Free Republic

Jared Bernstein is perhaps the most influential "economist" in the United States. I put economist in quotes, despite his being an academic who has taught the subject and has advised Congress and the highest elected officials in America. I do so because he is a moron. He is such a moron that Paul Krugman himself admires him for his economic insights. He is that bad. ... This is absolutely priceless. And probably the most frightening clip you'll ever watch on the people in charge of the US economy. Jared Bernstein is literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers,...

For years, Kipp Kahlia felt stuck. The Long Beach guitarist used to tour the country with reggae artists. But 20 years ago, after contracting intestinal parasites on a trip abroad, Kahlia had to take a step back from gigging. Her health deteriorated and visits to doctors drained her savings. Recently she decided to start a business performing social justice songs at events. But with no extra funds or time, she had to pause the venture. “With all the struggling I was doing, my attitude took a hit,” Kahlia said. “The more you witness yourself being down and out, the more...

Biden and Congress continue their massive spending spree, mostly on themselves and their donors, creating a massive Debt Star capable of unfathomable economic destruction. This will require massive money printing to fund the US Debt Star. But as of today, M2 Money growth is negative as is bank credit growth. But all this is about to change. The U.S. federal government published a December deficit of $129 billion, up 52% from the previous year. The private sector recession is clear as expenses continue to rise while tax receipts decline. If we look at the period between October and December 2023,...

De-dollarization is the process of reducing the US dollar's hegemony in global trade and financial operations by shifting to alternative exchange methods such as national currencies and domestic payment systems, as well as transferring currency reserves. A third of UN member states have already opted for de-dollarization and decided to rely on national currencies to conduct payments, Sputnik's analysis has found. The analysis, which looked into statements made by officials from 193 UN countries in international and Russian media, showed that representatives of at least 68 UN nations openly supported the process of de-dollarization or stated that they were taking...

Trade between India and Malaysia is now able to be settled with Indian Rupees, the India Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced in a statement Saturday. This move strikes a blow to the hegemony US dollar. “This initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aimed at facilitating the growth of global trade and to support the interests of the global trading community in Indian Rupees (INR),” the statement from the MEA reads.

The Bank of England has begun its sell-off of government debt: a process called QE that resulted in a flood of money going into capital markets so that asset prices carried on heading up after the financial crisis. This is the end of an era - and the beginning of another. It is one of the most important watershed moments in recent economic history - not that you'd necessarily have noticed it. For this afternoon is when the era of quantitative easing (QE) gives way to the era of quantitative tightening (QT). The Bank of England, which has spent the...

Larry Summers, a former economic advisor to former President Barack Obama, warned President Joe Biden on Monday that inflation is a looming threat to the United States economy. “Now, the primary risk to the U.S. economy is overheating — and inflation,” Summers wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday evening.

Link only: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/sam-zell-buys-gold-with-inflation-reminiscent-of-the-1970s

<p>At a time when America’s purchases of other overseas goods have ebbed, imports of gold, silver and other precious metals are surging, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the latest Census trade data.</p>

Used Vehicle Prices Explode To All Time Highs After Plunging Just Months Ago Tyler Durden Thu, 08/20/2020 - 22:05 When you have the Central Bank back-stopping every industry in the United States, it's incredible how quickly things can change over the course of less than a quarter. Less than two months ago we were talking about the unprecedented crash in used car prices that had taken place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic slowing the economy. "Where's the inflation?" everyone kept asking. We think we've found it. Today, according to new research from Manheim, those prices have exploded to...

New York (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a gaping disconnect between unprecedented economic pain on Main Street and extreme optimism on Wall Street. The US economy is collapsing as never before. More than 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Millions of small businesses have requested forgivable loans to stay alive. And US GDP could decline at a breathtaking annualized rate of 40% during the second quarter. And yet the stock market is racking up massive gains. Even after retreating on Thursday, the S&P 500 spiked 13% in April. It was the best month for US stocks since January...

We’re living in truly extraordinary times — and no, I’m not talking about Netflix’s Tiger King documentary. I’m referring to the unprecedented actions taken by the Federal Reserve and national government to deal with the severe economic consequences of policymakers’ decision to shut down much of the U.S. economy to keep people safe from coronavirus. Over the past several weeks, the Fed has started to implement its plan to “print” trillions of dollars to bolster credit markets, and Congress and the Trump administration recently signed into law a gargantuan $2 trillion stimulus package. Even more incredibly, President Trump is now...

The Federal Reserve, saying “the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States,” cut interest rates to zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus. Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125 bps to 0.25%, and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days. The Fed also cut reserve requirement ratios for thousands of banks to zero. In addition, in a global coordinated...

Fed Admits Failure of ‘Plan A’ to Control Money Market Rates, Shifts Back to Repos (which was ‘Plan A’ till 2008) The hullabaloo in the repo market torpedoed the function of Interest on Excess Reserves and forced the Fed to go back to the future. With its announcement this morning, the New York Fed confirmed that the Fed’s Plan A of manipulating the federal funds rate into its target range – now between 1.75% and 2.0% — has miserably failed, and that it will switch to Plan B to control short-term interest rates. But this Plan B used to...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday harshly rebuked the Federal Reserve, accusing the central bank and Fed Chair Jerome Powell of having “no guts” by not meting out a more aggressive interest rate cut as the global economy slows. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates again by 25 basis points to a new target range of 1.75% to 2%, and telegraphed a strong likelihood of one more rate cut by the end of the year. However, some on Wall Street anticipated a more aggressive easing of 50 basis points, particularly with financial markets conditions tightening. Indeed, markets sank to...

When Jim Chanos said earlier this week that days ago that sub-Saharan Africa is facing a severe cash shortage (mostly as a result of their collapsing oil export revenue) he probably did not have the economic basket case of Zimbabwe in mind, and yet this is the country which, after years of monetary and economic collapse "problems", including the occasional bout of hyperinflation, finds itself in the most dire situation. As News24 reports, just this past week, Zimbabweans formed long queues outside banks on Thursday as a cash shortage prompted the government to announce plans to print a local version...

Chief editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer debunks negative interest rates, banning cash, and helicopter money. ... Epoch Times spoke to Mr. Grant about the spotty track record of central bankers, deflation, gold and the gold standard, as well as negative interest rates and a ban on cash. A negative interest rate is not only a tax on saving, it is the destruction of saving. ... Negative interest rates are an attempt to tax thrift. The idea of earning dollar bills and putting those dollar bills in a bank and having them accumulate over time, the accumulation of which is...

The Bank of Israel lowered its benchmark interest rate on Monday to an all-time low of 0.1 percent on Monday. The move came as a surprise, after 11 of 12 economists polled by Reuters had expected the central bank to stand pat. The central bank cut the rate to signal its determination to push back against the negative inflation holding down the market towards its intended annual target of one to three percent. Lowering the interest rate theoretically leads to an increase in demand within the market and helps increase prices towards the inflation target which the Bank of Israel...

A majority of economists believe the Federal Reserve is doing the right things to help repair the U.S. economy, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association of Business Economists. The survey also showed that a vast majority of economists believe the U.S. economy is at little risk of inflation in the coming years. In the association’s semiannual survey, 53 percent of economists said the Fed’s stimulus programs were “on the right track” for the U.S. economy while 39 percent thought the Fed was doing too much. …

In 64 A.D., in a naïve attempt to deceive the populace, Nero decreased the silver content in the coins and made silver and gold coins slightly smaller ... central planners have been clipping coins and devaluing the The People’s hard-earned currency for at least two thousand years. The Roman Emperor Nero of course devalued the Roman currency for the first time in the Empire’s history. What was it that gave both the Roman and Ottoman Empires the audacity to plunder the purchasing power of their people? After 200 years of operating as an independent bank, what made the British Empire...