Financial Sense Newshour

Jim is pleased to welcome back Adam Fergusson, author of When Money Dies, written in 1975. Mr. Fergusson is also a former Member of the European Parliament, and has been a Special Adviser at the Foreign Office, and a consultant on European affairs for international industry and commerce. When Money Dies had been out of print for 30 years until recently; yet had never ceased to be quoted on both sides of the Atlantic. The book is well-known to financial commentators and has become something of a classic. Jim and Mr. Fergusson discuss the parallels and differnces between 1920’s Weimar Germany and today’s global financial system. He sees the potential for more inflation today, but not hyperinflation.

Jim welcomes Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist and a demographer by training, who holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at American Enterprise Institute. In his book, Nicholas details the exponential growth in entitlement spending over the past fifty years. As he notes, in 1960 entitlement payments accounted for well under a third of the federal government’s total outlays. Today, entitlement spending accounts for a full two-thirds of the federal budget. He makes the case that while this spending certainly drains our federal coffers, it also has a very real, long-lasting, negative impact on the character of our citizens.

Jim welcomes back Richard Dickson, Chief Market Analyst at Lowry Research. Richard notes that the major trend gauges are all positive at present. He sees a similarity in the markets to 1995, when there were no real corrections before the next advance. He believes the “Great Rotation” from bonds to stocks has not yet begun, but the “Fat Lady is warming up to start singing”, as evidenced by recent weakness in utilities. Also in this segment, Ryan Puplava has this week’s Market Wrap-up, Erik Townsend covers Commodities, and Rob Bernard has the Fixed Income Report.

Jim’s next Big Picture topic centers on Ben Bernanke’s testimony on Capitol Hill this week. His remarks seemed to cause some confusion in the financial markets. Bernanke said premature tightening would carry a substantial risk of ending the economic recovery, but didn’t really provide much detail on when or if the Fed would begin to withdraw stimulus. Jim reads the tea leaves and gives his analysis of the Fed’s exit strategy. In the next topic, “The Risk of Double Taxation” Jim discusses the latest Congressional hunt for more tax revenue, this time focusing on Apple and its hoard of overseas cash. Jim looks at the very high corporate tax rates in the US, and the valid reasons corporations are reluctant to repatriate overseas cash.