Business

One year ago, when the Fed released its 2009 transcript, we learned that after a terrible 2008, the Fed's sense of humor gradually returned and instances of the word "laughter" in declassified Fed transcripts rebounded in 2009.

As a reminder, the Fed's sense of humor as determined by recorded incidences of "laughter" at FOMC meetings hit their highest level on record in July 2007, which coincides exactly with the moment when the housing bubble finally burst (remember: they weren’t laughing at you, they were laughing with you). The laughter died down quickly after that.

While gas rigs fell 13 last week, oil rigs dropped just 1 to 515. Crude's initial reaction was to extend losses...

Rig count continues to track a lagged crude price perfectly...

Who said this market was all driven by The Fed?

Crazy pajama-wearing conspiracy-theory tin-foil-hatters...

What goes up, comes down considerably faster.

For global stocks, Bloomberg notes, the way down ($15 trillion lost in 7 months) has been much easier than the climb up ($30 trillion added in 4 years).

Source: Bloomberg

The central banks of the United States, England, and German - as well as 2 Nobel-prize winning economists - have all shown that banks create money out of thin air ... even if they have no deposits on hand.

The failure of most governments and most mainstream economists to understand this fact - they instead believe the myth that people make deposits at their bank, and these deposits are then lent out to new borrowers - is the main cause of our rampant inequality and economic problems.