Posts Tagged ‘ Federal Reserve ’

The Great Monetary Debate

Feb 7th, 2012 | By | Category: Economics, Featured
When National Public Radio airs a segment on the gold standard, you know that the debate over the quality of money has reached the point where it can no longer be ignored. Another sign came last month when Newt Gingrich, who has never shown the slightest interest in the cause ...read more


The Transformation of Banking

Jan 30th, 2012 | By | Category: Featured, Macro Economics
There is a scene in the Parable of the Talents in which the returned master berates the shabbiest of his three servants. Discovering that he had buried his seed capital in the ground, the master says: "You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when ...read more


Zero Percent Uber Alles

Jan 26th, 2012 | By | Category: Economics, Featured, Macro Economics
We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to beat the world record for the longest, most-boring press conference in modern history. Ben Bernanke is getting even better at that crucial skill of repeatedly saying ...read more


Leaping Toward the Keynesian Dream

Nov 30th, 2011 | By | Category: Featured, Macro Economics
The Fed's latest inflationary scheme sounds like a technocratic innovation. It lowered the costs of currency swaps between central banks of the world, with the idea that the Fed would do for the globe what Europe, England and China are too shy to do, which is run the printing presses ...read more


Central Banks Aren’t Banks

Sep 26th, 2011 | By | Category: Economics, Featured
I am going to make a number of obvious statements that we all can agree are true, but what they add up to is a startling conclusion. What we call "central banks" are not banks at all. What is a bank? According to a helpful little essay on banks for students ...read more


Mass Inflation, Yes; Hyperinflation, No

Sep 14th, 2011 | By | Category: Macro Economics
The United States is not going to get hyperinflation unless Congress nationalizes the Federal Reserve System. It will get mass inflation at some point: anywhere from 15% per annum to 30%. But it is not going to get 50% or 100% or more. Why not? 1. The temporary nature of the payoff 2. The ...read more


Gold Still A Better Idea Than Mainstream Asset Allocation

Aug 24th, 2011 | By | Category: Featured, Gold
With gold making its expected pullback we needed a chuckle so we checked the New York Times and found this article from yesterday... No one I spoke to would venture a guess as to how high gold would rise before it hit its peak. But most stressed that people forgot that ...read more


The Bernanke Blind Side

Aug 15th, 2011 | By | Category: Featured, Macro Economics
You want to know what really scares me? That the money-printer-in-chief -- the man in charge of the printing press for the world's dominant paper currency -- the chairman of the U.S. Fed is so completely beholden to the mainstream macro consensus that he is entirely incapable of even comprehending ...read more


Why Is the Stock Market Crashing?

Aug 8th, 2011 | By | Category: Economics, Featured, Macro Economics
Investors the world over are still reeling from last Thursday's massive plunge in the US equity markets, in which the major indices all gave up more than 4 percent. It was the worst day for the US stock market since December 2008. [And today's markets are down over 4% again.--Ed.] None ...read more


Digitized Money Inflation

Aug 5th, 2011 | By | Category: Featured, Macro Economics, Politics
In preparing for class this past spring, I encountered a video on the Fed's website that obfuscates the fact that the Fed prints money. The six-minute video (posted in January 2011) features economist Steve Meyer, senior advisor to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In discussing the Fed's most recent expansion, ...read more