money

Despite my protestations that inflation is due to fall sharply over the next six months, I do have to point out that real interest rates are not only negative in the U.S. all the way across the curve, they are also negative in most of the…

For much of the past year I have been a critic of the Fed for keeping rates in easy money territory. One major reason was that they were going to let the inflation genie out of the bottle and that was going to be a problem. Now, I feel…

This chart from the New York Times demonstrates visually what happens when the Fed lowers interest rates too much: it skews simple economic decisions like what type of mortgage product to use, often with unintended consequences. Similarly…

In an environment where the U.S. Dollar is rising and everything is falling, one needs to pay attention to the fine details. For me, its in the UK and its 5% base interest rate. Oil is now below $117 a barrel, so it stands to reason that…

Most Americans would have you believe that the U.S. Federal Reserve was entirely responsible for the monetary conditions which created the mother of all stock market bubbles after the LTCM bailout. Yes, the Fed was complicit in the…

AIG has long been one of the largest and best-capitalized insurance and financial-services organization in the world. Before recent scandals, it was one of a few S&P 500 corporations in the U.S. with a AAA rating. Yet, it just reported…

As we are now one year in to the credit crunch, it is obvious to anyone how widespread and deep this credit crisis really is. I have been doing a lot of thinking about the 'light at the end of the tunnel.' Quite frankly, there is none.…

In today's Financial Times, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has taken the unusual step of playing market pundit even while his successor struggles to deal with the mighty financial turmoil he engendered. It is highly…

Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by Warren Buffett, is offering a five-year debt deal for the highest spread over treasurys in its history. As Berkshire is a low-risk AAA company, this fact reinforces the magnitude of credit market…

I fully anticipate this will happen, so the question becomes: what will the Fed do?The FDIC stepped in at two banks over the weekend, 1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank. These banks failed as a result of construction loans…