EconomicCrisis.US

The next chapter in the struggle over sound money may be the case of a newly minted felon named Bernard von NotHaus. Mr. von NotHaus was convicted this month of counterfeiting money by issuing silver coins called Liberty Dollars. His company’s website says it’s been taken down by court order, and absent a successful appeal he could spend years in jail.

Mr. von NotHaus was convicted under a section of the United States Code that makes it a crime to manufacture or pass “any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design.” The law was enacted during the Civil War, soon after the Union began issuing the paper scrip known as greenbacks.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tea Party activists frustrated with Republican leadership in the House of Representatives over compromising and promise breaking are planning a rally outside the Capitol and might even try to challenge GOP leaders in the next primary election if the wild spending keeps up. But even as Tea Party groups apply intense pressure on Congressional leadership to seek deeper budget cuts, top Democrats are urging Speaker John Boehner (pictured, left) to ditch the liberty-minded activists and join a statist Congressional coalition.
The Tea Party, however, is not buying it. And at least one of the nation’s largest organizations is planning to stage a rally about the GOP leadership’s lack of resolve, set for March 31, on Capitol Hill. It will feature several well-known conservative representatives in Congress including Michele Bachmann, Mike Pence, and Steve King.
Read the rest of this entry »

Those optimistic about the nation’s economic future (and count me as one) look to a litany of American characteristics that presage its revival: our comfort with risk and reinvention, a national confidence buoyed by short-term memory, even individual greed and bit of wishful thinking.

A new book by New York Times consumer columnist Alina Tugend throws a new twist to that picture by pointing out an American shortcoming: Our resistance to confronting mistakes — and learning from them — before they turn into catastrophic blunders.
Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. private employers added 201,000 jobs in March, while February’s figure was revised down slightly, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

The data was largely in line with expectations. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP Employer Services report would show a gain of 203,000 jobs. The report is jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

February’s figure was revised down to 208,000 from 217,000.

“Basically the number was very much in line with expectations and shows that the labor recovery continues at a reasonable pace,” said David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors in New York.
Read the rest of this entry »