I decided to split off my postings of economic links from Jim's Thoughts, so that I can get that topic back to what it was intended to be, a place for me to post trading ideas and thoughts I had that I felt could be of interest to the readers.

This topic is where I will post links to various economic articles, for those that find them interesting. If you want to read (or post) articles about the unfolding debaucle, this is the place to look. If you are a short-term daytrader or swing trader and have zero interest in the economy, you can now just read Jim's Thoughts and not have to wade through this type of dicussion.

At best I think this material only has a direct effect on longer-term plays, the bigger swings that make up the major legs of the bull and bear markets. I follow this stuff for that reason, and because I want to have a handle on things, if that is even possible in this era of lies and deception, so that I can make decisions on life issues.

For example, as I posted in the commentary on the website and discussed with many people well in advance, this was something that wasn't hard to see coming. I saw many people who told me as late as Oct 2007 that 'this thing is about to 'break out' to the upside, and that Dow 20,000, and then much higher, was 'just around the corner' '. The type of articles I am posting discuss the type of information that helped me form the viewpoints I had back then.

If this is far from over, as I suspect, we are in a similar postion now as back then. With the rally that is unfolding right now the talk is the bull is back, the bottom is in, and we are set. I'm not so sure. So, I try to weigh up all the factors and not get too sucked in by the hype. To that end, I will post things here I find interesting.

Okay, here's the inaugural post for this new topic:

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2009/03/09/reality-bites.aspx

I think this one is particularly good.

And here's another one:

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/thoughts_from_the_frontline/archive/2009/03/14/the-swiss-start-their-engines.aspx

That 'competitive devaluation' of currencies that has been going on since time immemorial sure is getting scary. If we all devalue at about the same pace, it has no material effect on our day to day lives. But it destroys savings. Imagine having saved a lot of money say seventy-five years ago. A lifetime of savings. You wake up today, and figure you are set. Only you find, instead, you can buy a few candy bars (a slight exaggeration for effect). If everything I buy doubles in price, but my wages also double (like that would happen), what do I care? Doesn't my standard of living stay the same?

Yes, except that the savings that you have built up, the surpluses you killed yourself to scrimp and save and work long extra hours for, they just got cut in half. You lost half of all that work, stolen from you by the money-inflators. So, competitive devaluation is brutal on savers. And aren't we all being told that now, more than ever, we must stop living on debt and start saving a lot more???

So the moral of the story is not save at all. Just spend, spend, spend. Isn't there a country somewhere that preaches and practices this?

I think it's the ultimate paradox of the financial sytem we have created. In order to do the things that would make the system long-term healthy, the system would collapse. In other words, it has in it built in flaws of conflict. Quoting the Terminator from the second movie, the kid, when he sees some little kids shooting at each other with toy guns, he asks "We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean." and the Terminator says "It's in your nature to destroy yourselves." In that way, I think our financial system is programmed for destruction. There are major fatal flaws in it, it runs its course, and then like the tape in the old Mission Impossible series, it self-destructs. That's my take, anyway.

I don't know if the guy is right, but it's an interesting article:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10472521/1/kass-it-aint-heavy-its-a-bottom.html

I was really surprised at the report this AM on 'Net Long-Term TIC Flows'. Here's an article talking a bit about this. It's pretty spooky stuff, to me.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Foreign-debt-sales-raise-doubts/story.aspx?guid=%7B74B72564%2D4864%2D4785%2D92FC%2D4073ACB0C024%7D

I would think if the rest of the world is strapped for cash, they aren't going to dump it into the biggest wastebin on earth....

There is some good stuff here. It's a long article. If you can't read the whole thing you need to register:
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/255995/reflections_on_the_latest_dead_cat_bounce_or_bear_market_suckers_rally

Here is an add-on to Jim's post above:
http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2009/03/china-isnt-issue.html

I truly think we are toast:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/got-gold-youre-right-on-the-money.aspx

Or should I say all of us who have saved and been responsible, and have paper currency, especailly in USD...

I forgot, I do have another hero to go with Ron Paul and David Stockman, and that's Nigel Farage. Here's his latest:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-17/farage-unleashed-you-are-common-criminals