Economy News

from AIER

Established 1999

New England, USA

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Central Banking

  • •

    “EU Proposes Tax to Support Bank Crisis Funds”

    “The European Commission Wednesday proposed that each European Union government levy a tax on its banks and use the proceeds to create a fund dedicated to ensuring the “orderly failure” of troubled banks. The proposal would create a European network of such funds that would follow the same rules, although the commission, the EU’s executive…

  • •

    Budgetary Impact of Fed’s Actions During the Crisis

    “Over the past several years, the nation has experienced its most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. To stabilize financial markets and institutions, the Federal Reserve System used its traditional policy tools to reduce short-term interest rates and increase the availability of funds to banks, and created a variety of nontraditional…

  • •

    Good Money

    “This is the true and remarkable story of private coinage and banking in Britain in the early years of the Industrial Revolution (1775-1850). Making money was a business in demand. The needs of business for small denominations were changing. Merchants needed small denomination coins in copper and silver. The Royal Mint couldn’t be bothered. It…

  • •

    “Monetary-Policy Disasters of the Twentieth Century”

    “The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 and soon did what central banks almost always do: it started printing lots of money. During World War I the Bank of England inflated its money supply, and as a result a significant amount of gold flowed out of Great Britain to the United States in the…

  • •

    The Fed’s Balance Sheet

    The Wall Street Journal has created a good graphic illustration displaying the development of the Fed’s balance sheet during the financial crisis. Assets on the balance sheet are currently $2.333 trillion, of which the main part consists of mortgage-backed securities, Fannie and Freddie debt and government securities. Some noteworthy developments: During the first phase of…

  • •

    “Can the Government Regulate Inflation?”

    “In a recent column, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman claimed that the government needs to have two important duties in finance. First, it must keep interest rates low; second, it must strictly regulate where the newly created money goes. Now, as one who believes that government cannot simultaneously make water run downhill and uphill,…

  • •

    The Euro – a Greek Drachma in Disguise

    The Euro keeps tumbling as international investors are loosing faith in the Eurozone. The currency has so far fallen 14 percent against the dollar this year. There is fear that contagion could trigger “Greek” debt crises among other EU countries with weakening fiscal positions, and that European banks could realize substantial losses as a result.…

  • •

    “Fed Will Hold Interest Rates – And Inflation Will Rise”

    “Early this year, it was our belief (and forecast) that the Federal Reserve would start lifting interest rates from their current level of near zero by mid-year 2010. Our view has been that 0% interest rates are too low, that the economy would be (and is) in recovery, and that inflationary pressures would continue to…

  • •

    The Return of British Stagflation?

    The UK inflation rate jumped to 3.7 percent last month, way above the Bank of England’s 2 percent target. This comes as a surprise to both the monetary policymakers of the BoE and to the newly formed coalition government. The Bank’s Governor Mervyn King explains this sudden rise in consumer prices in a letter to…

  • •

    Stephen Roach Calls for a New Monetary Policy Regime

    Stephen Roach, Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley, have been a critic of the Fed for many years. In a Financial Times op-ed he makes the case for exiting the current monetary policy regime once and for all: “it is high time to banish the moral hazard of macro policy – the false sense of security…

  • •

    “EU Proposes Tax to Support Bank Crisis Funds”

    “The European Commission Wednesday proposed that each European Union government levy a tax on its banks and use the proceeds to create a fund dedicated to ensuring the “orderly failure” of troubled banks. The proposal would create a European network of such funds that would follow the same rules, although the commission, the EU’s executive…

  • •

    Budgetary Impact of Fed’s Actions During the Crisis

    “Over the past several years, the nation has experienced its most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. To stabilize financial markets and institutions, the Federal Reserve System used its traditional policy tools to reduce short-term interest rates and increase the availability of funds to banks, and created a variety of nontraditional…

  • •

    Good Money

    “This is the true and remarkable story of private coinage and banking in Britain in the early years of the Industrial Revolution (1775-1850). Making money was a business in demand. The needs of business for small denominations were changing. Merchants needed small denomination coins in copper and silver. The Royal Mint couldn’t be bothered. It…

  • •

    “Monetary-Policy Disasters of the Twentieth Century”

    “The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 and soon did what central banks almost always do: it started printing lots of money. During World War I the Bank of England inflated its money supply, and as a result a significant amount of gold flowed out of Great Britain to the United States in the…

  • •

    The Fed’s Balance Sheet

    The Wall Street Journal has created a good graphic illustration displaying the development of the Fed’s balance sheet during the financial crisis. Assets on the balance sheet are currently $2.333 trillion, of which the main part consists of mortgage-backed securities, Fannie and Freddie debt and government securities. Some noteworthy developments: During the first phase of…

  • •

    “Can the Government Regulate Inflation?”

    “In a recent column, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman claimed that the government needs to have two important duties in finance. First, it must keep interest rates low; second, it must strictly regulate where the newly created money goes. Now, as one who believes that government cannot simultaneously make water run downhill and uphill,…

  • •

    The Euro – a Greek Drachma in Disguise

    The Euro keeps tumbling as international investors are loosing faith in the Eurozone. The currency has so far fallen 14 percent against the dollar this year. There is fear that contagion could trigger “Greek” debt crises among other EU countries with weakening fiscal positions, and that European banks could realize substantial losses as a result.…

  • •

    “Fed Will Hold Interest Rates – And Inflation Will Rise”

    “Early this year, it was our belief (and forecast) that the Federal Reserve would start lifting interest rates from their current level of near zero by mid-year 2010. Our view has been that 0% interest rates are too low, that the economy would be (and is) in recovery, and that inflationary pressures would continue to…

  • •

    The Return of British Stagflation?

    The UK inflation rate jumped to 3.7 percent last month, way above the Bank of England’s 2 percent target. This comes as a surprise to both the monetary policymakers of the BoE and to the newly formed coalition government. The Bank’s Governor Mervyn King explains this sudden rise in consumer prices in a letter to…

  • •

    Stephen Roach Calls for a New Monetary Policy Regime

    Stephen Roach, Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley, have been a critic of the Fed for many years. In a Financial Times op-ed he makes the case for exiting the current monetary policy regime once and for all: “it is high time to banish the moral hazard of macro policy – the false sense of security…