Asset

Much has been written about the link between Japan’s aging society and the asset deflation that the country has experienced over the past 22 years. There is a disconcerting correlation between the progression of Japan’s aging society and the relentless bout of deflation that began after the Nikkei peaked in 1989. A similar and equally distressing story exists in Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world, and similar to Japan, its population is shrinking...

Recent data indicate that wages and salaries as a share of national income have fallen to the lowest level since 1948—a time when the government began to collect the data. During the third quarter of 2011, wage and salary compensation represented 49.4 percent of national income. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the profit margins of U.S. companies are at the highest level in 40 years. The profit margins of non-financial companies in the United States reached 15 percent during the third...

In an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism, Bloomberg Markets Magazine describes the real financial bailout action that took place when banks tapped into the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility for additional borrowing at below market rates. Select highlights include: While the TARP program had a big $700 billion price tag, the Federal Reserve committed as much as $7.77 trillion to banks as of March 2009. These additional trillions were provided in almost complete secrecy...