Archives for February, 2014

Ukraine: It’s (mostly) about the energy

Ukraine is effectively two countries (if not more); the east looks towards Russia and the west looks towards Western Europe. The EU has been meddling in Ukraine for some time, encouraging application for EU membership but being coy about its response. Russia also has a substantial interest in the future…

Three Types of Lie: Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

This expression was apparently first used by Mark Twain, who attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British Prime Minister. To quote Mark Twain: “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.” These are appropriate quotes today, where suspicion abounds about the “accuracy” of government statistics. While Chinese statistics…

Gold at $40,000: Jim Rickards

James Rickards (lawyer,economist, investment banker and author) has written a new book, “The Death of Money”. It is available here.   In an interview with Valentin Schmid of Epoch Times (read it here), he  considers that the petrodollar will be replaced by another international monetary system, just as the petrodollar…

The Petrodollar: How Much Longer?

In July 1944, at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, delegates from all 44 Allied nations involved in World War II sought to define and regulate the international monetary and financial system. In addition to the establishment of a number of global agreements (such as the General…