Business

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

There was a time, centuries ago, that France was the dominant superpower in the world.

They had it all. Overseas colonies. An enormous military. Social welfare programs like public hospitals and beautiful monuments.

Most of it was financed by debt.

France, like most superpowers before (and after), felt entitled to overspend as much as they wanted.

And their debts started to grow. And grow.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

With the market recently breaking above 2500, there seems to be nothing to dampen the bullish exuberance. The recent run, which has largely been focused on areas in the market with the most sensitivity to tax cuts, has exploded over the last two weeks to record highs.

The market...

Trannies ended the week lower (first down-week in 7 weeks), Dow outperformed on the week (4th week up in a row)... The S&P record-high streak is over...

According to prosecutor Carol Sipperly, former HSBC currency trader Mark Johnson used just four words to trigger a massive, international front-running operation that netted his firm some $8 million in illicit profits: "my watch is off."

The bank’s former global head of foreign exchange alerted the traders around the globe via a phone call in December 2011 that was recorded, a prosecutor said Thursday. The gambit was designed to take advantage of a $3.5 billion client order to buy sterling, the U.S. says.

 

Via The Daily Bell

Patents seem like a good idea on paper. If you come up with something innovative, you should reap the rewards. That safeguards the hard work and money someone puts into an invention or technology.

But patents really amount to a legal monopoly, granted by government. And as is typical with government, this intervention into the economy creates some interesting side effects.