The joke of the day is CNN money’s recent article ruminating about the effect of the Federal Reserve’s low-interest rates and the creation of inflation. Low-interest rates for bank have helped the bottom lines of financial institutions. Consumers and investors have experienced little, if any, benefit. According to the article, some think that low interest rates

Stolen trade secrets can spell the difference between extinction and profitability.

They distort trade figures, smuggle goods across ill-guarded borders, ignore international treaties and conventions and, in short, revive moribund economies.

(From NakedCapitialism blog….) Ah, just when you thought it might be safe to venture into the markets again, RBS sends out a red alert, warning private clients to prepare themselves for a full fledged rout in equities and bond markets in the next three months, with the S&P losing 300 points, or nearly a quarter of

Vietnam’s communist authorities have temporarily suspended all gold imports in a bid to tackle the country’s spiralling trade deficit and help support the depreciating local currency, the dong. For more hard hiting current economic analysis, please visit Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis ___________________________________________________________________________ By Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock, Vietnam Suspends Gold Imports Inflation is soaring in Vietnam. The cure is simple.

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly (Proverbs 26:11). By Gary North, LewRockwell.com We are about to be thrown back into the tender mercies of Keynesian economists. In the current setting, this will push the economy lower rather than higher. The main Keynesian solutions to a faltering economy are federal budget deficits

The key story, however, is that bank credit is contracting along with commercial paper. Consumer credit will eventually follow with a pending $2 Trillion Reduction In Credit Card Lines Coming Up. This is deflation in action and amazingly few see it. For more hard hitting current economic analysis, please visit Mish’s Global Economic Analysis ____________________________________________________________________________ By Mike ‘Mish’

“Prepare yourself for an era of Government financial and exchange controls!” By Julian D. W. Phillips, 24th June 2008 GoldForecaster.com In a long week in which attempts to lower the oil price and talks about the $ were disappointed[ G-8 meeting and the oil producer’s meeting in Saudi Arabia], the threat of much higher oil prices, a weaker $

A new study authored by IER economist Robert Murphy , Speculators Fixing Oil Prices? Don’t Bet On It , sheds some much needed light on the role speculation plays in the global oil market. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Record-high oil prices demand a target, and some politicians are increasingly pointing the finger at speculators in the commodities futures markets.

By Ron Paul, I am pleased to report that last week we received notice that the Texas Department of Transportation will recommend the I-69 Project be developed using existing highway facilities instead of the proposed massive new Trans Texas Corridor/NAFTA Superhighway. According to the Texas Transportation Commissioner, consideration is no longer being given to new