Before I left Westminster on Thursday, I submitted this written question to the Chancellor for answer on 2 July: Steve Baker (Wycombe): To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the need for a Competition Commission inquiry into the routine procedures for setting LIBOR. […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Central Banking"
The limits to monetary activism are being acknowledged
Via Bank of England’s money printing is putting UK economy at risk – Telegraph: In its annual report, the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warned that artificially low rates and inflated asset prices could also be holding back growth by masking lenders’ bad debts and deterring them from cleaning […]
Read MoreThe UK faces a €149.2 billion liability to the EU
The Bruges Group’s latest report has exposed that the UK is facing a maximum potential loss of €149.2 billion on its financial commitments to the EU and the Euro. The report reveals the full extent of our obligations in respect of the present and future debts of EU institutions including: […]
Read MoreThree flaws in the Financial Services Bill
Under the heading, Osborne looks to limit damage of ‘credit busts’, the FT gives a neat summary of the Chancellor’s plans. In particular: He said the FPC would also look out for dangerous linkages in the financial system and identify exotic new instruments that might undermine stability. It would be […]
Read MoreTelegraph: “Will the great interest rate gamble pay off?” No.
Via The Telegraph, Will the great interest rate gamble pay off? By the time this month’s auction is over, the ECB will have doled out nearly one and a half trillion euros of “free” money to help keep the banking system alive, with much more to come over the months […]
Read MoreThe inflation or deflation song
Via “Merle Hazard”: I’m reminded of economist James Buchanan’s words: The market will not work effectively with monetary anarchy. Politicization is not an effective alternative. We must commence meaningful dialogue with acceptance of these elementary verities. Far too much has been said and written in elaboration of the first statement, […]
Read MoreIf this is capitalism, I am not a capitalist
I spoke last night in the general debate on the economy, saying*: As I rise to speak I am reminded of a quotation from an economist who was a fierce critic of Keynes, a chap called Henry Hazlitt, who said: “Today is already the tomorrow which the bad economist yesterday urged […]
Read MoreWhy Is There a Euro Crisis?
From a magnificent article by Philipp Bagus – Why Is There a Euro Crisis? Today’s banks are not free-market institutions. They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing. The banks’ survival depends on privileges and government interventions. Such an intervention explains the unusual stock gains. On Wednesday night, an […]
Read MoreSometimes, a US presidential candidate inspires: “End the Fed”
There is no greater threat to the security and prosperity of the United States today than the out-of-control, secretive Federal Reserve. Imagine that parents, overwhelmed by debt and months behind on their bills, sent their spendthrift teenagers out each weekend for a night on the town with credit cards and […]
Read MoreOperation Twisted Logic – Detlev Schlichter
Via Operation Twisted Logic, an article by Detlev Schlichter, author of Paper Money Collapse: The Folly of Elastic Money and the Coming Monetary Breakdown: … Like all state bureaucracies, the Fed is in fact struggling with problems that are predominantly of its own making. The Fed is the reason we are in […]
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