Marius Gustavson
The Perils of Monetary Management
Recently the Chinese authorities announced an end to the dollar peg and a move towards a more flexible exchange rate, as commented upon in a previous post. However, there are […]
Sound Money Insights from Fed President
Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig is a lone dissenter at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)–the central bank’s main policymaking body. At the June FOMC meeting, for the fourth […]
Chinese Currency Reform
The Chinese government announced this weekend that they would move towards a greater degree of flexibility in the exchange rate. As stated by by the People’s Bank of China: “In […]
Greenspan Warns of Fiscal Profligacy
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warns of U.S. fiscal profligacy, in part fuelled by the current low borrowing costs of the government: “Despite the […]
Greek Government Junk Bonds
The Greek crisis rolls on. This week yields on Greek government bonds rose by almost 3/4 of a percentage point to 9.06 percent as Moody’s–a rating agency–downgraded its debt to […]
A Spanish Banking Crisis in the Making
Spain was hit hard by the financial crisis. Like the U.S. and the UK, Spain experienced high capital inflows and rapidly rising housing prices in the years leading up to […]
European Weakness Is Fuelling U.S. Profligacy
The European debt crisis has demonstrated the painful costs of fiscal profligacy and short-sighted Keynesian stimulus. In the words of financial historian Niall Ferguson, “there is no such thing as […]
Chile Starts Monetary Tightening
Chile has rebounded strongly from the global recession, in spite of the devastating earth quake that hit early in 2010. In response to the financial crisis, the monetary authorities cut […]
The Return of Financial Repression?
Financial repression was used extensively by governments in the post-war period and is still common today in emerging markets such as China. As Cato scholar James Dorn writes in a […]
The Fed’s Balance Sheet
The Wall Street Journal has created a good graphic illustration displaying the development of the Fed’s balance sheet during the financial crisis. Assets on the balance sheet are currently $2.333 […]