A rise in existing home sales last month shows things are getting better in the U.S. housing market, but the still-dire unemployment situation and the looming possibility of a jobless recovery may halt the rally by the end of the year. That makes the extension of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers imperative.
Good news, Canadians – the president does not think you are scary. You have become a bit of a “bogeyman,” however, in regard to the growing din over U.S. healthcare reform. And a Canadian style government-run system wouldn’t fly in the United States.
James Dale Davidson’s latest special report, “The Plague of the Black Debt,” went live to Notes readers yesterday.
Does “stimulus” really work? Does quantitative easing work? The historical record suggests not. So what brought us out of the Great Depression? The answer might surprise, even though it shouldn’t… A grumpy President Obama says that the $787 billion dollar stimulus package “has worked as intended.”
In the waning days of the Great Depression, FDR Signed the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 into law, heralding a new era of growth and prosperity for the nation’s heartland. While electricity was generally available in cities and towns, it was nearly unheard of on farms, ranches and other rural areas. The REA brought electric power to these sparsely populated Midwest farms and ranches. Today the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.
One significant step toward putting the US economy back on its feet would be to for the government to treat borrowers like adults. It’s a novel idea, huh? And one that’s likely to fall on deaf ears up on Capitol Hill. But we firmly believe here at Notes that it is a prerequisite of any real economic recovery in the US.
With its regulatory overhaul of the U.S. financial system, the Obama administration has granted the federal government new powers to take over systemically important businesses, but has done so in a way that may well mask a potentially dangerous drift toward American state capitalism.
One of our favorite underground investors Porter Stansberry of Stansberry & Associates Investment Research has picked up on a chart from the Wall Street Journal that will make your hair stand on end.
Banks aren’t getting out of the TARP as easy as they got in. According to Bloomberg, the feds have demanded that banks “raise specific amounts of new capital before repaying taxpayer funds, applying a more stringent assessment than the stress tests in May.”
What’s the true cause of inflation? Jimmy Carter underrated? Really? And what makes Von Mises right after all these years? Read on to find out…Thank you (once again) for all your excellent responses on the Obama-Carter connection. When your thoughts and comments roll in, my only lament is a lack of space in which to reply.