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The Bank of Japan is stepping up its efforts to kick-start the country's struggling economy by taking interest rates into negative territory. The central bank announced Friday that it will introduce an interest rate of minus 0.1% and will go even lower if needed. In theory, negative rates encourage consumers to save less and spend more. They can also weaken a country's currency, helping exporters. ...

Today, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are announcing coordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in US dollar short-term funding markets. These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets. The central banks will continue to work together closely and will take appropriate steps to address the ongoing pressures. Bank of England action The Bank of England will offer...

[ I don't recommend clicking on the link especially if you are using Windows --- the site seems pretty aggressive in trying to pop up windows ]Japan’s economy, the world’s second-biggest, is in a ‘lasting and self-sustaining’ recovery, Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto said, indicating that deflation of more than seven years may be close to an end. ‘‘The possibility is gradually increasing that we will see a stable increase in core consumer prices over the next fiscal year that starts April 1,’’ Muto said in an interview in Tokyo. He didn’t rule out the possibility that sustained...

Do you believe in coincidences? I don't. Former CIA division chief David Atlee Philips once said, "The intelligence profession does not exactly condition one to accept coincidence as an explanation for a sequence of events." The same can be said of blogging. When a bevy of public figures all begins reading from the same script at the same time, the alert blogger takes note. Consider the following. On January 19, leftwing billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC, "Unless we have a major change in trade policies, I don't see how the dollar avoids going down." Well, we've all heard that before....

Fact and CommentSteve Forbes, 10.14.02, 12:00 AM ET Japan's Latest Blunder Talk about desperate but dumb moves. The Bank of Japan has caused a stir with its plan to buy equities from large, troubled banks. No other major central bank owns stocks. In the U.S. it is flat out illegal for the Federal Reserve to do so. The BOJ is going to buy the equities to shore up the capital of shaky banks burdened with enormous numbers of bad loans. This amazing, controversial move wouldn't be happening had the bank had its act together. And the deed will only be...