Why Indians are Too Stupid to Build Toilets – were it not for the Media!

There has been a ghastly rape in some Indian village. Two girls got raped and later hanged by the perpetrators after “they left their toilet-less home during the night to relieve themselves”.

Toilets are not the problem in India …

If you believe most of the media, then Indians, despite them being one of the first cultured people are too stupid to build toilets close to (or in) their homes.

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The Swiss Central Bank Conundrum: Fighting Fire with Kerosene

When the Swiss Franc started appreciating against the Euro (or was it the Euro depreciating against the CHF?) the Swiss National Bank vowed to fight tooth and nail to keep the Swiss Franc at a 1.20 parity “at all cost”.

Time to wonder how such a “fight” is fought, whether it can be successful and what are the consequences.

The currency “stabilisation” choices a central bank has

A central bank is the master of its own currency, i.e. the currency it is meant to issue.

In today’s world of unbacked (“fiat”) currencies even the Swiss Central Bank has no real restriction as to how many units of its currency it can create. It can virtually create infinitesimal amounts of it.

The End Game or: How the Dupes were Duped or: The Euro Ten Years on

The Euro was probably the most hyped-in currency the world may have ever known.

That fact alone should have been reason for suspicion.

In this article we contrast some of the eulogies heaped on the Euro back in around 2001/2002 when it was introduced as a tangible currency with these past weeks’ near-obituaries.

Updated Statistical, Economic and Historical References

We have updated our References section and, for the first time, also published our References ordered by Subjects – probably the most comprehensive trove on Statistical, Economic, Monetary and Historical Data etc. …

Why Our Future Must Be Solar As Our Past Once Was

When you put a pot on the hot plate on your stove and switch on the heat – do you not expect the pot to get hot?

When you add energy on the earth’s surface to what the sun and geothermal influences already provide would you not expect the earth respectively the atmosphere to get warmer?

Then why do scientists not consider this as a source of global warming? Why do they concentrate on potential influences of some gases in the atmosphere while proposing to heat the earth to a much greater extent by adding heat through sources like nuclear fission or fusion which indubitably add to earth’s heat balance? Read more …

Politicians of all countries, recollect yourselves!

Dear politicians, there’s no alternative to forever turning our backs on nuclear energy and fast. Sure, the nuclear industry will protest vigorously and will see profits dwindle but they will survive without much problem – as opposed to many Japanese. It is but a question of time until another country will be hit as well – we should have understood that much by now. The so-called residual risk is not just unlikely nor is it negligible. And if you don’t rise to this sad occasion and get behind your people (a majority of whom never fancied nuclear power), then you will not only risk the health and livelihood of countless human beings but also your own and, above all, your power.

Economic Musings X: Legal Tender – Legal or Tender or What?

After World War II when the German Reichsmark was discredited and people were starving they would travel from their city to the local farms …

Bloom of Doom VIII: US Figures Stronger than Feared

If you think the title is a contradiction, well, not more so than the idea that debt or subsidies could increase wealth. Where truth can’t win by argument it needs to do so by stealth (that almost rhymes). The President of the United States has published a report on the state of the economy which proves how uneconomical the state has become. From that report you can glean two things, the bad and the ugly: the US economy has greatly deteriorated further and it seems beyond the point of no return.

Economic Fallacy VII: The Net Economic Gain through Pharmaceuticals

Are double-blind studies of pharmaceuticals enough to prove the efficiency of a new drug? You may be surprised to hear that potentially 90% of such studies could be flawed.

Economic Musings IX: We could all be millionaires …

… if we hadn’t destroyed literally trillions over the last 200 years!

Economic Musings VIII: Is there a limit to economic growth?

Something which puzzles many thinkers and frightens many young people concerned about waste or the pillaging of our natural resources is the question: can “an economy” (whatever that is – we’ll come to that in a minute) grow indefinitely?

How can there be unlimited economic growth if we’ve never heard of unlimited growth in, say, an elephant?

Economic Musings VII: Marketing doesn’t advertise itself

Have you ever wondered if marketing and advertising are the same, if not, what’s the difference and which is the more important of the two? And why should you care?

Blogs and Web Sites you may want to follow

The following is a list of blogs and websites that CrisisMaven has followed and observed over the last few months and that readers may want to check out from time to time.

Economic Musings VI: Modern Economies – Dying of Consumption

There is a great debate in the history of economics whether there can be under-consumption in any real historic moment of the state of an economy and if so, whether it has detrimental effects and if so, what is to be done about it. And modern economists seem to have found a magic wand with which to unfailingly repair any such damage and smoothen the otherwise rough ride of economic cycles. We’ll see if they have and what it might be worth, whether it’s a wand or a cane.

Economic Musings V: Subsidies, Brothers and Nannies

There are a thousand-and-one reasons why states “need” to subsidise economic activities. And there are at least as many critiques as to how the money was wisely spent, should not have been spent, should have been spent on something else, was too little, too much, at the wrong time, too early, too late, wasted or wonderful. Any policy that meets with such contradicting praise or censure is worth a deeper look.