When Alan Greenspan predicted three percent economic growth showing up in the reported figures for the third quarter of 2009, did he mean executive compensation packages? Maybe the lesson here is: don't ask a crackhead to predict the future supply of crack. Greenspan's greatest success may be to drive economics ...read more

U.S. banks are going bad as quickly as a bunch of over-ripe peaches in the summer heat. On the heels of the Colonial Bank failure comes another sizable bank failure. Guaranty Bank in Texas became the 81st U.S. bank to fail this year. It was the 11th largest bank failure in ...read more

Can plaintiffs in a lawsuit generate infinite favorable publicity, yet have virtually no substance to back up their claims?  The Amazon Defense Coalition (ADC) has found a way to play into many peoples’ concerns about oil companies—but with very little substance behind their accusations.  ADC is shaking down Chevron for ...read more

Brazil is making a national commitment to develop energy resources located far offshore in the South Atlantic. Indeed, no nation has ever advanced such an ambitious plan for long-term comprehensive offshore development. And it's being bankrolled by China. Much of Brazil's South Atlantic development will require drilling wells in waters up ...read more

Things are getting uncomfortable for individuals and corporations looking to deposit their money in tax havens around the world. Just recently, Congress introduced the so-called “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act,” which is designed to do away with the privacy afforded by doing business or investing outside the U.S. and to ...read more

For many years, we in the West have worried about Iran closing the Straits of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic.  An abrupt closure would instantly spike oil prices well into three-digits, and immediately change the energy equation of the world.  Indeed, many geostrategic scholars believe that closing the Straits of ...read more

While evermore appalling shenanigans within the AIG corporation preoccupied the US media last week, I made a side trip to the Republic of South Africa. I was in Johannesburg to give some talks at the invitation of an architecture firm, Osmand Lange, who had designed an outstanding New Urbanist project ...read more

This is the "other shoe" that a lot of people are waiting to drop. Right now we are caught up in a compressive debt deflation as mortgages stop "performing" and loans of all kinds are welshed on. Since money is loaned into existence, and a great many loans are not ...read more

The G-7 world, the club of “developed” western nations plus Japan, has commenced an ordeal of suddenly waking up much poorer. All the desperate work-arounds being engineered by governments and central banks on an al fresco basis are intended to overcome this stunning basic fact, and none of them will. ...read more

Well, it sure beats trying to secure an inter-bank loan or raising cash from the stock market right now. “After one of the worst days of trading on the Irish stock market, Ireland’s Government granted a sweeping unlimited guarantee on all bank deposits at its six main banks for the next ...read more