Part Three of Three Part Series Recent debt problems in the United States and across the world at large have brought the notion of a “gold standard” for the currency back into vogue. The allure of a gold standard is easy to see, since it means that there is a...
When examining market bubbles, it is critical to understand exactly what they represent. Fundamentally speaking, a market bubble emerges when expectations about the future growth for a certain asset grow so high that people sacrifice future production and consumption...
Much has been made of bubbles in recent years. The late 1990’s saw the technology bubble, quickly followed by a real estate bubble that resulted from easy-money policies designed to stimulate recovery from the technology recession. Each time that a bubble emerges, it...
Is the housing market really recovering from the subprime mortgage crisis of a few years ago? The answer might lie in the shadows –the “shadow inventory” of distressed properties that remain unresolved, lurking behind the scenes of transactions moving houses through...
With a flurry of heated, last minute negotiating in the early hours of the New Year, the warring houses of the US government struck a deal on the “fiscal cliff” of the budget crisis. While the compromise deal left major spending cuts in place and eliminated some...
