NRD Editor’s Note: This article appeared in The Washington Examiner on March 16, 2012. By Bill Wilson — Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a whopping $36.7 billion bailout of the banks that are owed money by the government of Greece. Shockingly, U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for […]

By Bill Wilson — To date, the IMF has given Greece and European banks $26.8 billion in kick-the-can refinance loans. Now the IMF, which the U.S. funds, is bailing out the banks that bet poorly on her debt with another $36.7 billion. Our stake was already $13.5 […]

By Bill Wilson — Leave it to the New York Times’ Paul Krugman to find a tautological rationale for never cutting spending. Writing March 11 on the €105 billion default of Greece , Krugman warns U.S. policymakers against “trying to reduce deficits too quickly, while the economy is still deeply depressed”. Krugman is resisting the often-made comparison […]

Interestingly,  the European Banking Authority (EBA) and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) data on net CDS exposure does not match. The difference could be that EBA is only reporting on European data, so one presumes worldwide exposure would be even larger. In any event, […]

By Rick Manning — “The monthly unemployment rate has become a meaningless statistic that no longer reflects the reality of America’s economy or even the state of our nation’s employment.  Shockingly, the stated rate of 8.3 percent does not include the  4.4 million Americans who have dropped […]

By Bill Wilson — Is the European debt crisis over? Since the latest €130 billion bailout of Greece was agreed to on Feb. 21, rates on Italian and Spanish debt have seemingly stabilized, dropping from 5.44 percent and 5.11 percent respectively to 4.8 percent and 5.05 percent. Granted, yields on […]

By Bill Wilson — At more than $49,000 per person using the most recent data from the U.S. Treasury and Census , we have a higher debt per capita than any of the PIIGS nations. Elected officials and other central planners attempt to comfort themselves with the false notion that the debt never needs to be repaid . That this […]

By Bill Wilson — As part of the resolution to the 1973 oil shock, the petrodollar was born when Richard Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia to only accept dollars for payment of oil in return for protecting their oil fields and a guaranteed return on investments in U.S. […]

By Bill Wilson — Obama thinks the current run up in gas prices is a good sign, evidence that the economy is improving. Except, in 2011, the global economy slowed down while oil and gas prices were rising along with a broad range of other commodities including […]

By Bill Wilson — In high-brow business seminars as well as casual conversations and in every form of discourse in between, there is a strong sense of foreboding; a nagging sensation that something is fundamentally wrong. There is, of course, no end to the partisan and ideological […]