(Read part I here.) Money printing does generate tremendous income for Wall Street “fat cats”. Such income, however, is more than off-set by the loss of working people. Money printing is thus the most vicious redistribution of wealth. It has
Fed
An Open Letter to Janet Yellen Pt.I
Dear Chairwoman Yellen, This is an open letter urging you to stop money printing immediately. It has created worse economic inequality and tremendously hindered the economic recovery from the longest recession in history. You have said that you are extremely
Finally, the Fed Blames Itself
This is an historic time. After six years of the most novel and expansive monetary policies since its creation 100 years ago, the Fed is finally ready to admit its role in prolonging the current recession… kind of. Two economists
Comments are off for this post
Capitalism with Dr. George Reisman
Reprinted from Online Trading Academy John O’Donnell’s guest today is Dr. George Reisman. He is a Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics and author of Capitalism: A Treatise of Economics. He was a personal student of Ludwig von Mises under
Comments are off for this post
The IMF is Dead Wrong on Low Interest Rates
In its just-published World Economic Outlook the IMF trumpets the view that the real level of equilibrium interest rates worldwide has declined substantially since the 1980s and is now in slightly negative territory. There is a good Irish word to
Comments are off for this post
Deflation & Liberty (Pt. 5)
Inflation in the form of fractional-reserve banking and fiat money is ultimately a self-defeating practice. It bears in itself the germs of its own destruction and, as we shall see, deflation is the essential vehicle of this destruction. We can
Comments are off for this post
Deflation & Liberty (Pt. 4)
How would money be produced in a free society? Let us first observe that the fact that the quantity of money is irrelevant for the wealth of a nation must not be confused with the ideal of stabilizing the quantity
Deflation & Liberty (Pt. 3)
[This article is excerpted from Deflation & Liberty] From the standpoint of the commonly shared interests of all members of society, the quantity of money is irrelevant. Any quantity of money provides all the services that indirect exchange can possibly
Comments are off for this post
Deflation & Liberty (Pt. 2)
[This article is excerpted from Deflation & Liberty] When it comes to matters of money and banking, all practical political issues ultimately hinge on one central question: Can one improve or deteriorate the state of an economy by increasing or
Comments are off for this post
Deflation & Liberty (Pt. 1)
[This article is excerpted from Deflation & Liberty] The twentieth century has been the century of omnipotent government. In some countries, totalitarian governments have established themselves in one stroke through revolutions—apparently a bad strategy, for none of these governments exists
The Fed’s “Taper” Caper
The Fed “surprised” Wall Street by announcing that in the New Year it will begin tapering its asset purchases. (I worry about the Globe and Mail’s editorial staff when an event that has been discussed ad nausea for several years
Comments are off for this post
BoC Deputy Governor: US Fed Tapering is Eh-Okay
Bank of Canada Deputy Governor John Murray is confident that Fed tapering won’t have any negative consequences for Canada. “The improving underlying strength of the U.S. economy should more than compensate for the drag from higher interest rates. Stronger external
Comments are off for this post
An analytic framework for 2013
Republished from “A View from the Trenches“ Click here to read this article in pdf format: January 15 2013 In the same fashion that I proposed an analytic framework for 2012, I want to lay out today what I think will be
Comments are off for this post
What causes hyperinflations and why we have not seen one yet: A forensic examination of dead currencies
Please, click here to read this article in pdf format:Â December 18 2012 As anticipated in my previous letter, today I want to discuss the topic of high or hyperinflation: What triggers it? Is there a common feature in hyperinflations that
Comments are off for this post
The Mess the Bank Made… and Denies
Back in April, I reviewed a document called the “Financial System Reviewâ€, published semi-annually by the Bank of Canada. Due to the dire warnings contained therein, I thought it necessary to produce a more user-friendly summary of the information the
Comments are off for this post
The year 2012 in perspective
Click here to read this article in pdf format:Â December 9 2012 Today, I want to summarize what we covered over the year. During 2012, I sought to address both theory and market developments. Under an Austrian approach, I discussed many
Comments are off for this post
Anatomy of the End Game
(click here to read this article in pdf format: November 22 2012) About a month ago, in the third-quarter report of a Canadian global macro fund, its strategist made the interesting observation that “…Four ideas in particular have caught the fancy
Comments are off for this post
On currency swaps and why Gartman may be wrong in focusing on the adjusted monetary base
(republished from “A View from the Trenches“) Please, click here to read this article in pdf format:Â October 14 2012 Today, we were supposed to follow up on our last topic (how to shift to a commodity-based standard, with a
Comments are off for this post
Why a gold standard, alone, is not enough
(Republished from “A View from the Trenches”, October 9th, 2012) Please, click here to read this article in pdf format:Â October 8 2012 As we pointed in our last letter, we have lately noticed that there is an ongoing debate on
