Bill Gross: This economy requires a check from the government

Bill Gross, the man who controls the largest bond fund in the world, believes that trillions of dollars in government spending will be necessary to get the economy going again. He warns that if the government does not spend trillions of stimulus to boost the economy, the U.S. and global economies could collapse. Now, on

Marc Faber: The economic crisis is a consequence of U.S. government intervention

Marc Faber thinks it would better to nationalize the banks rather than bail them out. In his view, we are seeing special interests feeding at the trough

Wall Street Journal: Right Forecast by Schiff, Wrong Plan?

Wading into the controversy surrounding Peter Schiff’s investment under-performance, the Wall Street Journal has released an article which calls into question the fundamental arguments for Schiff’s investment strategy. Schiff, a fund manager often seen on television, has significantly underperformed the rest of the U.S. stock market, which itself saw a drop of nearly 40% last year. The question is why. Judging from the Journal piece his approach was aggressive and ill-timed. To my mind, this calls into question whether these losses can ever be recouped down the line. I have highlighted in bold the salient points of the article below

Seven reasons to be skeptical of Obama’s economic plans

Government policy must be well-crafted in order to avoid negative unintended consequences that arise when the government inserts itself into the private sector. And this is where I am having a problem with the Obama Administration.

Recently, Tim Geithner’s comments about currency manipulation put me over the top; I felt compelled to give you my seven reasons to be skeptical about the policy course now being charted

Warren Buffett: Don’t expect miracles from Obama

You may have already seen the Warren Buffett interview on Dateline from last Sunday. In it, he gives a sober analysis of what to expect from the new Obama Administration in terms of economic policy. The long and short of it is that we shouldn’t expect a miracle turnaround. The recession will be deep and protracted regardless of how well Barack Obama’s team deals with economic issues.

Below is the video of Buffett. The transcript is linked as a source

Louise Yamada: Sell stocks; Dow could be headed for 6000

Louise Yamada is one of Wall Street’s foremost technical analyst. She is quite bearish and thinks the Dow Jones Industrial Average could go to 6000. Her advice: sell stocks

Peter Schiff: “Government is a burden on the economy”

Peter Schiff is that market wizard people were laughing at just a year ago because of his extreme views. Well, things have turned out much as he has indicated they would. So, now he has a captive audience. And what is he saying? Government is a burden that we need less of. The way forward is not government stimulus but less government, less consumption and higher savings.

Well Peter, I have news for you: that game plan of yours is a recipe for deflation, depression, civil unrest and financial Armageddon. You see, Schiff is an ideologue from the small government, free markets crowd. While I agree with his broader themes about less consumption and more savings, I do not see eye-to-eye with his ideology. What America needs now is a practical solution to a real problem, not ideology from the small government crowd

Fred Hickey: Gold starts secular bull, tech ends secular bear

Fred Hickey is bullish. This is big news. He has sold all of his puts for the first time in years and is now playing the markets from the long side. His favorite picks are in precious metals and technology. See the attached video during his Barron’s Roundtable discussion

Jim O’Neill on the Global Economy

The Chief Economist of Goldman Sachs sat down with the FT’s David Oakley and had a go on a number of topics from the financial crisis, investments in Emerging Markets, the future of the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, to the global economy.

Below are links to the three-part video series on the FT website. I think the videos are well worth watching.

Enjoy

Jagdish Bhagwati: Obama is a protectionist

In an FT opinion piece, Jagdish Bhagwati, a famous name in economic circles on the issue of free trade, issued a blistering attack on president-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to free trade in the face of a deteriorating U.S. job market. Bhagwati was optimistic about Obama as a free-trader during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton. However, Bhagwati is now deeply skeptical of Obama and his free trade bona fides.

Are we headed for another bout of Smoot-Hawley? If you agree with Professor Bhagwati, you might answer yes. Here is a snippet of his remarks below. I have highlighted the pieces I most agree with

Galbraith makes a comeback

It looks like John Kenneth Galbraith is back in style after years of the laissez-faire crowd holding court. The Economist chronicles the revived interest in his works according to book sales at Amazon. He is definitely on my reading list

Paul Davidson: Reforming the world’s international money

UPDATE: 25 Mar 2009: In anticipation of the upcoming G-20 meeting and on the heels of some provocative comments made by Chinese officials regarding the US dollar, I would like to re-post this article from January. Paul Davidson has a very good plan on reforming the global monetary system here that needs MUCH more circulation.

Paul Davidson is a leading academic scholar in the field of Economics with a large catalogue of publications of merit. I would like to use this post to introduce you to him and a specific work of his that deserves more attention in the mainstream media. This post may be a bit wonkish, but I hope you will appreciate the message