The Desidooru SaloonThe Desidooru SaloonThe Desidooru Saloon is a blog from us editors over at The Daily Reckoning. Not being technically savy, it has taken us a while to get into this crazy blogosphere. But, we figure this is a good way to have a more open and organic dialogue that reader Articles
Iran hawks? wings clipped?
2007-12-04 16:38:00 "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear program." Well, that's about as definitive as it gets. The new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran , the consensus assessment of the U.S. government's dozen-plus intelligence agencies, says Iran's nuke program is on hold, has been for four years, and if resumed, couldn't ... More About: Hawks , Wings , Headline News
Those immature Venezuelans
2007-12-04 15:55:00 I almost hesitate to write anything about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, given the considerable amount of vitriol on all sides that any discussion of him generates over at the 5 Min. Forecast. So perhaps I should preface this post by pointing out what seems to me to be obvious (and while I don't presume to ... More About: Headline News , Immature
Curious company
2007-12-03 18:57:00 The falling dollar is on the cover of this week's Economist. And to draw the reader in, the writer of the cover story begins by quoting none other than DR founder Bill Bonner: THE long-run value of all paper currencies is zero. That is a fond saying of Bill Bonner, goldbug and publisher of the Daily ... More About: Company , Curious , Headline News
Closing in on $10 trillion
2007-12-03 15:38:00 Kudos to the Associated Press for taking a mind-numbing topic like the national debt and turning it into a pretty good read. That's "good" as in "compelling," not "pleasant." Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million ... More About: Headline News
?Desperate?
2007-11-30 16:27:00 Meredith Whitney must be an uncommonly courageous individual. She's the analyst at CIBC whose downgrade of Citigroup at the start of this month played a major role in Citi's big selloff, and the departure of CEO Chuck Prince. Now she's back with some more bitter medicine, calling Citi's Abu Dhabi deal "not enough, and certainly too late." “They’re desperate,” ... More About: Headline News , Desperate
Go figure
2007-11-30 15:52:00 If you buy into these sorts of contrarian indicators, the new conventional wisdom is that the dollar's downturn is over. The dollar rose against the euro and pound after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. currency's decline is coming to an end… Goldman advised investors to sell dollar-denominated gold because of expectations the risk premium on ... More About: Headline News , Figure
Select company
2007-11-29 16:09:00 The lineup for next January's Sundance Film Festival is out today. And what's this we see among the documentaries? "I.O.U.S.A.," directed by Patrick Creadon, is an examination of the United States' precarious financial condition that also advances ideas to avoid national economic disaster. That would be the film project that got rolling shortly after the publication of Empire of ... More About: Company , Headline News , Select
Time to get it in gear
2007-11-29 16:00:00 Ron Paul neither helped himself nor hurt himself with his debate performance last night. But at this late stage of the primary campaign — the Iowa caucuses are January 3, the New Hampshire primary January 8 — that's just not good enough. Granted, the worst that some people feared did not happen. Several people fretted to ... More About: Time , Gear , Headline News
Ethanol?s days are numbered
2007-11-28 15:51:00 The worm has turned, the bloom is off the rose… Pick your favorite cliche, but when this shows up on A1 of the Wall Street Journal, you know, to use another cliche, ethanol's days are numbered: In the span of one growing season, ethanol has gone from panacea to pariah in the eyes of some. The ... More About: Ethanol , Days , Headline News , S Day , Number
Loman Nation
2007-11-27 19:31:00 Please don't miss Eric Fry's impassioned and eloquent Rude Awakening today. A couple of choice excerpts: American-style capitalism has evolved into a bizarre marriage of financial gimmickry and governmental coddling. Very few companies produce much of anything, other than derivatives and press releases. This situation would not be so bad if the derivatives possessed a bit of ... More About: Nation , Headline News
Is this dude for real?
2007-11-27 16:17:00 Fox's Neil Cavuto has come in for his share of criticism on this blog, and his respectful interview of Ron Paul last week won't change that. Not after the journalistic atrocity he committed yesterday. Granted, I didn't see it myself. I rely on the admittedly left-leaning people at News Hounds, the site that promises "We watch ... More About: Dude , Real , Headline News
Historic summit? Yawn
2007-11-27 16:04:00 The helplessness of the American empire, circa 2007, is being laid bare today in Annapolis, Maryland. It's being trumpeted as the first major Middle East peace conference since 2000. Pardon me while I yawn. Eric Margolis says failure is assured: Israel is happy with the status quo. The Palestinians are too weak and divided to alter it, the ... More About: Historic , Summit , Headline News
Thought experiment
2007-11-26 15:57:00 Imagine wealthy Arab investors bailing out Western credit markets. Actually, you don't have to. The Financial Times does the heavy lifting in an interesting article-cum-thought experiment. After all, on one side of the world, an increasingly unpleasant liquidity crunch is taking hold. Just look at the stress emerging in the European covered bond sector and the American ... More About: Experiment , Thought , Headline News
Taking the pulse of the press
2007-11-26 15:41:00 Readers of establishment media can be forgiven for experiencing wild mood swings of late when it comes to the economy. Gloom one day, euphoria the next — sometimes the sentiment shifts hour-to-hour. Our prime example is on page one of today's Wall Strret Journal: Battered stock and bond markets are sending an increasingly ominous signal that a U.S. ... More About: Press , The Press , Headline News , Taking , Pulse
The post I hesitate to write
2007-11-21 15:53:00 OK, with the caveat that this is not a fully-formed thought, but rather a starting point for forming one, I wish to throw out the following heretical proposition for your discussion in the comments section: As desirable as a Ron Paul presidency would be in principle, it has the potential to be a disaster in practice. Here's what I mean. Isn't ... More About: Post , Write , Headline News
Peak Oil dilemma, continued
2007-11-20 16:26:00 Just one more thought about the Peak Oil dilemma — the flip side, as it were, to what I discussed yesterday . While we free marketeers have a problem in discussing Peak Oil with wider audiences — the fact that many people in that wider audience will cry out for Big Government solutions — the other ... More About: Dilemma , Headline News , Conti
On the horns of a Peak Oil dilemma
2007-11-19 15:22:00 So it finally hit me — a major reason that awareness of Peak Oil is spreading so slowly, much more slowly than I'd figured a few months ago. A lot of us who talk about Peak Oil — certainly those of us associated with the DR — have a free-market world view. We know that ... More About: Horns , Dilemma , Headline News
Bonus Reckoning
2007-11-16 15:20:00 We're pleased to bring you a bonus reckoning today from DR founder Bill Bonner, on a study that puts the struggles of the middle class in raw numbers: The poor middle class is on the rack, stretched out in every direction. On one side, falling house prices pull down the typical homeowner’s major (and often, only) asset. ... More About: Bonus , Headline News
Playing Subprime for Laughs
2007-11-15 22:11:00 For your viewing pleasure today, the Saloon big-screen offers up a recent comedy routine from Britain's ITV network. John Bird and John Fortune do a hilarious send-up of, first, "market sentiment," and then, the subprime/credit crunch. The genius of the humor, especially on subprime, lies in the utter, complete LACK of exaggeration. Watch this, and ... More About: Headline News , Subprime , Prim
?The world?s first demand-led energy shock?
2007-11-15 17:00:00 Wow. Even the New York Times has figured out what OPEC ministers haven't — that oil prices in the high 90s are not the result of greedy speculators or geopolitical jitters: With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of $100 a barrel, the world is headed toward its third energy shock in a generation. But today’s ... More About: World , Shock , Energy , The World , Headline News
National ID card dead?
2007-11-14 14:51:00 You might have missed it, but the national ID card might — and I stress might — be history before it's ever launched. You'll recall that the "Real ID" Act requires state governments to develop their driver's licenses according to uniform standards, and that if states don't comply, their residents might be barred from boarding airplanes or ... More About: National , Card , Dead , Headline News , ID Card
Gold awareness
2007-11-13 16:50:00 I've been musing lately on something in last Thursday's DR: "Yes, gold is finally in the news. People are catching on. Our Dear Readers have been buying gold since it was at $300. But now, everyone is getting in. Is it time to get out?" I won't presume to answer the question. But I will say that ... More About: Gold , Awareness , Headline News , Waren , Rene
?Welcome to America ? Shut up!?
2007-11-12 14:25:00 Last week, the 5 Min. Forecast noted how fewer foreigners are visiting the United States: Since Sept. 11, the United States “has experienced a 17% decline in overseas travel,” claims a report from Discover America , a tourism advocacy campaign. The decline has cost the U.S. $94 billion in lost tourist spending, $16 billion in lost tax ... More About: Headline News , Shut , Shut Up
Doctored stats and Dr. Paul
2007-11-09 16:15:00 I'd mentioned this in passing before, but now it's time for me to formally offer another round of unsolicited advice to Ron Paul 's presidential campaign: Start hammering away — hard — on the relentless manipulation of government economic statistics. My inspiration for this was last week's McLaughlin Group, which as usual, I didn't catch until today ... More About: Stats , Headline News
Is Dick Cheney?s portfolio an impeachable offense?
2007-11-08 16:08:00 The dollar just keeps hitting new lows. Bad news, except for perhaps a few U.S. exporters… and Dick Cheney . With the dollar index in 75 territory and the national debt having just passed $9 billion, it's worth revisiting the financial disclosure forms he and wife Lynne filed last year, and analyzed by Kiplinger's magazine with the bold ... More About: Portfolio , Headline News
Gold, silver soar
2007-11-07 16:31:00 No, it's not the all-time highs, but it's high enough for today: Gold reached a 27-year high as record oil prices deepened concern that inflation will accelerate, and a slumping dollar boosted the appeal of precious metals as an alternative investment. Silver also gained to a 26-year high. Whoa, what's that about silver? Silver for immediate delivery jumped ... More About: Headline News , Soar
We?re screwed
2007-11-07 16:13:00 Let's see… The dollar is hitting new lows as I write this morning, and oil is hitting new highs. The fiat currency in my wallet are becoming more worthless with each passing hour, and the fuel that powers my modern lifestyle is becoming ever-more expensive. And then… on top of all that… I see this cheerful news: For ... More About: Screwed , Headline News
Spontaneous order
2007-11-06 16:03:00 Wow. One guy gets a crazy notion in his head, and a few weeks later, Ron Paul sets a fundraising record: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, aided by an extraordinary outpouring of Internet support Monday, hauled in more than $4.2 million in nearly 24 hours. Paul, the Texas congressman with a libertarian tilt and an out-of-Iraq pitch, ... More About: Headline News , Order , Spontaneous
Supermodel gives Americans food for thought?
2007-11-06 15:45:00 Tabloid journalism, heck, mainstream journalism, had a field day yesterday with the revelation that supermodel Gisele Bundchen is refusing payment in dollars. Could this be the moment that ordinary Americans are waking up to the realization their cash is trash? The tone of Bloomberg's coverage is especially telling: Like billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the Brazilian ... More About: Food , Thought , Headline News , Supermodel
Who?s #1?
More articles from this author:2007-11-05 16:06:00 Only two weeks after we examined a list of the world's largest companies (and compared it to a list from 1999 and 1989), it's out of date: Chinese oil firm PetroChina has trumped US rival Exxon Mobil to become the world's biggest firm by market value on its first day of trading in Shanghai. PetroChina saw its shares ... More About: Headline News 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
 |
|
 |
