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!”
In Iraq and Afghanistan, US military officers routinely handed bundles of cash to local residents to buy influence and undermine resistance to the American occupation. Such payments came in especially handy after US troops inadvertently killed innocent civilians or sheep. Billions of dollars were shoveled out with little or no oversight as part of the Pentagon’s “Money as a Weapon System” program.
The precarious and hostile coexistence between central banks and cash just ended. Earlier today the European Central Bank’s Governing Council voted to withdraw the 500-euro note (worth $558) from circulation. The note is the second highest currency denomination issued in Europe after the 1000 Swiss franc note (worth $1013).
And how does this relate to crony capitalism?
Commentators have called the last Republican debate “thermonuclear” and similar adjectives, but not ill-mannered, which it was. Is this because good manners no longer matter? Or do good manners actually count against you?
