Mind Over Market

Congressional Budget Director Doug Elmendorf writes on the Director's Blog at the CBO web site: Federal Debt and the Risk of a Financial Crisis In fiscal crises in a number of countries around the world, investors have lost confidence in governments’ abilities to manage their budgets, and those governments have lost their ability to borrow at affordable rates. With U.S. government debt already at a level that is high by historical standards, and the prospect that, under current policies, federal debt would continue to grow, it is possible that interest rates might rise gradually as investors’ confidence in the U.S. government’s finances declined, giving legislators sufficient time to make policy choices that could avert a crisis. It is also possible, however, that investors would lose confidence abruptly and interest rates on government debt would rise sharply, as evidenced by the experiences of other countries. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict with any confidence whether ...

The atrocities of the Soviet Union have largely been ignored by history. But, thanks to this award-winning documentary, people can now begin to learn that the Soviet Union committed mass murder and atrocities on a scale that dwarfs that of all other ideologies, states and systems in the history of the world. The deliberate starvation of seven million Ukraines in a single winter of 1932-33 was known to a New York Times correspondent who, instead of reporting it, covered it up. That would make this the single most horrible act of complicity with evil in mankind's history. This is an astonishing video that should be widely disseminated. More on the documentary at this site: http://www.archive.org/details/TheSovietStory The Soviet Story is a 2008 Latvian documentary about Soviet Communism and Soviet-German collaboration before 1941. It was written and directed by Edvins Snore and sponosred by the Union for Europe of the Nationas group within the European parliament. The EUN function...

More than 40 percent American workers face the prospect of having too little income in retirement and are likely to run out of money, according to a new study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The share of the population segment at risk for an inadequate retirement ranges from 70.3 percent of households with incomes in the lowest one-third of the population to 41.6 percent in the middle income group to 23.3 percent for the highest income group. Surprisingly, given the difficulties from the financial crisis and the recession, the results find workers better prepared for retirement than a similar study conducted seven years ago. In 2003, by comparison, 79.5 percent of households in the lowest one-third of income were at risk, falling to 47.3 percent for the middle income households and 39.6 percent of the highest income group. Defying the expected pattern, older worker are less prepared than some younger workers. For example, 47.2 percent of Early Baby Boomers may not ha...

By Robert Stowe England July 22, 2010 "Like the Saturday Night Live lunch counter from the late 1970s that, regardless of what the customers reasonably requested, offered only cheeseburgers, chips, and Pepsi, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act (the Mortgage Reform Act) would essentially mandate that all flavors of mortgage loans besides 'plain vanilla' may disappear from the menu," write Krstie D. Kully and Laurence E. Platt at K&L Gates LLP law firm. Their assessment appears in a newsletter released by the law firm July 8, that can be read at this link: http://www.klgates.com/newsstand/Detail.aspx?publication=6528 This section of massive Frank-Dodd financial services bill targets originators of mortgages that are not plain vanilla. These companies and institutions are targeted for "punishment through enhanced monetary damages, defense to foreclosure and risk retention requirements," Kully and Platt state. "Only time will tell whethe...