Author: Douglas French

Men who have occupied the seat of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York have portrayed themselves in recent years as protectors of the investing public. Through the use of insider trading laws, which only came into effect in 1968, Rudy Giuliani, and most recenting Preet Bharara, have touted themselves as the “Sheriff of Wall Street.” Time magazine featured Bharara on a 2012 cover with the title “This Man is Busting Wall Street” for the hundreds of cases of insider trading suits he brought and his 85 case winning streak that ended after more than five years … Continue reading →

The post Insider Trading Laws appeared first on LewRockwell.

The sage Burt Blumert once wrote about chartists, I’m talking about those arrogant snobs who promote the belief that the future performance of markets can be predicted from analyzing yesterday’s lines and dots on a page. This group is deadly dangerous: They leave empty bank accounts and broken spirits in their wake. Look, if there are customers willing to pay the Gypsy lady to read tea leaves, that’s OK with me. After all, she entertains her clients — but never presents herself as possessed with a body of scientific knowledge. Even the Voodoo Priest who predicts the future by reading … Continue reading →

The post Burt Blumert on Bitcoin appeared first on LewRockwell.

Free-markets and private property rights are all well and good on paper and in the abstract. However, when abstract meets reality’s road, these questions are not so easy. The other day, a neighbor dropped by with mail mistakenly delivered to her address. After pleasantries were exchanged she asked,”Do you know about the house across the street?” The family had moved and the realtor’s sign was gone. Most of the time the house seems empty, however, one particular Sunday, our quiet cul-de-sac erupted into what looked to be a spring break bacchanal. When I responded “no,” my neighbor informed me the … Continue reading →

The post The Airbnb Next Door appeared first on LewRockwell.

Grant’s Almost Daily reports that despite the seemingly calm economic winds, “Banco Popular has managed to run the ship aground. In order to shore up their sickly balance sheet, the acquiring [Banco] Santander will issue a €7 billion rights offering to shareholders. Banco Popular’s equity and junior debt are wiped out, to the tune of €3.3 billion.” While America breathlessly waited for former FBI Director Comey to boast daytime TV ratings, the  “announcement that Banco Popular Espanol SA will be absorbed by the sounder Banco Santander under the auspices of the European Central Bank for considerations of €1 harkens back … Continue reading →

The post Bank Failures appeared first on LewRockwell.

The car business has been rockin’ since the financial crash.  The headline on Automotive News just a few days ago screamed “GM’s Q1 profits surge 34% on North American Strength.”  It was the best quarter Government Motors has posted since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009. “It was the eighth consecutive quarter in which GM’s results topped expectations on Wall Street,” writes Nick Bunkley. Meanwhile, Ford posted a 35% decline in Q1 profits. The website Jalopnik.com points out “For a couple years, the Morning Shift story at the beginning of every month was ‘Another month of record sales!’”  But, as Kristen … Continue reading →

The post Bubble on Wheels appeared first on LewRockwell.

Spring is in the air signaling the start of homebuying season.  But here in Las Vegas, buyers “are aplenty,” 1st Realty Group owner Thomas Blanchard tells the Las Vegas Review Journal, but “we just don’t have the properties to sell them.” It hardly seems possible, not enough homes for sale. After all, squatting in bank-owned homes has become a cottage industry in Sin City, where 2% of all homes, close to 14,000, sit vacant (or occupied by trespassers), remnants of the housing crash. “Las Vegas metropolitan police, which patrol an area of nearly two million residents, have seen a 25% … Continue reading →

The post Squattertown appeared first on LewRockwell.

Last year nearly 20 million gallons of petroleum products were consumed a day in the U.S.. Maybe that’s why oil spills are not environmental catastrophes, as much as economic catastrophes. In 2010 the bashing of BP was constant after its Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Companies large and small as far inland as Auburn, Alabama were looking to collect from BP, claiming they were harmed economically by the spill. The blowout became, as most accidents seem to, a giant legal tangle and money grab. People who pull oil out of the ground or bottom of the ocean are heroic. It is … Continue reading →

The post Great Movie About a Dangerous Business appeared first on LewRockwell.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still have housing blood on their hands from the 2008 financial crash. However, the giant GSEs, placed in government conservatorship in September 2008, have now, virtually all by themselves, created another bubble, this time in the multifamily rental market. Fannie and Freddie made 53% of all apartment loans in 2016, that’s down from their combined 68% market share in 2012. So, their conservator, The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), recently eased the GSE’s lending caps so they can crank out, even more, loans. Mary Salmonsen writes for multifamilyexecutive.com, “Currently, Fannie and Freddie are particularly dominant … Continue reading →

The post Fannie and Freddie’s New Bubble appeared first on LewRockwell.

The Trump rally has stocks at all-time highs. The VIX (which reflects the volatility of the S&P 500) is at 10-year lows. The headline unemployment rate is 4.8%. Everything must be A-OK in the U.S of A. Head Keynesian Janet Yellen, the Fed’s Chair, may be sleeping soundly, as she and her Ph.D. monetary mandarins continue to gin up a robust wealth effect.  At 70 years old, described by Danielle DiMartino Booth as “Bernanke in lipstick and a skirt,” Yellen is far from retired, pulling down $201,700 per year to push the buttons and pull the chains of monetary policy. … Continue reading →

The post The Stench Inside The Fed appeared first on LewRockwell.

Back in the Las Vegas boom days, the belief was there wasn’t enough land.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controlled nearly 90 percent of the land in Nevada and all the land surrounding the Las Vegas Valley. Desperate builders were gonna run out of terra firma. So, developers went verticle (called the Manhattanization of Las Vegas) and skipped to nearby communities like Pahrump. The ensuing crash was especially cruel to high-rise and satellite community developers. “Pahrump, a rural, unincorporated town 60 miles west of Las Vegas in Nye County, bears little outward resemblance to its famous neighbor,” writes Eli … Continue reading →

The post The Las Vegas Real Estate Bubble appeared first on LewRockwell.

Most people believe McDonald’s is in the burger business. Not hardly. “McDonald’s is one of the biggest real estate companies in the world,” Jonathan Maze wrote for Nation’s Restaurant News in 2015, “It owns $28.4 billion worth of land and buildings, before depreciation. It also leases the land, the buildings or both on 15,000 of its restaurant sites.” The defining moment in the spectacular new movie “The Founder” has Harry Sonneborn (B.J. Novack), then an executive with Tastee Freeze, explaining to Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), after going over McDonald’s books, why his (and the McDonald brothers) company was growing like … Continue reading →

The post An Actual Movie About an Entrepreneur appeared first on LewRockwell.

Entrepreneurship is a hot new study area in academia, with devotees of the Austrian school Peter Klein and his student  Per Byland extending the work of Ludwig von Mises, Israel Kirzner, and Murray Rothbard. I’ve told Professor Klein that I have my doubts about the teaching of entrepreneurship. I’ve known, done business with, been partners with, and now work for an entrepreneur. None of them on a day-to-day basis seem necessarily alert or searching for discrepancies. They just wake up every day wanting to “hit a lick.” Academics have time for theoretical cogitation, for instance, arguing that entrepreneurship is Kirzner’s “alertness … Continue reading →

The post Gold! appeared first on LewRockwell.

Billionaire Phil Ruffin has been quoted as saying, “I like to negotiate.” President-elect Trump reminds us often of what a great negotiator he is. Except not right now, and not with the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226. Last December, more than half the 500 eligible workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas voted to join the Union. However, Ruffin and his 50% partner, President-Elect Donald Trump, allegedly refused to recognize, or bargain with, the Union which dominates employment on the Las Vegas Strip with an estimated 57,000 members. The Union took its case to the National Labor Relations Board … Continue reading →

The post Trump vs. the Culinary Union appeared first on LewRockwell.

Victor Fuentes probably didn’t specifically have the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment–“No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”–in mind, as he swam seven miles from his home in Santiago, Cuba to Guantanamo Bay to gain political asylum in 1991. He was simply convinced he must risk life and limb to escape Castro’s government oppression for the freedom offered by the United States.  But, by now, he’s learned the USofA. is not as free as he believed. For the past few years, Pastor … Continue reading →

The post US Fish and Wildlife Looters Wreck a Church appeared first on LewRockwell.

Las Vegas is said to be constantly reinventing itself. What was once “Sin City” has gone through it’s Rat Pack days, it’s family friendly days, it’s “what happens here stays here” phase, and now it’s “pay for parking” phase. Arriving at the Mirage to spend hundreds on dinner and more hundreds watching “Love” I was made speechless when the valet parker, no doubt seeing my Nevada license plates, sheepishly told me, “you know we now charge for valet.”  I asked how much. “Between $13 and $18.” With a car full of out-of-town guests, I could only reply, “okay.” Later I … Continue reading →

The post The Good Old Days in Las Vegas appeared first on LewRockwell.