culture where millions of people eat out at restaurants every day. Free to choose what and where they eat, the choices of these individuals have a direct impact on the NYC food industry and even determine which restaurants “make it” and which don’t. Therefore, restaurants exist and compete […]
A gold bond is debt obligation that is denominated in gold, with interest and principal paid in gold. As I will explain below, it’s a way for the issuer to pay off its debt in full, and there are other advantages. Sometimes, I find that it’s helpful to show a picture of what I’m talking […]
Why Do People Buy Gold? Investors face a challenging environment. Decades of falling interest rates force them to choose between earning poor returns in bonds and speculating on asset prices. Retirees may not be able to sustain their lifestyle. Institutions may not be able to remain solvent. In addition, debt levels have skyrocketed, and there […]
Dear Congressman Mooney: I am writing to you about something of great importance, the path to the gold standard. Thank you for introducing H.R. 5404. I agree with your findings, especially that inflation undermines jobs and retirement. Yet I must say that the dollar cannot now be defined as a weight of gold. This would […]
Dear Mr. Buffet, Let me start by saying that I am a great admirer of yours. What you and Charlie Munger have accomplished at Berkshire Hathaway is truly extraordinary. Today though, I want to talk to you about a very specific four letter word – gold. You’ve not been shy with your opinion about gold […]
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