Economics

This time is different from the dot-com bubble — Market bubbles are economic cycles of a drastic increase in the value of an asset, often marked by an expansion in credit, which leads to a euphoric state in markets where prices seem to defy gravity, right up until they don’t, and it all comes crashing down. The bubble occurs…

Your family vacations are destroying other families — Dear Airbnb users, Summer is just around the corner. Can you feel it? The days are getting longer, the earth is feeling warmer, and the spring flowers and showers will soon give way to glorious sunny summer days — just perfect for a beach vacation or a city trip. This…

Selling civilization short — Since I’ve been writing about how markets are going to crash, I thought I’d put my money where my mouth is and bet against the market. This is not investment advice anymore that noting that red sometimes turns up in Roulette. I’m just betting that the markets will go red. …

War is inevitable when engineered poverty crushes the masses — Sri Lanka is on fire right now. And not just because the south-of-Indian nation is roasting thanks to global warming. My closest friend in high school was Sri Lankan, so I’ll admit I’m very fond of the low-lying monsoon-prone island nation. And what I’m seeing in the news right now…

Capitalism is about to crash worse than communism — The funny thing about both free marketeers and total state planners is that they’re equally dogmatic. As Elizabeth Weber wrote: “In fact, we may observe a parallel between the idealization of the planned economy in Soviet Marxism, where the whole national economy was imagined to function as one centrally planned…

China’s strategy seems to be paying off. — Some call it the yuan, others the renminbi. But whatever you choose to call the Chinese currency, one thing is clear: it has just consolidated its status as an international reserve currency. Last weekend, during a review of the composition of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the International Monetary Fund…