Something’s Gone Horribly Awry

Posted on January 29, 2016 by MN Gordon

The S&P 500 has fallen 7.37 percent so far this year.  What to make of it…

Naturally, some people find falling stock prices to be unpleasant.  Others find them distressing.  Another way to look at falling stock prices, however, is like a high-fiber diet.  The effect is necessary to a healthy functioning system.

The simple fact is that stock prices, fueled by speculative liquidity, have long since outrun the real economy.  The disconnect between the two has been widely observable.  The economy’s lagged, incomes have stagnated, yet stocks have soared.

Thus the present, ever so slight reduction in liquidity, and the subsequent lowering of stock prices, is having a cleansing influence.  For it will serve to eliminate marginal businesses, and trim the fat from larger businesses.

Consequently, business owners, managers, and workers of marginal undertakings will have to redirect their efforts into something new…something that’s of greater value.  For example, Walmart recently announced it would be closing 269 stores and laying off 16,000 workers. Continue reading →

Posted in Inflation, MN Gordon | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Chasing the Wild Goose in Davos

Posted on January 22, 2016 by MN Gordon

Despite the reformers endless efforts to encircle mankind, some persist beyond the broad extent of their casted net.  In the backwaters of the new Republic, for instance, the distant rumble and flicker of Saturday night hootenannies still befall yonder the mighty oak groves.

In defiance of all things good and proper, the unconsecrated gather under the pale moonlight and jig step to zydeco washboard rhythms while downing tipples of corn syrup and fermented grain.  These knees-ups certify that, even in this era of big government, there remain places in the lower forty-eight where freedom reigns.

Similarly, the backwoods of the old world, rare as they may be, have not been entirely defamed.  Though old world songs are more rigid – and drinks more dry – there are still places where people come together with gusto, and without interference, to dance the polka around the maypole.

Across the planet, no doubt, there are still pockets of liberty where individuals can lawfully expel into toilet bowls that use more than 1.28 gallons per flush.  These places are uniquely exceptional with their own distinct rhyme. Continue reading →

Posted in MN Gordon, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Earthquake Economics

Posted on January 15, 2016 by MN Gordon

“The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world,” said President Obama, in his State of the Union address, on Tuesday night.  What performance metrics he based his assertion on is unclear.  But we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe this is so…right now.  But it isn’t eternal.  For at grade, hidden in plain sight, a braid of positive and negative surface flowers indicate an economic strike-slip fault extends below.  What’s more, the economy’s foundation dangerously straddles across it.

Something must slip.  A massive vertical rupture is coming that will collapse everything within a wide-ranging proximity.  It is not a matter of if it will come.  But, rather, of when…regardless of what the President says.

Here at the Economic Prism we have no reservations about the U.S. – or world – economy.  We see absurdities and inconsistencies.  We see instabilities perilously pyramided up, which could rapidly cascade down.  We just don’t know when. Continue reading →

Posted in Inflation, MN Gordon | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Muted Delight of the Forthcoming Recession

Posted on January 8, 2016 by MN Gordon

One week down.  Fifty-one more to go.  No doubt, this has been a wild start to the New Year.  We expect many more to follow.

For example, on Monday, Chinese investors overloaded the Shanghai Stock Exchange.  An abundance of traders hit the sell button in unison and nearly shorted out the sell side circuit.  By early afternoon the breakers had tripped to prevent a full market meltdown.  Here are the particulars, as reported by Bloomberg…

“The worst-ever start to a year for Chinese shares triggered a trading halt in more than $7 trillion of equities, futures and options, putting the nation’s new market circuit breakers to the test on their first day.

“Trading was halted at about 1:34 p.m. local time on Monday after the CSI 300 Index dropped 7 percent.  An earlier 15-minute suspension at the 5 percent level failed to stop the retreat, with shares extending losses as soon as the market re-opened.”

Data showing Chinese manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month was cited as having prompting the mass selloff. Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, MN Gordon | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments