Sound Banking
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“Unemployment and Inflation Inch Up in Europe”
“The unemployment rate in the euro area inched up to touch double digits in February, while inflation accelerated more than economists had forecast, probably a result of higher food and oil prices, according to data released Wednesday. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said that seasonally adjusted unemployment in the 16 nations that use the…
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The Seigniorage Curse
“The Seigniorage Curse appears to hollow out the economy by the following manner: First, the premium charged to holders of dollars becomes a new source of accrued, aggregate revenue. This extra capital flowing into the economy is initially seen as a global honoring of our economy’s strength, and innovation. But when innovation falters and less…
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Obama’s Mortgage Plan Won’t Bring Relief
“Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and the rest of the crew running economic policy somehow could not see the housing bubble as it grew to more than $8tn. It really should have been hard to miss. Nationwide house prices had just tracked overall inflation for 100 years from 1895 to 1995. Suddenly in 1995, coinciding with…
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“Economists, Business Leaders Want Yuan to Appreciate”
“Chinese economists and business leaders have begun to call openly for their government to allow the yuan to appreciate against the dollar, in a sign that the issue is contentious here, too, and not just a problem between the United States and China. President Obama has urged China to let the value of the yuan…
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Politicising money lending is not the path to prosperity
“One part of Alastair Darling’s Budget that appears to have received little attention from the media is his plan for a ‘Credit Adjudication Service’. This new body, it appears, will provide an appeals process for small and medium businesses that have been denied credit by banks. Regardless of the fact that, according to the British…
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“Break Up the Banks”
“Big banks are bad for free markets. Far from being engines of free enterprise, they are conducive to what might be called ‘crony capitalism,’ ‘corporatism,’ or, in Jonah Goldberg’s provocative phrase, ‘liberal fascism.’ There is a free-market case for breaking up large financial institutions: that our big banks are the product, not of economics, but…
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Inflation
“Inflation rates vary from year to year and from currency to currency. Since 1950, the U.S. dollar inflation rate, as measured by the December-to-December change in the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), has ranged from a low of −0.7 percent (1954) to a high of 13.3 percent (1979). Since 1991, the rate has stayed between…
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“Obama Pays More Than Buffett”
“The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama. Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also…
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“Bailout Bonanza”
“Sen. Chris Dodd’s latest bill to fix the financial system is another failure. After months of negotiation, he’s produced a “reform” of the regulatory system that simply fails to deal with the causes of the 2008 crisis — which nearly saw the collapse of the US banking system. Reform is urgently needed, but the senator…
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“Placing our faith in economic oracles”
“One of the sadder categories in the history of human misfortunes is the list of those things that are obvious, but wrong. By definition, if something is obvious, most people agree with it, and thus, it is likely to win the day – but lose the verdict of history. The Earth is flat – obviously.…
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“Unemployment and Inflation Inch Up in Europe”
“The unemployment rate in the euro area inched up to touch double digits in February, while inflation accelerated more than economists had forecast, probably a result of higher food and oil prices, according to data released Wednesday. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said that seasonally adjusted unemployment in the 16 nations that use the…
-
The Seigniorage Curse
“The Seigniorage Curse appears to hollow out the economy by the following manner: First, the premium charged to holders of dollars becomes a new source of accrued, aggregate revenue. This extra capital flowing into the economy is initially seen as a global honoring of our economy’s strength, and innovation. But when innovation falters and less…
-
Obama’s Mortgage Plan Won’t Bring Relief
“Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and the rest of the crew running economic policy somehow could not see the housing bubble as it grew to more than $8tn. It really should have been hard to miss. Nationwide house prices had just tracked overall inflation for 100 years from 1895 to 1995. Suddenly in 1995, coinciding with…
-
“Economists, Business Leaders Want Yuan to Appreciate”
“Chinese economists and business leaders have begun to call openly for their government to allow the yuan to appreciate against the dollar, in a sign that the issue is contentious here, too, and not just a problem between the United States and China. President Obama has urged China to let the value of the yuan…
-
Politicising money lending is not the path to prosperity
“One part of Alastair Darling’s Budget that appears to have received little attention from the media is his plan for a ‘Credit Adjudication Service’. This new body, it appears, will provide an appeals process for small and medium businesses that have been denied credit by banks. Regardless of the fact that, according to the British…
-
“Break Up the Banks”
“Big banks are bad for free markets. Far from being engines of free enterprise, they are conducive to what might be called ‘crony capitalism,’ ‘corporatism,’ or, in Jonah Goldberg’s provocative phrase, ‘liberal fascism.’ There is a free-market case for breaking up large financial institutions: that our big banks are the product, not of economics, but…
-
Inflation
“Inflation rates vary from year to year and from currency to currency. Since 1950, the U.S. dollar inflation rate, as measured by the December-to-December change in the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), has ranged from a low of −0.7 percent (1954) to a high of 13.3 percent (1979). Since 1991, the rate has stayed between…
-
“Obama Pays More Than Buffett”
“The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama. Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also…
-
“Bailout Bonanza”
“Sen. Chris Dodd’s latest bill to fix the financial system is another failure. After months of negotiation, he’s produced a “reform” of the regulatory system that simply fails to deal with the causes of the 2008 crisis — which nearly saw the collapse of the US banking system. Reform is urgently needed, but the senator…
-
“Placing our faith in economic oracles”
“One of the sadder categories in the history of human misfortunes is the list of those things that are obvious, but wrong. By definition, if something is obvious, most people agree with it, and thus, it is likely to win the day – but lose the verdict of history. The Earth is flat – obviously.…
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