links for 2010-03-10

In tonight's program, NBR's Darren Gersh talks with George Papaconstantinou, Greece's Minister of Finance, about his nation's debt crisis. Mr. Papaconstantinou talks about the role speculators have played in destabilizing the Greek economy, and he also talks about whether the crisis will spread to other countries.

European officials urged the U.S. to join in a crackdown on speculators who bet against Europe's currency union, warning they might ban some credit default swaps — opaque financial instruments blamed for worsening the world financial crisis.

In short, at the first sign interest rates may rise, the carry-trade bubble will burst and everyone will rush to sell. Unfortunately the only big buyer for these treasuries will be the Fed–and given the state of its balance sheet, the only way it will be able to pay for them is by printing more money. That is when inflation will begin. This carry trade bubble is around the $500 billion dollar level and growing. The bigger it gets, the more danger, since there is no foreseeable way for it to deflate short of bursting.

"There's a lot of evidence to suggest that motivated kids are going to make money whether or not they go to college," says Altucher, managing partner at Formula Capital. "So teach your kids how to be motivated. Teach your kids how to sell a product, build a network of connections. That's going to be far more valuable."