Topic: Monetary Policy

“US exposed to Europe debt woes”

– May 26, 2010

“A top Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday that European debt woes pose a risk to the US economic recovery, but expressed confidence the danger of contagion was small. ‘It’s hard to see a banking crisis,’ St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President J …

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Good Money

– May 25, 2010

“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 …

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“Monetary-Policy Disasters of the Twentieth Century”

– May 24, 2010

“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 o …

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Applying Hayekian Ideas: Leonard Read and I, Money

– May 20, 2010

“In a recent blog post, Peter Boettke argues that in reading F.A. Hayek it is important to distinguish between Hayek and Hayekianism. Because Hayek, as a lifetime learner, did not always apply his ideas as fully he possibly could have, Hayek the man wa …

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“Can the Government Regulate Inflation?”

– May 20, 2010

“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 …

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The Euro – a Greek Drachma in Disguise

– May 20, 2010

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 w …

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“Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crises?”

– May 19, 2010

“The growing narrative in Washington is that a decades-long unraveling of the regulatory system allowed and encouraged Wall Street to excess, resulting in the current financial crisis. Left unchallenged, this narrative will likely form the basis of any …

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

– May 19, 2010

“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 …

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“Financial Regulation Bill Will Hurt Main Street”

– May 19, 2010

“The U.S. Congress should be forced to take the same oath that doctors take to “first do no harm.” Because more often than not, under the guise of “fixing” a problem, Washington makes things much, much worse for hard-working middle-class families and s …

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“The Great Chinese Inflation”

– May 19, 2010

“Inflations have undermined the cultural and economic fabric of society, bringing social chaos and revolution. One example is the Great Chinese Inflation of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, the destruction of the Chinese monetary system during this period …

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Inflation Destroys Savings

– May 19, 2010

“Everything that is done by a government against the purchasing power of the monetary unit is, under present conditions, done against the middle classes and the working classes of the population. Only these people don’t know it. And this is the tragedy …

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The Return of British Stagflation?

– May 19, 2010

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 Kin …

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