Tag Archives: Economics

Central Banks, Interest Rates, and Zombies

In 2013 I wrote an Overview of the U. S. Monetary System   describing what money is and how it is created; interactions of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and commercial banks; and government and trade deficits. Much of this … Continue reading

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Adventures in High-Yield Investing

On a different topic than the usual science-and-faith…Over the New Year’s holiday I reflected on how ten years from now I will likely be retired and living largely off the returns of whatever I have been able to invest by … Continue reading

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Understanding the Monetary System

This post is to introduce a tutorial which is posted up top as Monetary_System. It describes the workings of the our modern fiat monetary system, which differs significantly from the gold standard upon which classical economics theory was based. Many economics … Continue reading

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Ugly Map of European Unemployment

The Swedish economics blog Flute Thoughts has posted this map of 2011 employment by region in Europe: [I first saw this as a cross-post in Zerohedge].  This map calls attention to the differences between the “core” and “periphery”. On a country-by-country … Continue reading

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Euro Debt Update: Backdoor ECB Bailout Buys Some Time

A month ago we posted on the dynamics of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. The BBC has published   a handy flowchart with graphs that explains the origins of the problem. It all goes back to the decision of countries (originally … Continue reading

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Why Is This Recession Dragging On ?

A “recession” is usually defined as at least two quarters in a row of shrinking economic activity, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).  A recession is eventually followed by a recovery. Normally, stock prices decline before a recession begins, … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments