The Great Recession Blog

News that we are sliding into global economic collapse is building every day. It intrigues me that it is now coming from the least-expected sources — from those who were the true believers in the Fed’s recovery and who have profited off the bull market so that they never spoke against the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and low-interest-rate policy … […]

Was the recovery of the stock market rigged? David Stockton, President Reagan’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, says it was:   The markets plunged on a vague recognition that the central bank promoted recovery story might not be on the level. But that tremor didn’t last long. Right on cue the next day, one of the very dimmest Fed heads – James […]

How much do CEO’s really know about the economy or even their own business? Let’s take a look at their track record via a list of spectacular failed predictions by corporate leaders of our world, past and present.   The dazzling dopy delusions of CEOs, past to present   #10. The telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a […]

The air-raid sirens are silent, but it doesn’t mean the bomb is not falling. The question to be answered is not whether the Federal Reserve is creating the possibility of runaway inflation, but “can the Fed dismantle the hyperinflation bomb that is already falling before it hits the earth?” No one — even at the […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke merely hinted that the Fed MIGHT START to TAPER its quantitative easing MONTHS from now, and that breath sent mortgage rates soaring in one of the steepest rates of rise the U.S. has seen. This confirms one of the primary themes of this blog in the starkest way possible:   […]

A funny thing happened on the way to Wall Street. News about the economy was as dark as the ink it was printed with, and yet stock markets vaulted upward. The Federal Reserve had been teasing the stock markets with round three of quantitative easing (QE3), and the noses of the market bulls now flared […]

This is the story of a bank that is not a bank as well as a government regulatory agency that is not government. The following explanation of the Federal Reserve is simpler than more complete versions you can find all over the web, but that’s why I’m writing it. It’s hard to find a simple […]

The main reason this depression is being talked about now as a “second recession” is that the governments of this world propped up the initial phase of this global depression with all the cash they could manufacture — more cash than has ever been pumped into the U.S. economy at any time in history. Thus, […]

The fickleness of the stock market as a predictor of the economy versus just a responder to the economy played out clearly in the past week. On March 5th, CNN reported that the market had broken a five-day losing streak, bouncing off of twelve-year lows. “The markets opened higher and never looked back, following reports […]

Today begins the Chinese Year of the Ox. I wasn’t sure how much stock to put in the Chinese Year of the ___ stuff. (Right now I’m not buying stock in anything.) Then I had a brainstorm. I can easily see if there is anything to this Chinese New Year stuff by looking back at […]

In June of 2008, U.S. President George Bush taught us that “one of the things important about history is to remember the true history.” With that as our guide, and this being the final days of a truly historic presidency, I’d like to reflect on the wisdom of the previous year that got us where […]