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Tricky (Central) Bank Predicaments
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Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the central bank would maintain its pace of quantitative easing (QE) in light of moderate improvement in US economic activity. However, as we’ve detailed many times before, we view the Fed’s QE policy moves as grossly counterproductive to its stated aims.
By Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, May 3, 2013
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Reinhart and Rogoff Were Wrong Even Without the 'Spreadsheet Error'
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"When governments spend with abandon (deficits just a form of finance) there's a smaller capital base for the productive to access, so when it comes to government spending the tragedy is not whether it occurs in deficit or surplus, but the Microsofts and Intels, the cancer cures, and the transportation innovations that never materialize thanks to politicians consuming so much capital."
RealClearMarkets, April 2013 , John Tamny
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Financial Market Volatility: Assessing Risk
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Volatility is often cited but seldom quantified for many economic series. Over the years, we have sought to provide a perspective on this concept in many investment decisions. One primary lesson we have learned is that when we provide a context for the concept of volatility, decision making is improved.
Wells Fargo Securities, Economics Group, Special Commentary, April 23, 2013 , John E. Silvia, Chief Economist
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The Great Recession? Crisis? How About Relearning?
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Despite a high level of drama in nearly every corner of the economic globe, we have yet to settle on a catchy description for this particular period in history. We have had the Great Financial Crisis, or the Great Recession, following closely behind, and directly related to, the Great Moderation (itself only a slight change from the Great Inflation).
Alhambra Investment Partners, April 26, 2013 , Jeffrey Snider, Chief Investment Strategist
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“The Crowd: a Study of the Popular Mind”
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An influential book from 1895 on the social psychology of crowds, originally written in French (“Psychologie des Foules”).
By Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931)
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France Is On The Brink of A Secondary Depression
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"...The rigid design of the euro system means the whole eurozone is prone to the kind of brutal cyclical adjustments seen in that hard money era of the 19th and early 20th centuries. But having reached the logical limits of its decades long experiment in state-run welfare-capitalism France is far more exposed than even its struggling neighbors."
GaveKal, April 2013 , Charles Gave
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...on state planning and the individual
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the Road to Serfdom, 1944 , Friedrich A. von Hayek
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Underestimating technology in the long run
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The Exploration of Space, 1951 , A.C. Clarke
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Bionic Deflation
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"The Six Million Dollar Man" (1974–1978)
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Policymakers are getting their way
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CrossBorder Capital, April 2013 , Michael Howell
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