Economy News

from AIER

Established 1999

New England, USA

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Sound Money Project

  • •

    “China May Have Dug a Financial Hole”

    “In late 2008, with the financial crisis rippling through the global economy, China’s leaders embarked on a two-year, $586 billion spending program to try to stave off a recession and keep the Chinese economy growing. Unlike in the United States — where President Obama’s large stimulus plan became the subject of protracted congressional wrangling and…

  • •

    A Spanish Banking Crisis in the Making

    Spain was hit hard by the financial crisis. Like the U.S. and the UK, Spain experienced high capital inflows and rapidly rising housing prices in the years leading up to the crisis. And like the U.S. and the UK it is now stuck with a struggling banking sector and bloated public finances. Spanish banks have…

  • •

    “The Folly of Currency Pegs”

    “The current flap over the sustainability of Greece’s membership in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is reminiscent, in many ways, of the events leading up to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system—another ultimately untenable currency regime—which was put into place after World War II and terminated by the break of the dollar’s…

  • •

    European Weakness Is Fuelling U.S. Profligacy

    The European debt crisis has demonstrated the painful costs of fiscal profligacy and short-sighted Keynesian stimulus. In the words of financial historian Niall Ferguson, “there is no such thing as a Keynesian free lunch,” warning that a “greek crisis” could come to America. Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson says the European crisis should be…

  • •

    “Monetarism Defiant” – Anna Schwartz on the Fed

    “Anna Schwartz must be the oldest active revolutionary on earth. Born in 1915 in New York, she can still be found nearly every day at her office in the National Bureau of Economic Research on Fifth Avenue, where she has been tirelessly gathering data since 1941. And as her experience proves, data can transform the…

  • •

    “The Great Depression According to Milton Friedman”

    “Few events in U.S. history can rival the Great Depression for its impact. The period from 1929 to 1941 saw fundamental changes in the landscape of American politics and economics, including such monumental events as America ’s going off the gold standard and the founding of Social Security. It was a watershed for the growth…

  • •

    “A Stable Price Level Standard for Federal Reserve Monetary Policy”

    “In a recent article in the Cato Journal dealing with the transparency of Federal Reserve monetary policy, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Chairman Ben Bernanke provided an authoritative account of current Federal Reserve strategy (Cato Journal, vol. 28, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 2008, “The Fed’s Road Toward Greater Transparency,” pp. 175-186). Bernanke notes that “inflation-targeting” does…

  • •

    Chile Starts Monetary Tightening

    Chile has rebounded strongly from the global recession, in spite of the devastating earth quake that hit early in 2010. In response to the financial crisis, the monetary authorities cut its key lending rate from 8.25 per cent in September 2008 all the way down to 0.5 percent in July 2009 where it has stayed…

  • •

    “Fed limits card fees to $25”

    “Most credit card penalties will be limited to $25 and fees for customers who don’t use their cards will be eliminated under rules released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also ordered a review of all credit card interest rate hikes imposed since January 2009, including most of the record increases that came in…

  • •

    The Gulf Spill, the Financial Crisis and Government Failure

    The Gulf oil spill and the global financial crisis both demonstrate the failings of big government. Partisan politics obscures the linkage, with the consequence that each political party repeats the mistakes of the other as its turn to govern arrives. First, consider the oil spill. BP and its contractors are surely responsible for the accident.…

  • •

    “China May Have Dug a Financial Hole”

    “In late 2008, with the financial crisis rippling through the global economy, China’s leaders embarked on a two-year, $586 billion spending program to try to stave off a recession and keep the Chinese economy growing. Unlike in the United States — where President Obama’s large stimulus plan became the subject of protracted congressional wrangling and…

  • •

    A Spanish Banking Crisis in the Making

    Spain was hit hard by the financial crisis. Like the U.S. and the UK, Spain experienced high capital inflows and rapidly rising housing prices in the years leading up to the crisis. And like the U.S. and the UK it is now stuck with a struggling banking sector and bloated public finances. Spanish banks have…

  • •

    “The Folly of Currency Pegs”

    “The current flap over the sustainability of Greece’s membership in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is reminiscent, in many ways, of the events leading up to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system—another ultimately untenable currency regime—which was put into place after World War II and terminated by the break of the dollar’s…

  • •

    European Weakness Is Fuelling U.S. Profligacy

    The European debt crisis has demonstrated the painful costs of fiscal profligacy and short-sighted Keynesian stimulus. In the words of financial historian Niall Ferguson, “there is no such thing as a Keynesian free lunch,” warning that a “greek crisis” could come to America. Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson says the European crisis should be…

  • •

    “Monetarism Defiant” – Anna Schwartz on the Fed

    “Anna Schwartz must be the oldest active revolutionary on earth. Born in 1915 in New York, she can still be found nearly every day at her office in the National Bureau of Economic Research on Fifth Avenue, where she has been tirelessly gathering data since 1941. And as her experience proves, data can transform the…

  • •

    “The Great Depression According to Milton Friedman”

    “Few events in U.S. history can rival the Great Depression for its impact. The period from 1929 to 1941 saw fundamental changes in the landscape of American politics and economics, including such monumental events as America ’s going off the gold standard and the founding of Social Security. It was a watershed for the growth…

  • •

    “A Stable Price Level Standard for Federal Reserve Monetary Policy”

    “In a recent article in the Cato Journal dealing with the transparency of Federal Reserve monetary policy, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Chairman Ben Bernanke provided an authoritative account of current Federal Reserve strategy (Cato Journal, vol. 28, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 2008, “The Fed’s Road Toward Greater Transparency,” pp. 175-186). Bernanke notes that “inflation-targeting” does…

  • •

    Chile Starts Monetary Tightening

    Chile has rebounded strongly from the global recession, in spite of the devastating earth quake that hit early in 2010. In response to the financial crisis, the monetary authorities cut its key lending rate from 8.25 per cent in September 2008 all the way down to 0.5 percent in July 2009 where it has stayed…

  • •

    “Fed limits card fees to $25”

    “Most credit card penalties will be limited to $25 and fees for customers who don’t use their cards will be eliminated under rules released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also ordered a review of all credit card interest rate hikes imposed since January 2009, including most of the record increases that came in…

  • •

    The Gulf Spill, the Financial Crisis and Government Failure

    The Gulf oil spill and the global financial crisis both demonstrate the failings of big government. Partisan politics obscures the linkage, with the consequence that each political party repeats the mistakes of the other as its turn to govern arrives. First, consider the oil spill. BP and its contractors are surely responsible for the accident.…