America
We Have Met the Enemy…
The above is the first half of a famous cartoon quote from the early 1950’s which was reborn, so to speak, on Earth Day 1970. At the end of this short article I will give [more…]
Economics
America
Questionable Ethics, Philosophical Guidelines, and the Art of Profiting from Instability (Part 5)
How did George Soros’s saga of triumph unfold from those nascent days in America? As a young émigré, he had charted a modest course: amass $500,000 in five years, return to England, and immerse himself [more…]
America
Confidence Is Essential for a Fiat Currency
Since fiat currencies, per se, are not redeemable for anything other than themselves, their very existence depends upon confidence. The issuing authority must not inflate the currency’s size to the point that it begins to [more…]
Economics
Questionable Ethics, Philosophical Guidelines, and the Art of Profiting from Instability (Part 4)
According to F. William Engdahl, a German-American political scientist and incisive commentator, George Soros secured the allegiance of 99 “sophisticated investors,” as mandated by U.S. law for a fund of such ambition. Engdahl distilled the [more…]
20th Century
Questionable Ethics, Philosophical Guidelines, and the Art of Profiting from Instability (Part 3)
Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, the firm where George Soros honed his craft from 1963 to 1973, was a fusion of two venerable German institutions. The first, founded in 1864 by brothers Max and Georg Arnhold [more…]
Economics
What Is Inflation?
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”–Milton Friedman “Inflation” is an increase in the money supply. Higher overall prices are the result of an increase in the money supply. To say that higher prices [more…]
Business
Plutocracy, Power, Property and Place
The phrase ‘grim up north’ lingers in the national imagination and conjures images of soot-stained skylines, struggling towns, and industries long past their prime. Yet this caricature of tired decline obscures another, less frequently told [more…]
Arts
Rday – An Icarus who soared to close to the Truth
I had two immediate reactions to the news of Jason Arday’s apparent suicide. The first was sadness, especially for his two children, wife, and parents. The second was to start a countdown to when the [more…]
Business
A Landscape of Lies
In 2007 I was the joint owner of a building services consultancy which undertook the mechanical and electrical design and production tender documentation relating to new construction and refurbishment projects. In addition, we also undertook [more…]