America at the financial crossroads
byAmerica must now take one of two divergent roads. First, America may persist on the road of soft indulgence afforded by the unstable dollar’s…
Money matters
by Sean CorriganSeveral months ago, when we were trying to summarise our best guess as to the shape of the coming year, we had to attach…
Jim Grant on the Federal Reserve
by Toby BaxendaleVia ZeroHedge, we discovered a must-read article by Jim Grant, published in the March 23rd edition of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer (Vol 30, No…
Savings, investment, and the Keynesian preference
by Alasdair MacleodNeo-classical economists underestimate the importance of the link between savings and investment. The two should be regarded as linked together: you need savings to…
PoliticsHome dialogue on QE
by Mark GoodhandPoliticsHome have published an email exchange between Steve Baker and Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby: The controversial strategy of increasing the money…
Cameron, Nasim Taleb and cutting debt
by Will BancroftNasim Nicholas Taleb, author of the bestselling book The Black Swan, has been a favourite philosopher and financial commentator of ours for some time….
Romney v. Obama: the 2012 race may hinge on the Fed
by Ralph BenkoA view from America … Mitt Romney is the favorite to win the Republican nomination for president. If nominated, the campaign against Obama may…
Shadowlands
by Sean CorriganThe fallacy [that the Bank cannot overissue money] lies in not distinguishing between an advance of capital to Merchants and an additional supply of…
Does the ‘recovery’ matter?
by Detlev SchlichterI was thinking of starting this blog with a cynical comment along the lines of, “last week equity markets came off, I think we…
Asia’s golden future
by Alasdair MacleodFor most of the last century the default currency for international settlements has been the US dollar. This has given America ultimate power over…