Government Unions Benefit from the Asset Bubble that Harms Workers

By Edward Ring
07/19/2016
Earlier this month the California Policy Center released a study that provided additional evidence that the U.S. stock indexes are overvalued by approximately 50%, along with calculations showing the impact of a major downward correction on the solvency of California’s state and local government pension systems. Stocks are now at unsustainable bubble valuations. Not covered...

TAGS: asset bubble, CalPERS, low interest rates, Wall Street corruption

More Taxes and Tuition Buy Time for the Pension Bubble

By Edward Ring
11/25/2014
“The ‘recovery’ is largely an illusion created by the effects of zero percent interest rates, quantitative easing, and deficit spending. The asset bubbles that have been created as a result of these policies have primarily benefited the owners of stocks, bonds, and real estate (the rich), while simultaneously deterring the savings and capital investment that...

TAGS: asset bubble

Bubbles & Schemes

By Doug Noland
08/14/2014
Editor’s Note: Consistent with our ongoing determination to publish in-depth analysis along with the more digestible tidbits that should never be an exclusive source of political and economic analysis and commentary, here is a 2,400 word piece that exposes and dissects the sources of instability and speculative excess in global financial markets. Anyone who has...

TAGS: asset bubble, pension fund solvency

No Asset Bubble?

By Doug Noland
07/13/2014
Earlier in the week BlackRock’s Larry Fink commented on CNBC: “A Bubble is predicated on leverage.” Fink was implying that he didn’t see the type of leverage that had fueled the previous Bubble. As part of my Bubble analysis framework, I have posited that the more conspicuous a Bubble the less likely it is to...

TAGS: asset bubble

California’s Green Bantustans

By Edward Ring
05/21/2014
One of the core barriers to economic prosperity in California is the price of housing. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Policies designed to stifle the ability to develop land are based on flawed premises. These policies prevail because they are backed by environmentalists, and, most importantly, because they have played into the...

TAGS: asset bubble, crony green capitalists, smart growth, urban containment

Drone Transport Ships, Automation, and the Bubble Economy

By Mike Shedlock
02/27/2014
Editor’s Note:  This article by Mike Shedlock leads off with a report on “drone transport ships,” but moves on to explore a provocative and very pertinent question:  Are policies that create the “bubble economy,” i.e., artificially inflated asset values, partly motivated by a desire to counter the deflationary pressures caused by automation? We have explored...

TAGS: asset bubble, automation