money

No! The Fed is not crazy. Market participants are forgetting that the U.S. economy is still not out of the woods. Moreover, many financial institutions are drowning in writedowns. None of this should be expected to change anytime soon.…

You know, the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 for some strange reason back on 23 Mar 2006.At the time, they said the following:M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already…

It has been my assertion for some time that writedowns and the attendant unraveling of the financial system is the most troubling problem during this credit crisis. This process is deflationary by its very nature because credit contracts.…

I am a Euroscpetic. I admire the political will of Europe's grand designers in creating the Euro, but I have always felt that harmonisation would be a painful process fraught with tension - especially during economic downturns. And so it is…

Caroline Baum has a great column at Bloomberg News today about U.S. Dollar policy. The basic thrust of the column was about asking Ben Bernanke to put his money where his mouth is. The Fed can talk all it wants -- about the Dollar and…

Caroline Baum, one of the best financial reporters out there, has a new column today about the Fed. I recommend it highly. The article is about a new book by Robert Auerbach, Professor at the University of Texas, Austin called "Deception…

Today, the Home Builders Federation came out to ask Mervyn King and the BoE to cut rates 50 beeps. The Telegraph reports:Housebuilders are urging the Bank of England to cut interest rates when it makes its monthly decision tomorrow,…

Global financial institutions are deleveraging because they can't build enough equity capital any other way except by going to Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, cap in hand. So, the Fed and the Bank of England (BoE) have…

The term deleveraging is one bandied about a lot in the press recently. But, what does it actually mean? De-leveraging is the process by which financial institutions and investors reduce the relative size of their assets to equity ratio.…

Caroline Baum was asking in her column today: "How can a 2 percent funds rate be appropriately calibrated to promote moderating inflation when inflation is currently rising at almost 4 percent?" The answer: it can't. The Fed is all about…