Booms and Busts

Historically, reserve currencies have arisen without the help of the IMF, but we’re now witnessing a situation in which the IMF may declare the Chinese yuan a “reserve currency” as part of a larger game by global elites to manipulate global exchange rates.

The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee renewed its commitment to easy money this week. The Fed will pretend to be committed to raising rates while doing nothing, and its ongoing war against deflation will continue to make us poorer.

The problem with the central bank's easy-money policies is not primarily that it leads to rising prices. The big problem is that it leads to the crippling of the wealth creation process and the movement of resources from productive to non-productive sectors.

The Fed has a difficult balancing act. To maintain the current easy-money induced boom, it must not raise rates. But at the same time, it must also act as if it might raise rates some day, or savers will abandon the credit markets.

A report on my day inside the Fed

International trade grasped headlines with Monday’s announcement that twelve governments have agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While we should expect to see this celebrated in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, it is unfortunate even libertarian organizations are praising the agreement.

Thanks to centuries of government interventionism, Brazil remains mired in a sluggish boom-bust economy, and the government has now squandered the benefits of decades of growth. Fortunately, free-market ideas are growing more popular in Brazil and may someday offer a way out.

The Boom has Turned to Bust.