There was a beautiful symmetry to last week’s policy announcement by the Fed. Precisely a week after the ECB had pledged its commitment to unlimited purchases of Euro Zone government bonds, the Fed declared that its new round of debt monetization – ‘quantitative easing’ or QE3 – would be open-ended. […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Money Supply"
The awful unspoken truth about QE
Via Conservative Home’s blog The Deep End, an interesting question about QE: If the Government is just going to print money, why can’t we have some? Of course, if you started to give the cash directly to the people, then they might finally understand that our entire economic system runs on […]
Read MoreExpect the Bank of England to be surprised by inflation in the next couple of months
The Bank of England’s latest Inflation Report forecasts falling inflation: However, my preferred measure of the money supply, MA from Kaleidic Economics, is now rising at 6% year on year, in contrast to the Bank’s measures of broad money: There are other factors at work too but there’s a certain […]
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 MoreArticle on the money supply at thejc.com
Via Honesty is best policy | The Jewish Chronicle, my article on measuring the money supply: Ask economists how much money there is and you will get many answers. You know money is what you can exchange for real goods and services, but economists often include things like time deposits, which […]
Read MoreMarket crash ‘could hit within weeks’, warn bankers – Telegraph
Via Market crash ‘could hit within weeks’, warn bankers – Telegraph: “The problem is a shortage of liquidity – that is what is causing the problems with the banks. It feels exactly as it felt in 2008,” said one senior London-based bank executive. “I think we are heading for a market […]
Read MoreInflation and government borrowing
In his short article Inflation and You, Ludwig von Mises explains inflation itself, the social and economic effects of inflation, who inflation’s victims are, the futility of attempts to hedge against inflation, the moral and political effects of inflation and, finally, inflation and government borrowing. I thoroughly recommend the whole article, […]
Read MoreUS money supply plunges at 1930s pace as Obama eyes fresh stimulus – Telegraph
Via The Telegraph. The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the biggest fiscal blitz in history. But this begs the question, “Why is the money supply dependent […]
Read More