The Europeans have decided to limit funding and credit extended to the Greeks. This puts the Greek financial system under pressure, but there are free-market solutions that could set the Greeks on the path to a sound economy.
Money creation does not benefit equally. It creates a class of winners (those who get new money first) at the expense of losers (those who get new money later). Not surprisingly, an inflationary money supply increases the wealth and income gap in society.
Janet Yellen testified before Congress this week, but the Senate Republicans, who claim to be the guardians of monetary sanity, failed to show any true understanding of monetary policy and the damage the Fed has inflicted.
A new deal with the International Monetary Fund is in the books for Ukraine.
Austrians today are nearly alone in asserting what the classical economists all knew. You cannot create prosperity by creating more money, but only through increases in technological progress, frugality, trade, and a division of labor.
When a central bank devalues a currency, it is often said that the devaluation will help exporters, and thus the whole country, as a result. But this simplistic analysis ignores the many downsides of inflating the currency.
Government loans often feature lower interest rates than what can be found in the private sector. But this is only because these cheap loans are taxpayer subsidized. Meanwhile, the government bans many private loans that risky borrowers need most.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard details the increasing level of Greek defiance to its ECB overlords in the wake of a left-wing, populist uprising in recent Greek elections.
Economist Philipp Bagus talks with us from Europe about the Swiss franc, the euro, and what the future holds for the debt-laden governments of the Eurozone.
