Topic: Sound Money Project

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 …

READ MORE

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 …

READ MORE

“Roberts on the Crises”

– May 19, 2010

“Russ Roberts, host of EconTalk, discusses his paper, “Gambling with Other People’s Money: How Perverted Incentives Created the Financial Crisis.” Roberts reflects on the past eighteen months of podcasts on the crisis, and then turns to his own take, a …

READ MORE

“The Great 18-Year Real Estate Cycle”

– May 18, 2010

“On January 3rd, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke delivered a major speech at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. In his formal paper, “Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble,” Chairman Bernanke argues that the Fed’s mon …

READ MORE

Nouriel Roubini – Return to the Abyss

– May 18, 2010

“If fiscal imbalances are not addressed through spending cuts and revenue increases, only two options remain: inflation for countries that borrow in their own currency and can monetize their deficits; or default for countries that borrow in a foreign c …

READ MORE

Stephen Roach Calls for a New Monetary Policy Regime

– May 18, 2010

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 …

READ MORE

“Venezuela’s Monetary Mayhem”

– May 17, 2010

“Anchoring the currency to the dollar and thus outsourcing monetary policy to the U.S. Federal Reserve had been a success, but special interests and politicians could not bear that it robbed them of power. Venezuela is another place where the politicia …

READ MORE

Fed Monetary Dissident Thomas Hoenig

– May 17, 2010

Thomas Hoenig, a voting member of the Fed’s interest rate decision body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), has on several occasions expressed concerns about the direction of U.S. monetary policy. During the last year, he has been a lone voice o …

READ MORE

Europe’s Freezing Money Markets

– May 17, 2010

“Money markets are showing rising levels of mistrust between Europe’s banks on concern an almost $1 trillion bailout package won’t prevent a sovereign debt default that might trigger a breakup of the euro.” “The cost to hedge against losses on European …

READ MORE

Shining a Light on the Fed

– May 14, 2010

Much has been made recently of the plan to audit the Fed (here, here and here). It is a very interesting idea. Given the amount of money ($2 trillion) the Fed sent out in bailout loans, it makes sense that the taxpayers who funded it want to know where …

READ MORE

Will Congress ever reform the Fed?

– May 13, 2010

“This week’s Senate floor votes on the powers of the Federal Reserve caught my attention. Despite Congress’s bipartisan lashing of the Fed for its performance before and after the financial crisis of 2008, the Fed this week defeated two challenges to i …

READ MORE

Roche – Not the way to solve the debt crisis

– May 13, 2010

“the world is facing a major sovereign debt crisis that will squeeze economic growth and possibly deliver a series of debt default events down the road. Sovereign debt issuance is now sucking up 25 per cent of available world savings and that will sque …

READ MORE