All in Economics

Bitcoin Bugs become Gold Bugs

The current price swings across seemingly every cryptocurrency are bringing to the fore a question that has loomed over the industry since its inception: to what extent can a virtual asset be a store of value? By swapping out of digital gold and into the real thing, some investors may be providing an answer.

Trump Embraces the Bubble

Today was a dramatic day in some parts of Trump’s bubbleland, with Bitcoin closing at $10,124, down 25% for the day and a steep fall from $19,343 on December 19th. The DJIA broke 26,000 for the first time but closed lower, and the 2-year treasury note yield burst through 2 percent for the first time since the dark days of late 2007.  

Sideways Skyscraper Curse

What those of us in Vegas are wondering (h.t. Jeff Barr); wouldn’t the skyscraper curse apply to large scale public works projects? The improvements are horizontal instead of vertical, but what happens at the end of massive highway infrastructure projects like the ones continuing in Las Vegas. 

Trumpcoin!

So we have bitcoin, something everyone is talking about, but no one can see or understand, trading near $15,000 apiece. At the same time the President is like the simple-minded Chance in the movie “Being There” who has been educated only by television, has childlike naïveté, but rises, by accident, into the game of politics and the talk of the town.

Thank the Fed for Workamping

Bruder’s book is chalk full of sad stories of layoffs, foreclosures, and lack of family support. At the same time, these nomads, workampers or rubber tramps, are a resilient bunch, who left behind the costs and responsibilities of real estate for “wheelestate” to survive their golden years.  

Hopelessness: Farmers Today, Pensioners Tomorrow?

What happened in Detroit is a harbinger of things to come. While state and local officials have their heads in the sand,  “total unfunded pension liabilities have reached $3.85 trillion. That’s $434 billion more than last year. Amazingly, of that $3.85 trillion, only $1.38 trillion was recognized by state and local governments,” writes Oliver Garret for Forbes.