It’s impossible to predict with certainty how much more insane our financial markets will get before an inevitable correction. But my personal bet is: A lot! For my reasons why, take a few minutes to watch the chapter on bubbles below from The Crash Course. For those who haven’t seen it ...

Picture this story on the front page of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal: japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/06/national/social-issues/japan-academic-societies-propose-defining-elderly-aged-75-older. Hat Tip to Jeff Uscher of Japan Insider for the catch. Jeff notes that “As of September 20...

The world has gotten so used to ultra-low interest rates that even economists and money managers seem to be shocked by what happens when rates start creeping back towards normal levels. Some of the mini-bubbles that formed in an essentially free-money environment are now starting to leak. Notably: U...

I know it’s bad form to express sympathy for the people running the world’s central banks. But come on, they’re human beings in an impossible spot with no idea how to escape. The pain they feel is both intense and legitimate, and we should respond with at least a bit of empathy. Just kidding....

The pinnacle of the global financial system is warning that conditions are right for a “full-blown banking crisis” in China.  Since the last financial crisis, there has been a credit boom in China that is really unprecedented in world history.  At this point the total value of all outstanding ...

I’ve always thought that Shirley Yam of the South China Morning Post has a great nose for financial risk, and this shows in an article she published last week on mainland real estate. For anyone knowledgeable about the history of financial bubbles and crises, much of the following story will se...

Before the financial crisis erupted in the fall of 2008 the big four central banks of the world (US Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England) had combined monetary reserves of roughly $3 trillion dollars. Fast forward to the present and their combined reserves have almost q...

One of the first results of Britain’s voting to leave the European Union was a sharply lower pound. Which means the UK is now winning the currency war. Henceforth its exports will be cheaper around the world, enabling its major companies to sell more stuff, make more money and hire more people. In...

The most widely-reported result of the recent G-7 meeting was Japan’s attempt to convince the other major economies to admit that a crisis is imminent and take appropriately radical steps. The response seems to have been a bunch of blank stares. As India’s Business Standard noted: G7 pact offer...

It’s unclear what China was thinking when it was borrowed all those trillions to quadruple its capacity to make steel, cement and other basic industrial products. There’s no record of it checking in with the other countries that have such industries to see if a sudden surge of cheap imports was ...

If you have been waiting for “the next Lehman Brothers moment” which will cause the global financial system to descend into a state of mass panic, you might want to keep a close eye on German banking giant Deutsche Bank.  It is approximately three times larger than Lehman Brothers was, and if t...

Somewhere back in the depths of time the world got the idea that easy money — that is, low interest rates and high levels of government spending — would produce sustainable growth with modest but positive inflation. And for a while it seemed to work. But that was an illusion. What actually happe...

Starting at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday, April 20, our friends at Elliott Wave International are “opening the doors” to their entire line of trader-focused Pro Services — free for 7 days — during: Pro Services Open House. EWI Pro Services bring you opportunity-rich, professional-grad...

Technologies such as the blockchain are enabling alternative ways of creating and distributing money outside central banks and states. If we don’t change the way money is created and distributed, we will never change anything. This is the core message of my book A Radically Beneficial World: A...

Well, you can’t fault China for not trying to resuscitate their ailing economy and flagging stock market via yet another reckless expansion of credit and debt as detailed in this Bloomberg report that includes the video below with some startling long-term data. As I recall from my brief foray int...

George Soros’ successful bet against the British pound back in 1992 remains one of financial history’s epic tales. The short version of the story begins with Britain linking its currency, the pound, to the German deutschmark via the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). But Britain’s inflati...