The Die is Cast

“Alea iacta est” – Julius Ceasar

The NASDAQ crossed the 5,000 mark for the first time since the year 2000 on Monday.  What a journey it has been.  The world hardly resembles itself just fifteen years later.  Practically everything has changed.

Back then, pre-9/11, the world was still our oyster.  We just knew we’d attain whatever we dreamed with a little hard work and determination.  But we never could’ve imagined how hard it would actually be just to scratch for our scraps.  Naturally, with this latest NASDAQ milestone, we have some questions…

What does NASDAQ 5,000 really mean, anyway?  Does it stand for something?  Does what’s standing behind it have the strength to hold things up this time?  Or will it roll over and crash by 80 percent again?

No one really knows.  But here at the Economic Prism we have a hunch the NASDAQ will have a significant correction sometime soon.  Perhaps it will fall by 20 percent…or possibly 40 percent, or even more. Continue reading

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Dillweed Economics

After more than a decade of studying, documenting and cautioning on the great fraud of our time we’re as shocked as we’ve ever been.  In the year 2015, the entire essence of economic and financial management the world over has been reduced to a single policy…

Thou shalt degrade money and expand debt in perpetuity.

Here in the United States, as in Europe, Japan, China, and most everywhere else, this policy is carried out with earnest zeal.  No limitations are holding back policy makers and politicians.  Consequences have disappeared from practical prudence or consideration.

New credits are borrowed into existence by the Federal Reserve and spent by the Treasury.  All the while the old debts are never paid down.  The interest is merely serviced and the old debts are rolled over by issuing new debts…which are purchased by borrowing new credits into existence.

How does this wonderful scheme continue in broad daylight?  Are people just not aware of it?  Or is the broad population completely apathetic? Continue reading

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From Bad to Worse in a Big Way

Just when it appeared that a $50 per barrel floor had been put under the price of oil, something unexpected happened.  The price of oil dropped over 2 percent to about $48.74 a barrel.  What’s more, it could fall much, much further…

“A rally in crude-oil prices halted last week after U.S. data showed that domestic crude inventories are at their highest in about 80 years,” explained the Wall Street Journal.

In other words, not since 1935 – the middle year of the Great Depression – has there been such a glut in U.S. oil.  Moreover, a weekly report from Morgan Stanley remarked that forthcoming U.S. data on supply and drilling are “likely to appear ominous.”  From what we gather, this most likely means the supply glut will steepen.

Naturally, when there’s an oversupply of something, the price must drop to equilibrate demand.  How much further it must drop no one really knows.  But we surmise the price of oil must fall considerably further to close an 80 year inventory high.

Obviously, domestic oil producers wanted a quick price rebound in the first quarter of 2015. Continue reading

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The End of the New Paradigm

There is a pleasant mist in the air which conceals the depths of the disorder with earnest efficiency.  Cavernous divergences exist between the financial economy and the real economy.  Yet only the crankiest will speak of them.

The union in Europe was temporarily saved last Friday.  Investors the world over cheered the relief.  The DOW and S&P 500 closed out the week at record highs.

The big news was that the Greek bailout will be extended four more months.  The fact that Greece will never pay back its creditors doesn’t matter for now.  The clever program of extend and pretend has been preserved.

This is how things work in 2015.  The world economy roles round and down with remarkable precision, borrowing massive amounts of digital monetary credits into existence and spending them.  Certainly, this can’t go on forever.

The more duct tape and safety pins that are used to hold things together…  The more money creation that occurs to temporarily paper things over…  The greater destruction the final financial blowout will ultimately be. Continue reading

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