ARCHIVES
06/29/2006 - Contagious Complexity and Breathtaking Insolvency
Greg's Note: Dan Denning just had to write in today. He's jittering, eager to expose his astounding discovery. Apparently a gov't agency has said something clear...something direct...perhaps something appraoching truth. I, of course, didn't believe his claim, so I agreed to publish his entry on the matter. He writes about the complex effects of Gov't Sponsored Enterprises' securitized mortgages - and how an avalanche unfolding on that gnarled crag could quickly spread to the neighboring - and seemingly unrelated - peaks of other financial institutions. 05/27/2006 - Revolutions, Cycles, and Migrations
Greg's Note: So many readers have written in inquiring about the commodity market cycle that Dan Denning felt compelled to send some ideas. Where are we in the cycle? What's next -- boom, bust, fizzle, explosion? Dan excerpts Marc Faber below in an attempt to cast those questions in a larger context. And while we're on the topic of cycles, why not turn to Lord Rees-Mogg to ask about the political cycle? 12/18/2005 - Oil, Gold and New Ways To Profit
Greg's note: Here's your weekend Whiskey. Below, Dan Denning analyzes the ratio between the price of crude and gold. As you might expect, he sees the price of both of those material assets rising over the long term. But what's that mean for the dollar - and what's the dollar got to do with the battle of Bastogne? 12/14/2005 - The Bra Boys and The Lebs
Greg's note: Here's Dan Denning with an analysis of the riots in Sydney. Looking for the origin of such loutish behavior, Dan consults the writings of James Madison in the Federalist Papers. With elections in Iraq in just a day, it's a good time to talk about Federalism and "faction." Little did we know it might apply to Western societies too. Madison shows that we can't eradicate social unrest without eradicating liberty. Nor can we insist on everyone having same opinion. The only way to get everyone to have the same opinion is to shoot the ones who think differently. 11/30/2005 - Bernanke's Looming Emergencies
Greg's note: Here's Dan Denning with a cheery essay on our economic future under Bernanke. Whiskey readers with us from the beginning will remember that we launched this dainty little e-letter off Dan's newsletter, Strategic Investment. In any case, Dan opens with baseball - and how unlikely it is for a pitcher to throw a perfect game - 1 in 15,000. 07/19/2005 - The Rise To Ruin
Dan discusses the decline of civilization, and the conflicts occurring between the West and China. Then, Dr. Marc Faber points out that slower global growth (precipitated by a China slowdown) is not necessarily deflationary. In fact, Dr. Faber makes a compelling case for why inflation is a matter of time, regardless of low long-term bond yields and the Fed's conundrum. 05/05/2005 - End of the Line for the Disruptive Technology of Its Day: the Railroad
Congress passed the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935. But it had yet to be challenged -- and upheld -- by the Supreme Court. Based on the court's ruling on the Railroad Retriment Act, the prospects for Social Security and other pieces of Roosevelt's socialist agenda did not look good. Indeed, the court rapidly struck down other New Deal initiatives. 05/04/2005 - The Locality Must Yield
Dan takes you through the legal history of Social Security. Its early opponents on the Supreme Court correctly forecast that giving the federal government the power to levy taxes and regulation for the promotion of the "general welfare" would inevitably lead to unlimited requests by firms and political groups for special favors. 04/27/2005 - Innovators of the World, Unite!
The A380 finally made it off the ground today. I had my doubts that the behemoth would actually be airworthy. In fact, I didn't think it would make it off the ground. But there it was, up in the French sky, all 421 metric tons of it. 04/20/2005 - Old Mistrust, New Dependence
Japan and China have a simmering argument left over from World War II. But it really goes back thousands of years. In its current incarnation, it's an argument over who will be more important to Asia's future. All the signs point to China's emergence. But both countries have a lot at stake. 02/11/2005 - Surveillance: Attack of the Cultural Marxists
Jim's piece yesterday pointed out vital economic networks can be appropriated, regulated, and exploited by the government, usually to the disadvantage of you and me. There may be plenty of innocent reasons for government interest in GPS. But the logical conclusion of government regulation of the nation's telecommunications network is government control over that network. 01/20/2005 - The Road To Damascus
Dan Denning and Lore Rees-Mogg voice their opinions on what will happen in Bush's second term, now that he is no longer accountable to voters. They discuss Iran and the Iraqi elections, and probable outcomes. 01/18/2005 - Anatomist of a Revolution
Which comes first, then, capital or innovation? Foster suggests that innovation is not possible without capital. But he also shows that it takes innovation to nurse an illiquid capital asset like real estate into a liquid war chest for the development of business and the creation of new jobs and wages. 12/24/2004 - Risk, Bonds, and Fannie Mae: A Very Funky Christmas
The principle behind the Bowie Bonds is straightforward, albeit derivative. You are buying a stake in the future income of David Bowie. The problem, from a risk-assessment point of view, is how much dare you assume about the present value of David Bowie's future income? Music is a fickle business. 11/28/2004 - Nuclear Weapons: The Birth of Cultural Siege Engines
Substitute nuclear weapons for gunpowder and civilization for chivalry in the quotations above, and all of a sudden you have a modern re-enactment of the same violent dynamic that defined so much of Europe in the 16th century. | 
