This week we will take a visual approach. I will share with you collection of ten graphs that might give pause for thought. We live in exceptional times: never did central banks exert so much influence on our lives. Many savers, investors and pensioners own a metaphorical pie in the sky. The present value of their riches is greatly overstated because of extreme central bank policies. And these charts will show you exactly what this means. Below you will find 10 startling statistics. Click on... »

Financial bubbles are about changes in relative prices. Temporarily, prices of internet stocks, real estate or even tulips (as the Tulipmania of 1637 proves) begin moving out of step with their fundamental value and all other prices in a market economy. The Fed is blind, because it knows nothing at all about changes in relative prices. The general price level is what keeps Fed-officials up at night, with all the consequences this might entail.

The year is 2020. The self-driving car has not delivered on its promise yet. Neither in Japan. It is June 16 in Tokyo, the day of the annual shareholder meeting of Toyota. Akio Toyoda still holds the reins at Toyota. A casual observer who predicted a wave of innovation in the automobile industry is in for a disappointment. At least, in Japan. Toyota has been complacent. Its newest models look almost the same as five years ago; sales are without exception disappointing. Multiple problems have surfaced over the past few years. It seems like everyone at Toyota has other things on their minds than producing cars. Dysfunctional airbags, sometimes unexplainable breakdowns and other production flaws are everyday events. This is why.