Famed investor/world traveler Jim Rogers, interviewed on Resource Investor , drops this bomb on Bernanke: RESOURCE INVESTOR: I wonder what Mr. Bernanke’s going to be doing. But what it amounts to is the same policy that they’ve always employed when they get a small so-called crisis; instead of letting the cycle run its natural course, they chuck
The Feb 5 Financial Times published a letter stating: Sir, The widespread consensus that the aggressive interest rate cut policy adopted by the then Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan after the tech bubble’s burst caused the recent market turmoil is totally misleading. The Fed by making money cheaper has determined a large-scale tendency to
As the credit bubble unravels, will the bad debts be written off, resulting in a debt-deflation spiral? Or will central banks do everything within their power, including the use of “unconventional methods” to prevent asset prices from falling? I suggest the latter outcome. The benefits to a deflation are deferred and dispersed, and require a
GATA links to this story : -- Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation. President Hugo Chavez’s government says the new currency -- dubbed the “strong bolivar” -- will make daily
James Fallows, writing in the Atlantic, has produced a fascinating piece on China’s fund . I have covered the emerging sovereign wealth funds several times already ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ), however, Fallows’ piece is one of the more economically literate I have seen on the subject. Most writers presume that the so-called “export-lead growth strategy” has
David Owen writing for the New Yorker ( Penny Dreadful: They’re horrid and useless. Why do pennies persist? ) provides a number of anecdotes illustrating the perversity of our monetary system: Pennies cost about 1.7 cents to manufacture Nickels are even worse in percentage terms, costing almost ten cents When the metallic value of the coins
The Washington Post reports Economists Debate Link Between War, Credit Crisis . The article is notable both for being poorly reasoned, and for its extensive quotation of faulty or irrelevant arguments made by actual economists. The article starts by addressing the perception that the war is a cause of the current recession. Senators Voinovich and
Bloomberg reports that a former central banker with the Bank of China has made some dire statements about the GSEs: BEIJING -- A failure of U.S. mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be a catastrophe for the global financial system, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank. “If the U.S. government allows
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.