Japan Just Killed the “Bitcoin Will Be Banned” Meme
By Charles Hugh Smith One of the most durable claims of cryptocurrency skeptics is that “governments will ban bitcoin once it threatens their fiat currency…
Charles Hugh Smith
What Could Pop The Everything Bubble?
By Charles Hugh Smith As central bank policies are increasingly fingered by the mainstream as the source of soaring wealth-income inequality, policies supporting credit/asset bubbles…
Observations on Wealth-Income Inequality (from Federal Reserve Reports)
By Charles Hugh Smith There’s a profound difference between assets that produce no income and those that produce net income. To those of us nutty…
Stagnation Nation: Middle Class Wealth Is Locked Up in Housing and Retirement Funds
By Charles Hugh Smith The majority of middle class wealth is locked up in unproductive assets or assets that only become available upon retirement or…
Why Governments Will Not Ban Bitcoin
By Charles Hugh Smith Those who see governments banning ownership of bitcoin are ignoring the political power and influence of those who are snapping up…
GDP Is Bogus: Here’s Why
By Charles Hugh Smith Here’s a chart of our fabulous always-higher GDP, adjusted for another bogus metric, official inflation. The theme this week is The…
Migration of the Tax Donkeys
By Charles Hugh Smith Dear local leadership: here’s the formula for long-term success. A Great Migration of the Tax Donkeys is underway, still very much…
This Chart Defines the 21st Century Economy
By Charles Hugh Smith There is nothing inevitable about such vast, fast-rising income-wealth inequality; it is the only possible output of our financial and pay-to-play…
You Can Only Choose One: Cheap Oil or a Weak Dollar
By Charles Hugh Smith When the price of oil rises to the point of pain, just remember the handy-dandy discount mechanism: a much stronger US…
The Demise of the Dollar: Don’t Hold Your Breath
By Charles Hugh Smith The demise of the U.S. dollar has been a staple of the financial media for decades. The latest buzzword making the rounds…
Financialization and The Destruction of the Real Economy
By Charles Hugh Smith Strip an economy of capital, productive incentives, talent and yes, ethics, and what are we left with? An economy spiraling toward…
Are Facebook and Google the New Colonial Powers?
By Charles Hugh Smith To qualify as colonial powers, Facebook and Google must effectively limit the choices and power of users, and punish or coerce…
Housing Bubble Symmetry: Look Out Below
By Charles Hugh Smith Housing markets are one itsy-bitsy recession away from a collapse in domestic and foreign demand by marginal buyers. There are two…
The Trouble with Asset Bubbles: If You Stop Pumping, They Pop
By Charles Hugh Smith The idea that authorities can massage their pumping to keep asset bubbles inflated at a permanently high plateau is currently being…