Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

But it fits right in with Putin's plans, following Russia's humiliation and near economic collapse in the 1990s. ... In that context, it's not surprising that Putin was thinking about some worldwide "monetary coup." Having taken control of all the oil companies in Russia, he was emboldened by the s...

Dear Higgie, The statement, "In the absence of any serious competitors to the dollar, he advocated international control of U.S. monetary policy," does not surprise me in the least, although it's interesting to see it stated this way. All major currencies (except the yen) are in a deflationary spir...

I may be reading too much into this. First, we saw earlier this week that the Fed did indeed say they will buy treasuries. This means they will buy the long term US government bonds. This would have the effect of driving down long term interest rates. The Fed has been saying for a long time that thi...

From p. 419 of At the Crest of the Tidal Wave, Another wildcard is the potential for the outright outlawing of certain markets. Government authorities, who proudly take credit for bull markets, will require a scapegoat for the decline. They will desperately order investigations to determine who (omi...

To your point, the only counter arguments anyone in this thread has put forward is the kind of technical minute detail that itself misses the point (margin buying, etc.) Tobyguy That could even be negated with your thesis. Reason being, let's just say that margin buying did drive the price of oil u...

But the concept you're describing, "accumulation of small advantages," is actually a "big picture" concept. Fischer's strength was that, better than anyone else in the world, he could evaluate an entire position and judge its strengths and weaknesses. Then he would imagine how he'd like to change t...

A producer can say to a buyer in the spot market, “I’ll hold onto my oil and sell it to Mr. Speculator in the future unless you pay me more money now”. It boils down to the pure cost of storage. My opinion, although nobody seems to be able to answer it or even acknowledge it, is that they are not d...

What I notice often is that a lot of very smart people get hung up on the details of a situation and then end up missing the bigger picture and that is what I see here. I do it myself with certain subjects but I consider it a prime rule never to break when it comes to economics. Regards, --Fred Fre...

Pop psychology question of the day: Why am I finding so much enjoyment in a story about women whining because their banker boyfriends can no longer afford them? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/nyregion/28daba.html John You knew there was a bubble in bankers because they were in short supply and t...

I saw the 60 minutes piece, I think they did a decent (although incomplete) job as hardly anyone else in the media had been explaining the role of speculation in the commodities bubble and many (like you) were completely ignoring the role of the speculator on prices. No one said speculators were th...