2012

Fannie Mae seeks $4.6 billion in aid after Q4 loss | Reuters Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), the biggest source of money for U.S. home loans, said on Wednesday it would seek $4.6 billion in additional federal…

We (also) do not want black helicopters flying around dropping bags of cash; and we (also) oppose government “pump-priming” demand stimulus—the libertarians and Austrians and even Milton Friedman are correct in their argument that this…

Never known for being easy, the euro and yen seem particularly difficult to understand presently. During such times it is often best to return to basics. Foreign exchange reflects the cost of money. So do interest rates. The relationship…

In this piece Variant Perception looks at the mechanics of a currency breakup and how it would happen. This piece is longer than most of their pieces and is a slightly more wonkish piece than usual, but the first two pages provide a summary…

Revisions to the holdings of US Treasuries have set the chins wagging. The key focus is on China's holdings of Treasuries.

MMT as an ECB Alternative | Michael Hudson governments spend money (at least in principle) to promote long-term growth and employment, to invest in public infrastructure, research and development,…

Consider the statements by the UK leadership that the UK has "run out of money." Does anyone think that the UK financial leaders believe that statement? If Germany declared war on the UK tomorrow would the UK surrender because it had "run…

By Edward Hugh It’s been a long time now since Paul Krugman spoke of the Ukraine economy epitomising the arrival of what he then termed the “second great depression“, and its been an even longer long time since we lay awake at night…

Portugal's aid package assumes it can return to the capital markets in the second half of last year. This seems less likely with each passing day.

The US dollar is trading on the back foot against most EMs and the dollar bloc currencies but is firming against some European currencies after the release of the ECB’s second LTRO in which 800 banks took down €529.5B, slightly above…