Back when I taught collegiate political science, one of my pet peeves was the habit of some students to treat republics and democracies as if they were opposites.  ”The founding fathers wanted a republic, not a democracy,” it was often said.

This sentiment, I suspect, has permeated some sectors of the general population thanks to years of usage by mostly conservative writers and talk show hosts who use the two terms for mostly the rhetorical purpose of condemning “too much” democracy. 

“Republic” Defined

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has come out in favor of eliminating the $100 bill. Following on the European Central Bank’s decision to scrap the €500 note, it is clear that the international war on cash is about to intensify.

The Individual member states of the EU are fortunate in that they have (so far) managed to retain their specific and separate identities to a point. While Europeans from larger countries like the UK, France, and Germany no doubt like to discount the necessity or importance of countries like Greece or Portugal, those countries at least each continue to function as states among equals, to a certain extent.

It is not so for the member states of the United States, where individual states have been all but totally subsumed into the whole that is the “United States.”

It is now just a matter of time before the US central bank follows the central banks of Japan, the EU, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland in setting negative rates on reserve deposits.

As Martin Armstrong reports, a new version of the venerable board game “Monopoly,” set to be released this summer, carries the subtitle “Ultimate Banking” and is completely cashless.

Only days after stating it was not considering negative interest rates, the Bank turned around and introduced negative interest rates in January.

With so little time between the denial of even considering negative rates and the actual  implementation of rates, one is left wondering if the BOJ was simply lying or if something drastic changed at the bank to impel the change of heart.

Over the past month OPEC nations and Russia have become increasingly vocal over their concern with the global glut of oil that has led prices to thirteen-year-lows.  Financial headlines were consumed with news out of Russia late last month alleging that Russia and OPEC nations were in talks to coordinate a production cut, which led oil prices to rally higher.  As the reports faded, prices once again tumbled lower, but just as WTI crude prices were making new record-lows for the year on Thursday and test

The Drudge Report today posts at the top of the page this headline: “GALLUP: 32% ‘NEVER HEARD OF’ SCALIA...“

Generally, the purpose of posting a headline like this is to create outrage and perhaps smugness over how ignorant those other people are. “Why, this country is doomed because people don’t keep up with the important political issues of the day!”