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GAINING ATTENTION these days is the idea of abolishing high denominations of the dollar and the euro. This concept graphically displays the astonishing stupidity-and intellectual bankruptcy-of today's liberal economic policymakers and the economics profession. Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary and Harvard president, is pushing the U.S. to ban $50 and $100 bills. There's a lot of chatter, too, about prohibiting the €500 note. The ostensible reason is to help in the fight against terrorists, bribers, drug dealers and tax evaders by making it more inconvenient for these bad guys to move around and store their ill-gotten cash........ If the...

Tyler Durden2-29-2016Back in August 2012, when negative interest rates were still merely viewed as sheer monetary lunacy instead of pervasive global monetary reality that has pushed over $6 trillion in global bonds into negative yield territory, the NY Fed mused hypothetically about negative rates and wrote "Be Careful What You Wish For" saying that "if rates go negative, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing will likely be called upon to print a lot more currency as individuals and small businesses substitute cash for at least some of their bank balances." Well, maybe not... especially if physical currency...

Banning the Benjamin would strip Americans of a layer of privacy and a currency of convenience. It's being advanced as a war measure to make it harder for terrorists to carry cash. But it's a smokescreen for the fact that the Democrats are out of ideas on both the economy and national security. The putsch against the Benjamin is being sprung by Lawrence Summers. He was President Bill Clinton's treasury secretary and also a president of Harvard. He came within a whisker of being chairman of the Federal Reserve under President Obama. Mr. Summers wrote up his idea in the...

Not long after billionaire George Soros forecast a so-called hard landing for the Chinese economy, Beijing fired back by calling out the high-profile investor, warning him of betting against its currency, according to media reports Tuesday. “Soros’ challenge against the renminbi and Hong Kong dollar is unlikely to succeed, there is no doubt about that,” said a government official in an opinion piece widely cited by several media outlets. The article headlined, ”Declaring war on China’s currency? Ha ha,” was published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party which is widely viewed as Beijing’s propaganda...

John_Rubino January 10, 2016 As China’s leaders figure out that pegging the yuan to the dollar while quintupling their debt in five years was a colossal mistake, they are, apparently, concluding that the only way out is a sudden, sharp currency devaluation. See Pressure on China central bank for bigger yuan depreciation. Chinese citizens, meanwhile, are anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s market open while mentally repeating the same three lines: Sure am glad I bought that gold last year. Wish I’d bought more gold last year. Wonder what I’ll have to pay for gold next week… Here’s what that looks like in...

China's central bank is under increasing pressure from policy advisers to let the yuan currency fall quickly and sharply, by as much as 10-15 percent, as its recent gradual softening is thought to be doing more harm than good. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has spent billions of dollars buying yuan over recent months to defend the exchange rate, but has failed to stabilize market sentiment. The currency has steadily lost another 2.6 percent against the U.S. dollar even after the bank sprung a surprise devaluation of nearly 2 percent in August.

Some of Bitcoin's core developers have left the project and are now starting their separate digital currency called Decred, promoting an open governance model, which they say is missing in Bitcoin. Few people know how Bitcoin works, and even fewer know who are the men and companies behind the cryptocurrency, and who takes the decisions. According to a press release put out by Company 0 LLC, formed by former Bitcoin developers, there are a few external entities that fund the actual development of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, forming a power-group that is in sole command of the direction the currency takes.

To say that Zimbabwe has not had much luck with its monetary system experiments, would be an understatement. After its disastrous adventures with hyperinflation denominated in its own currency... ... Zimbabwe decided to entirely abandon its reserve currency and shift to the dollar. As we reported over the summer, the Zimbabwe Central bank completely "demonetized" the old Zimbabwe Dollar which would be removed as legal tender after the currency's use was abandoned in 2009 following a surge in inflation to 500 billion percent. To do this, the bank would exchange up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars for $5 US dollars,...

In a deliberate “show of force,” federal and local police forces raided a political meeting in Texas, fingerprinting and photographing all attendees as well as confiscating all cell phones and personal recording devices. Members of the Republic of Texas, a seccession movement dedicated to restoring Texas as an independent constitutional republic, had gathered Feb. 14 in a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall along with public onlookers. They were debating issues of currency, international relations and celebrating the birthday of one of their oldest members.

The only known depiction of Oliver Pollock, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo: Richard Cummins/Alamy)Wars cost money. So when the Revolutionary War broke out, the Colonies turned to a number of sources for backing. The top contributors to America’s Independence: The Kingdoms of France and Spain, the Dutch banking conglomerate, and a single Irish merchant based in New Orleans. His name was Oliver Pollock, and he was the “Financier of the Revolution in the West.”  Pollock saw opportunity in war– the chance for a young but wealthy immigrant to stand as a symbol of success and greatness. He desired to carve out a...

"Investors" are so desperate to hold on to short-term paper that they paid $100 for a 3-month Treasury-bill at today's auction. That is a 0% yield - for the first time ever - lower even than the auction right after Lehman's bankruptcy in Nov 2008. It is probably safe to say that NIRP is next, followed by more negative yields further to the right of the curve, as the US gradually becomes Europe. But don't worry: as Yellen admitted during her healthcare-scare speech, "nominal interest rates cannot go much below zero", just a little.

It was only a matter of time before asset managers said "enough" to Bernanke's plan of debasing the dollar day after day, and took appropriate measures. In a not very surprising, yet quite shocking at the same time, development, caught by Annuity IQ, Lazard's The World Trust Fund has had enough of the dollar. Lazard will "change the currency in which the Fund's shares are traded from US dollars to Sterling." Good work Mr. Chairman and Wall Street lobby. The reason for the seismic shift: In response to comments from a number of shareholders and potential investors in the Fund...

Stock markets around the world have been posting big losses for the last few days. The route was especially rough this morning, with the DOW Jones at one point falling 1,000 points in less than an hour. At the heart of the current slide is an issue which could impact many tech companies: economic weakness in China. Two weeks ago China's government made an aggressive move to devalue its currency. This followed several weeks of tumult in the Chinese stock market, during which the government had also interceded with force. Taken together, investors saw a Chinese market where growth was flagging. That...

Billionaire investor George Soros told the World Bank this week that the planet is on the verge of a third world war that could arise out of an economic collapse in China. “If there is conflict between China and a military ally of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the threshold of a third world war,” Soros said during a Bretton Woods conference. . . . . Soros said the only solution to the prospect was to allow China to join the IMF’s basket of global currencies so that...

A great deal of Donald Trump’s silly and illiterate trade talk presupposes the gutting or repeal of NAFTA, the trade accord between the United States, Canada, and Mexico that went into effect in 1994, with his dreams of punitive sanctions and blockades. Indeed, NAFTA is a favorite whipping boy for populists Left and Right, a reminder that populist conservatives have much more in common with populist progressives such as Senator Bernie Sanders than they do with the political tendency that connects Adam Smith to F. A. Hayek and Ronald Reagan. Trump fancies himself an ace negotiator, a skill that he...

Mike BirdAugust 17,2015 There's an image going round that sums up just how ridiculous Venezuela's economy has become. A Reddit user uploaded a picture on Monday of a man using a 2 bolivar note to hold an empanada. According to Venezuela's official bolivar-dollar exchange rate, the man using his money as a napkin is wasting about $0.31 (£0.20). But on the black market, the reality is completely different. You can get 676.88 bolivars to the dollar, according to dolartoday.com. That means holding food with a 2 bolivar note costs the holder less than a third of one US cent.(snip)

Did you see what just happened? The devaluation of the yuan by China triggered the largest one day drop for that currency in the modern era. This caused other global currencies to crash relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of oil hit a six year low, and stock markets all over the world were rattled. The Dow fell 212 points on Tuesday, and Apple stock plummeted another 5 percent. As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of September and October, the unraveling of the global financial system is beginning to accelerate. At this point, it is not...

The "one-off" adjustment has now reached its 3rd day as The PBOC has now devalued the Yuan fix by 4.65% back to July 2011 lows. The PBOC seeks to reassure... -CHINA PBOC SAYS YUAN REMAINS STRONG CURRENCY IN LONG-TERM -PBOC SAYS THERE IS DEMAND FOR DEVALUATION OF YUAN VS USD -PBOC CHANGE OF YUAN MECHANISM RELATED TO JULY CREDIT: ZHANG -PBOC SAYS YUAN CHANGE IS BENEFICIAL TO LONG TERM STABILITY -PBOC SAYS YUAN EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENT ALMOST COMPLETED *YUAN RATE ADJUSTMENT POSITIVE TO CONFIDENCE IN YUAN: PBOC'S YI *NEW YUAN MECHANISM `POSITIVE' TO INTERNATIONALIZATION: PBOC YI *PBOC SAYS NO BASIS...

The surge in the greenback has some stock investors screaming foul, but they shouldn't be. Instead, they should embrace the strength. It is true that the trade-weighted value of the U.S. dollar has climbed more than 21% in the last 13 months, according to recent data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. It's also true that the rally is taking its toll on the earnings reports of some multinational companies -- their foreign revenues take a hit when translated back into dollars. Still, there is plenty to feel great about. Here are 10 reasons to smile. 1. It makes imports...

Chinese stocks opened lower, extending yesterday's losses, after The PBOC weakened its Yuan FIX dramatically for the 2nd consecutive day (from 6.1162 Monday to 6.2298 last night to 6.3306). Offshore Yuan fell another 9 handles against the USD after China closed but was hovering at 6.40 as the market opens (now at 11 hnadles weaker at 6.51). Bear in mind the utter devastation in Chinese credit markets that data showed occurred in July, it remains ironic that for the 3rd days in a row, Chinese margin debt balances grew. Before the real fun and games started, Chinese officials once again...