Most markets were undecided on which way to play ahead of today’s main event, and so moves were light and limited. Asia saw all core indices tussle between black and red, and with the exception of China all closed pretty much unchanged. Shanghai closed down 1.3% but that was after a late recovery rally at the […]

We have completed porting over the first memory node in our artificial intelligence system. There are three more to finish. Nevertheless, the first memory node will improve the text in the Investor section. We hope to have most of this uploaded this week. Below is a sample of what Socrates wrote for the Chinese yuan. […]

The Nikkei was the bright spot in Asian equity markets today closing up 0.8% whilst the JPY decline would have cost 0.3% of that gain. It was far better than the declines we saw in mainland China which closed -1.7%. Yuan gained small ground today and was last seen 6.5212. Given the majority of the […]

Richard Nixon unsuccessfully tried to pass a version of Milton Friedman’s plan. Nixon’s Democratic opponent in the 1972 presidential election, George McGovern, also suggested a guaranteed annual income. Milton’s basic guaranteed income proposal was well thought out and substantially different than simply the welfare state. Our welfare system has seriously altered human behavior as it […]

Shortly after the European open news broke of the Belgium terror attacks and we saw the usual flight to quality. Treasuries rallied, as did Gold and the US Dollar while stocks fell and in particular airlines and travel companies. At one stage we saw the DAX down over -1.5% with CAC, IBEX and FTSE not […]

The Asian markets responded quite positively to the FED’s unchanged decision yesterday with HSI and China Main trading a little over 1% higher across the board. The Exporters did not fare so well, as such, Japan closed a little lower (-0.22%) on the back of a stronger JPY (+1%). China moved the yuan mid-point from 6.5172 […]

QUESTION: Martin … the reasoning behind goldbugs … advising people to buy gold to thwart the cashless society that govts will soon impose on us all.  Do you think gold and silver will become the underground currency of the alternative economy as people try to get around the official cashless economy or not? thanks Regards P ANSWER:They probably will […]

Asia performed across the board with gains of between +0.5% to +1.1%. We have seen that carried forward into US trading with futures adding 1.5% to the cash closes. I want to move-on quickly to Europe today as this is where we are receiving many questions. The first thing we need to highlight is the why stock […]

The surprise rate cut by the New Zealand Central Bank earlier this morning spooked a few markets especially ahead of the ECB later in the day. The Nikkei liked the news which resulted in a +1.3% rally but that has been reversed after the wests reaction to the ECB this evening. In late US trading […]

Bavarian banks have figured out that negative interest rates are insane. They must pay the ECB to hold their cash. They have decided it is better to store their cash and eliminate deposits at the ECB. These people are just brain dead. They think negative interest rates will somehow “stimulate” the economy. They fail to grasp […]