To avoid having to repeat a disclaimer every time we mention a statistic, we’ll just say it here: Each time you see an official government number, there is an unspoken but implied assertion that it’s probably fictitious, but is being cited because even the distorted version backs up whatever point we’re making.

Chinese proverb says wisdom begins with calling things by their right name.

Whereas a leveraged inverse bond ETF (one that is designed to go up if bonds go down) can only be held for short periods of time because it bleeds value, a short position in a leveraged long bond ETF (a fund designed to go down if bonds go down) can be held for years because its gradual loss of value works to the short seller’s advantage. So to bet

But in a fiat currency system, where money is not redeemable into a tangible asset and circulates solely because the government says one kind of paper is valuable and other kinds aren’t, perception isn’t just another tool of monetary policy – it is the policy’s prime directive. Because once perception-management fails, the next option is direct

Today’s fiat currencies emphatically meet the above bubble criteria. The prices of government bonds denominated in euro, yen and dollars have risen to extraordinary levels (which is the same as saying interest rates have been forced to extraordinarily-low levels). And befitting its size and scope, this bubble is rationalized with two popular

The Fear Index is useful to measure gold’s true value. The Index’s average over the near-century covered in the above chart is 7.09 percent, compared to 2.27 percent in late 2013, which indicates that gold is undervalued. To return to the ‘norm’ – perhaps not the right word since most of the data measures an era of fiat currency – that this

a “complex” system like a weather front, living organism, or pre-avalanche snow-covered mountainside contains numerous parts that do change in response to their communication and interaction. This process can create feedback loops begetting “emergent properties” that differ radically from the system’s constituent parts or its previous state.

As for tried-and-true business practices being supplanted by “innovations,” consider the fact that no major country balances its budget any more, while all engage in historically-unprecedented deficit spending and money printing.

organizations are suffering from “peak complexity,” a concept crucial to understanding the recent evolution – and coming difficulties – of the broader economy.