While revised modestly higher from preliminary levels, US non-farm productivity plunged 2.2% in Q4 2015 - the biggest drop since Q1 2014.
Economists are gnashing their teeth to explain this "plunging productivity paradox" - we think it is rather simple...
While only modestly tongue in cheek, here is what is really going on...
Bill Gross takes a turn for the downright apocalyptic (with a +/- 5 billion year error margin) in his latest letter speculating on the future of banking and finance under NIRP in a world where the "credit based economic system appears to be in the process of devolving from a production oriented model to one which recycles finance for the benefit of financiers"; a world in which "the negative interest rates dominating 40% of the Euroland bond market and now migrating to Japan like a Zika like contagion, are an enigma to almost all global investors"; a world where our "finance based economic
by Keith Weiner
Zero Hedge published an article on Canadian Bullion Services (CBS) last week. Other sites ran similar articles. The common thread through these articles, and in the user comments section, is that CBS is committing criminal fraud. Or, if not, then it’s a conspiracy by the Canadian government to confiscate gold. Terms like fractional reserve and re-hypothecation were dusted off for the occasion.
I don’t know anything about this company other than what I read that day. I am writing today to make a different point, not to address or defend CBS.
In all the recent excitement over Valeant's dramatic fall from grace, investors may have forgotten the "last" alleged mega fraud, one which also involves Bill Ackman but on the other side of the trade, namely Herbalife, which the Pershing Square head has alleged is nothing but a massive ponzi scheme. Ironically it is the stock of Herbalife that has soared in recent years while that of Valeant has tumbled.