O.K., so the headline isn’t exactly accurate, but it did catch your eye. And if one David Cay Johnston has his perverse way, it would be a statement of fact. Indeed, Johnston seriously calls for a U.S. declaration of war not only on the Cayman Islands, but also Bermuda and other offshore tax havens. His lengthy radical views are set out in an article (”Fiscal Therapy”) in the Jan-Feb 2009 issue of the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones, known for investigative reporting with a decidedly radical slant.

Ordinarily a nutty proposal such as Johnston’s could be laughed off as evidence of a sick sense of humor or an advanced mental problem, but Johnston is not your run of the mill left-wing nut.

Prize Winning Radical

In 2001 Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize “for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code.”

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported that nonfarm payrolls fell by a whopping 533,000 jobs in November, and the official government-approved unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7%.

There is more New Bad News (NBN) contained in November’s drop in payroll employment because, “Job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors in November.”

The New Bad News (NBN) to me personally is that this means that if I get fired again, then another job will be that much harder to find, especially since my job skills are apparently substandard, as I father from my current boss being sure that she can train a monkey to do my job and, as she said, “It will probably have better personal hygiene, too!”

Since experience has shown that I am not a “people person”, service industry jobs are especially difficult for me, and there always comes a

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I remember back when I was learning attack planning and tactics during Navy flight school.  One of the key concepts was “time on target.” That is, when there were going to be a whole lot of airplanes coming in to deliver payload, you had to get the timing down just right.

There were going to be different airplanes at different course headings and speeds, flying at different altitudes and slightly different times.  All arriving at certain “release points” in the sky so that the packages of death and destruction would rain down exactly upon the surprised heads of the intended victims.  You had to time things perfectly.  You did not want straggler aircraft arriving late over the target, only to get shot down by an alerted air defense system.

Isn’t timing quite something?

Now suppose you’re a politician with roots deep in the traditional machines of Cook County, Illinois.   And suppose you just

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Chicago-based news media stalwart Tribune Company today announced it is filing for bankruptcy protection, less than 2 years after billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell took the company private. Geez...and here we thought Zell had the magic touch based on the fact that he sold Equity Office Partners at the peak of the market a couple years back.The Tribune is "America's largest employee-owned media company," according to the Tribune's website. It owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel newspapers, to name but a few, as well as television stations across the country. The Tribune is also the owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which is reportedly not being included in the Chapter 11 filing.This news comes on a day when many of the financial institutions involved with the Tribune deal -- such as JP Morgan Chase & Co. (...

Red Alert: Gold Backwardation!!!

– Posted Friday, 5 December 2008

Antal E. Fekete

Gold Standard University Live

December 2, 2008, was a landmark in the saga of the collapsing international monetary system, yet it did not deserve to be reported in the press: gold went to backwardation for the first time ever in history. The facts are as follows: on December 2nd, at the Comex in New York, December gold futures (last delivery: December 31) were quoted at 1.98% discount to spot, while February gold futures (last delivery: February 27, 2009) were quoted at 0.14% discount to spot. (All percentages annualized.) The condition got worse on December 3rd, when the corresponding figures were 2% and 0.29%. This means that the gold basis has turned negative, and the condition of backwardation persisted for at least 48 hours. I am writing this in the wee hours of December 4th, when trading of gold futures has not

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Marketing CampaignsHedge Fund Marketing Campaigns(http://HedgeFundBlogger.com) There was a recent conference in NYC which I was unable to attend on hedge fund marketing, public relations and regulations. At this event a panel discussed how the media often portrays hedge funds, why this happens and what hedge fund managers can do to help the situation. The professionals who attended the event are very knowledgeable and experienced, I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Here is an excerpt from an article discussing the meeting:Hedge funds are a popular scapegoat for the ongoing financial Armageddon. But are they the real culprits or just easy targets for a misinformed press?A group of industry insiders recently gathered at a conference in New York to address the issue of hedge funds’ unpopularity and how portfolio ...

The rules of the global oil games are changing, says Keith Fitz-Gerald. And China — not the US — is leading the way. China doesn’t worry about the political leanings or dubious human rights of its energy suppliers. It needs a steady supply of oil to fuel its economic boom…and it will do what it takes to get it.

This from Money Morning:

Iraq recently signed its first oil deal in 35 years with a foreign company.

And –- quite surprisingly to many observers -– the company wasn’t one of ours.

Not surprisingly, the US news media barely acknowledged the deal –- even though the agreement was major news throughout the rest of the world.

According to reports from Baghdad, the 22-year deal between the Iraqi government and the China National Petroleum Co. involves $55 billion, or 87% of Iraq’s current total revenue at a conservative long-term estimate

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Wow. That perfectly explains the action the past week in the stock market. There is no doubt that the past week was the weakest week any of us have seen in our lifetimes. That can best be seen in the SP 500 which fell 18.2% this week easily beating its old record in the week of the crash in 1987 when it lost 12.2%. So as can be seen this was easily one of the worst weeks any of us have ever seen.

The worst index this week of major importance was the NYSE which lost a whopping 19.5% in one week! That is by far the worst drop, as the Nasdaq only fell 15.3%. These kind of huge drops did nothing to convince anyone that the bailout bill was a good idea and proof of that fear was easily registered in the VIX.

The VIX hit a shocking 76.94 intraday

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An article of mine got published in the TCS Daily on organized retail in India (The article was first drafted in late ‘06- early ‘07, so parts of it might appear slightly dated) Here is the link.

Some of the comments are interesting. Here are a couple that I thought I should highlight –

With around 65% of India’s population in about half a million villages – which translates to an average of just 1400 people per village - it is very uneconomical to provide infrastructure services, barring telecommunication services (thanks to the cell phone).

India needs to move its villagers into (newly constructed) towns and villages.

5,000 new towns and cities with an average of 140,000 people per town would surely afford economies of scale. The very creation of these new towns and cities leads to lot of beneficial economic activity. Mr. Atanu Dey writes extensively about this topic (the urgent need for new towns

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I can’t walk to the water cooler without hearing from someone how China’s economy is deflating like a balloon. Oh really? Let’s look inside the latest Bloomberg story, “China Inflation Cools to 4.9% as Export Growth Slows,” and see what’s happening.Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China's inflation weakened to the slowest pace since June 2007 and export growth cooled, stoking speculation the government will cut taxes and ease loan restrictions to spur the world's fourth-largest economy.XX Sean’s note – that sounds bad, eh? Read on!Consumer prices rose 4.9 percent in August from a year earlier, less than economists estimated, after gaining 6.3 percent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. Exports rose 21.1 percent in August, down from July's 26.9 percent gain, the Customs Bureau said.XX Sean’s note – nonetheless, exports rose 21%! Does that sound like an economy in ...