Category: Central Banks
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, August 02, 2012
Audit the Out of Control Fed, Restore “Free Markets for Free People” / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
When will the Fed’s folly and madness come to an end? Perhaps next year, we’ll begin to see big changes at the Federal Reserve, including the sacking of Fed chief Ben Bernanke, and his henchmen of addicted money printers, who have tossed aside the notion of “Moral Hazard,” a long time ago, and instead, are engaging in “financial repression” in the bond markets, and the rigging of the stock market, much to the chagrin of believers in free markets. However, in order for this shake-up at the Fed to occur, the Republican Party would have to beat the odds, by capturing the White House, and majorities in both chambers of Congress.
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Saturday, July 28, 2012
Auditing The Fed is Like Auditing a Mafia Counterfeiting Operation / Politics / Central Banks
Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 459), or “Audit the Fed,” passed Wednesday July 25, 2012 in the U.S. House of Representatives by a wide margin of 327-98, exceeding the two-thirds majority needed. It had 274 cosponsors. But, by the evening of the same day, mainstream press around the country was already preparing the people for the bill’s fate in the Democrat-controlled Senate. As the Chicago Tribune and others reported, it had little chance of passing in the Senate, let alone being signed into law by the President. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already said that the Senate will not even consider the bill, because, as Ron Paul told CSPAN, he didn’t have the “guts.” With this in mind, as well as their own reputations, Romney, Boehner and Cantor backed it. Even Harry Reid backed it… in 1987 and 2010, but now he has changed his mind on a Fed audit for some reason.
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Sunday, July 22, 2012
Central Banks Are Doomed, Thanks to the Fed's Criminality / Politics / Central Banks
The word "untouchable" means something different in India than it does in the West. In India, no one wants to be an untouchable. In the West, achieving the status of untouchable is the supreme organizational goal.
In India, untouchable status means that you cannot move up. In the West, it means that you can't be pulled down.
In every Western nation, certain institutions are untouchable. Anyone challenging them is regarded as a revolutionary, a kook, or a self-promoter looking for publicity.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Belief in the Fed Heads South / Politics / Central Banks
In 1720, British legislators considered the South Sea Company's proposal to privatize the national debt. While they debated this swap of debt (in the form of annuities) for stock, a speculative mania for South Sea shares began. Edward Chancellor in Devil Take the Hindmost relates; "Exchange Alley in April 1720 resembled 'nothing so much as if all the Lunatics had escaped out of the Madhouse at once.'"
Most remarkable in this particular financial episode was the involvement of high level authorities.
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Thursday, July 12, 2012
The Fed's Next Move / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
Spanish and Italian bond yields have now risen back up to the level they were before the EU Summit. We also learned recently that U.S. job growth remains anemic, producing just 80k net new jobs in June. The global manufacturing index dropped to 48.9, for the first time since 2009. And emerging market economies have seen their growth rates tumble, as the European economy sinks further into recession.
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Friday, July 06, 2012
Central Bank Fireworks / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
Plunging ISM manufacturing data in the U.S. forebodes a GDP growth rate of just about 1%. And crumbling global PMI manufacturing data indicates worldwide growth is retreating to just 2%. There is a deepening recession in the EU (17) countries, while emerging market economic growth has collapsed. It isn't much of a surprise to learn that central banks in China, Britain, Europe and America have indicated that more money printing is just around the corner.
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Friday, July 06, 2012
World Central Banks Take Steps to Stimulate Economic Growth / Interest-Rates / Central Banks
Following the Fed’s extension of Operation Twist on June 20, 2012, the European Central Bank (ECB), People’s Bank of China (PBoC), and the Bank of England (BoE) put in place new monetary policy support today as gloomy economic data have trickled in during recent weeks.
The ECB cut its policy rate to 75bps from 1.00%, a historical low and also slashed the deposit rate (interest the ECB pays to banks for overnight deposits held at the central bank) to zero in order to promote bank lending. The policy rate of 75 bps is the lowest in the short existence of the euro since 1999 (see Chart 1). The main thrust of the ECB is to stimulate economic growth which has suffered a severe setback and raised the unemployment rate in the eurozone to 11.1% in May, a historical high for the eurozone (see Chart 2).
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
The Institutional Flaw At the Heart of the Federal Reserve / Politics / Central Banks
This is a long 'thought piece' by Simon Johnson, an eminent US economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
It exposes the inherent conflicts of interest at the New York Fed, the history behind that structural flaw, and the problems it creates in a time of high powered money and financialization, with the Fed assuming even more regulatory powers from a craven Congress.
Friday, June 01, 2012
ECB in Secret Seeks Infinite Power / Politics / Central Banks
“The Financial Times reports that the European Central Bank has secretly distributed E100 billion to Greek banks and billions more in secret to other European banks and, in doing so, has gained great "sway over eurozone politicians" -- you know, the people actually elected to run their countries.
“Infinite secret money is infinite secret power, and it's great that the FT is interested in this aspect of central bank secrecy. Is it too much to hope that the FT someday will show similar interest in the secrecy imposed by central banks on their interventions in the gold market, interventions detailed by GATA here?”
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
JPMorgan Chase and Central Banking / Politics / Central Banks
On Friday, May 1, 2012, JPMorgan Chase said it suffered a $2 billion trading loss. Some commentators have suggested that the huge loss emanates from so-called proprietary trading or placing risky bets using the bank's money. The loss raised the credibility of the Volcker rule, which restricts banks from trading their own money. Despite JPMorgan Chase's large loss, the opponents of the Volcker rule are of the view that the rule, if it is introduced, will only destabilize the financial markets and make things much worse. Hence they would like to allow market forces to do their job.
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Ron Paul - End of Mend the Fed? / Politics / Central Banks
Last week I held a hearing to examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. The purpose was to spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed's problems, hopefully leading to concrete actions to rein in the Fed.
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Thursday, May 03, 2012
The Gold Standard is the Pet Peeve of the Power Elite / Politics / Central Banks
Ben Bernanke journeyed across town to give a 4-part seminar to 30 undergraduates at George Washington University.
This was clearly a public relations stunt. Why would the head of the world's most powerful central bank lecture to 30 undergraduates? This was not quite the equivalent of George W. Bush reading "My Pet Goat" to third graders, but it was close. Think of it as "My Pet Peeve." His first speech was an overview of central banking. He used PowerPoint to create slides. The presentation had 49 slides.
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Don't End the Fed, Mend the Fed / Politics / Central Banks
Congressman Ron Paul has written a book entitled End the Fed. I have to admit that I have not read his book. But I have read many of Congressman Paul's excellent (in my opinion) essays on monetary theory and policy. Based on the essays I have read, Congressman Paul likely argues in End the Fed that the Fed and other central banks have created monetary "mischief" in the past and are likely to continue to do so in the future. Because of this monetary mischief, I assume that Congressman Paul would like to replace the Fed and other central banks with some form of a gold standard.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Bernanke's Race Against Time to Delay Economic Catastrophe / Politics / Central Banks
Ben Bernanke's position as Chairman of the Board of Governors will end on January 31, 2014. He is now in a race against time.
(1) Will the American economy fall back into recession before then, thereby negating the tripling of the monetary base under his chairmanship? Will he get out before mass inflation rears its ugly head? (2) Will he be able to pass on the Old Maid of price inflation, the way that Alan Greenspan passed on the Old Maid of the Great Recession to him?
He suffers from a major liability: he is an academic. In the history of the Federal Reserve, only three men who have held the position of Chairman of the Board of Governors have had a PhD in economics.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Federal Reserve Money Printing Inflation Pushed U.S. Economy to the Wall / Politics / Central Banks
Terry Coxon, Casey Research : Decades of manipulation by the Federal Reserve (through its creation of paper money) and by Congress (through its taxing and spending) have pushed the US economy into a circumstance that can't be sustained but from which there is no graceful exit.
With few exceptions, all of the noble souls who chose a career in "public service" and who've advanced to be voting members of Congress are committed to chronic deficits, though they deny it. For political purposes, deficits work. The people whose wishes come true through the spending side of the deficit are happy and vote to reelect. The people on the borrowing side of the deficit aren't complaining, since they willingly buy the Treasury bonds and Treasury bills that fund the deficit. And taxpayers generally tolerate deficits as a lesser evil than a tax hike.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Ben Bernanke's Chilling Judy Garland Impersonation / Politics / Central Banks
"Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high."
Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a speech on April 13 on "Rethinking Finance." It certainly needs to be rethought at the highest levels. Unfortunately, Dr. Bernanke has not yet begun the process. Thinking, yes. Not rethinking.
He ended his speech with this:
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Bernanke, The Professor Who Did NOT Save the World / Politics / Central Banks
"The Fed's efforts prevented a 'total meltdown' of the financial system at a time when fears of a second Great Depression were 'very real,' Mr. Bernanke said Tuesday at the third of his four lectures at George Washington University in Washington."
- Wall Street Journal, "'Fed Prevented Total Meltdown,' Bernanke Said," March 28, 2012.
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Thursday, April 05, 2012
Marc Faber on the Badley Inflated Ego of Ben Bernanke / Politics / Central Banks
US President Barack Obama gave a speech accusing Republicans of "social darwinism" with budget cuts they are proposing, calling them antithetical to the country's history as a land of opportunity. But how much opportunity is there left exactly? We speak with Dr. Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom report. He says that wealth destruction and social unrest may be on the way for Western economies, whose citizens are being outcompeted by those in emerging economies who are willing to work harder and are far hungrier than Westerners are.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Who Captured the Fed? / Politics / Central Banks
Future generations will look back and ask themselves, 'How could they not see what was happening? Were they blind?'
The Fed is not the only problem here, but a key enabler. White collar crimes and fraud flourished amongst the robber barons even in the days of the gold standard. It just was not as convenient, as easy, to defraud the people en masse through the debasement of the currency.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Explaining Central Banking to the Publicly Educated / Politics / Central Banks
Don't understand economics? And the thought of even trying makes your eyes cross?
That's what they want. Government, which is an artificial, unnecessary construct has made a concerted effort to make economics sound as difficult as possible for decades. The reason? They can use your programmed ignorance as the publicly "educated" to confuse you about how they manipulate the economy for their benefit.
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