My latest post at my other group blog, History and Futility, was entitled "Why Eurabia?" Why, in the face of the abundant evidence that the prospect of a Muslim majority in any European country--indeed, of particularly large Muslim minorities anywhere--do large numbers of people (like Glenn Beck) predict an imminent caliphate in Europe?Eurabia's fundamentally an ideology of revenge ("Ha, ha, you

Just last month, the US was booted down to fourth place in global competitiveness after many years of reliably holding the number one position (though it had also slipped to second in 2009). Part of the reason for its marked drop was “the government’s ability to avoid meddling in the private sector” and the fact that is has become “a wasteful spender.”

As it turns out, Transparency International is equally aware of the US’ tarnished record. Last year, it ranked 19th on the Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of 7.5. Already, it was a showing hardly worth writing home about, and this year the nation couldn’t even fair that well.

From The Wall Street Journal:

“The U.S. scored a 7.1 on the new Transparency International index, its worst showing in the index’s history. The score is down

...

European countries - both inside and outside the Eurozone - are slashing their budget deficits. Greece, Portugal and Spain - three of the so-called "PIGS" - have to do so, of course. But Germany - generally reckoned to be in excellent shape - is also cutting its deficit, as is France, which hasn't run a budget surplus in 40 years. Britain, too, with no need to protect the euro (it's not a Eurozone member) just introduced a budget that cut the deficit by $140 billion over four years. U.S. President Barack Obama and other Keynesians warn that Europe may push its own economy - or even the global economy - back into recession. But ...

The Swedish fashion apparel brand H&M opened its second store in Guangzhou at Grandview Mall on October 14, 2010, following the opening of the first at China Plaza. H&M's new store in Guangzhou has two floors and an area of 1,300 square meters, where a wide range of products, including apparel and accessories, are displayed. [...]

The year to September reporting is in for the European Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA), the group that controls the aggregate gold sales for the eurozone, Sweden, and Switzerland. The results are not that surprising — the group sold only a meager 6.2 tonnes. However, the precipitous drop in sales from the year prior period is staggering… the members’ gold sales are down 96 percent.

According to the Financial Times:

“The central banks of the eurozone plus Sweden and Switzerland are bound by the Central Bank Gold Agreement, which caps their collective sales. In the CBGA’s year to September, which expired on Sunday, the signatories sold 6.2 tonnes, down 96 per cent, according to provisional data.

“The sales are the lowest since the agreement was signed in 1999 and well below the peak of 497 tonnes in 2004-05. The shift away from gold selling comes as European central banks

...

New research on perceptions of wealth in the US — from Michael Norton and Dan Ariely at Harvard Business School and Duke University, respectively –  is worth a closer look. At first blush, it would seem that 92 percent of respondents rather live in a quasi-socialist economy more resembling Sweden than the US. The explanation they offer is that the gap between the rich and the poor has become far greater than surveyed Americans both think it is and would like it to be. Here are the findings, according to The Raw Story:

“…the study also found that respondents preferred Sweden’s model over a model of perfect income equality for everyone, ‘suggesting that Americans prefer some inequality to perfect equality, but not to the degree currently present in the United States,’ the authors state. Recent analyses have shown that income inequality in the US has grown steadily for the

...

When I speak with the U.S. subscribers to my Permanent Wealth Investor advisory service, there's one bit of wisdom that I repeat time and again: Just because you're living through a recession doesn't mean that your money has to. If that's a high-falutin way of telling folks to invest globally, so be it. The reality is that there are other places to invest than in the U.S. economy - and many of those "other" spots offer much better returns. Take Europe... Email this Print About the Author Syndicate...

The China Banking Regulatory Commission has granted Swedbank a local currency license to use the Renminbi. The Shanghai branch, which has been operating since 2007, previously just had a foreign currency license. The local currency license allows Swedbank to offer more services to customers interested in the Chinese market. In addition to the existing range [...]

Chief prosecutor Eva Finné has come to the decision that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape. Considering that, Assange is no longer arrested in his absence, the Swedish prosecutors writes on their website

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is wanted by Swedish police, suspected of raping two women in Stockholm, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen. However, he controversial website says in a Twitter statement that the accusations are false. But Mr. Assange is nowhere to be found. "We were warned nasty tricks. This is the first."