Economy News

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    “Stimulus Measures May Lead to Another Crisis”

    “Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao expressed is fears that the stimulus packages rolled out by central banks and governments to resolve the global financial meltdown, could lead to another financial debacle. This could be in the form of currency or fiscal crisis, the Governor said, reports PTI.” Read more. “Stimulus Measures May…

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    “Australia Under Threat From US Economic Policy”

    “Australia’s inflation target band is a touch higher and more flexible than those of most other advanced economy central banks, such as the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target. But this has still delivered relatively stable and low inflation in the face of wide swings in the Australian dollar. The Reserve Bank has not…

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    “US Looks Abroad for Housing Help”

    “As the U.S. housing market boomed in the past decade and fueled a bull market in mortgage investments, Norway’s government-owned fund went along for the ride — and the fall.” Read more. “U.S. looks to reluctant foreign investors to help fund the housing market” Howard Schneider The Washington Post, Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

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    “Financial Crises and the Federal Reserve’s Punch Bowl”

    “Why did the U.S. financial system nearly collapse last year? People blame Wall Street’s excessive greed and risk-taking. But without easy money, the massive risk-taking could not have happened. To be sure, financial firms leveraged up—that is, they did a lot of business with borrowed money. That juiced up revenues and bonuses in the boom—and…

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    The Yo-Yo Tactic: Stop and Go Economics

    In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke commented on his “exit strategy”. There is a large amount of money floating around in the economy, and the Fed is finally starting to worry about it. Thus far, banks have held back the flow by keeping high reserves, but as Bernanke says in his…

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    “Competing Money Supplies”

    “What would be the consequences of applying the principle of laissez-faire—that is, completely free markets—to money? While the idea may seem strange to most people, economists have debated the question of competing money supplies off and on since Adam Smith’s time. In recent years, trends in banking deregulation, developments in electronic payments, and episodes of…

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    “The Financial Crisis, In Rhyme Form”

    “The volume of mortgages written back then Stunned imaginations. In a single quarter in 2003, A trillion in originations! But something happened late that year That caused long rates to rise. And that was the end of the refi boom. It came as quite a surprise.” Read more here. “The Financial Crisis, In Rhyme Form”…

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    “Money and the Present Crisis”

    “It is largely a myth that unregulated financial capitalism failed and new regulation is needed. Aside from health care, financial services is the most heavily regulated industry in the economy. No part of it completely escaped regulation and most parts were heavily regulated, typically withmultiple government agencies overseeing the activities of financial services firms.” Read…

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    “An International Monetary Fund Currency…”

    “To alleviate the global recession, the G-20 group of nations recently agreed to authorize the International Monetary Fund to allocate $250 billion worth of Special Drawing Rights — the IMF’s unit of account — to its member states. This sparked much discussion on whether the SDR could become a new international currency, rivaling the U.S.…

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    “Argentina Seizes the Central Bank”

    “After a month of wrangling, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner succeeded in sacking central bank President Martin Redrado last week. In his place she named Mercedes Marcó del Pont, a Yale-trained economist who has expressed the view that central bank autonomy ought to be limited.” Read more. “Argentina Seizes the Central Bank” Mary Anastasia O’Grady The…