Free Republic

The US Federal Reserve took a step toward developing a digital currency as it announced plans to publish a research paper on the subject. The aim is to gather public comment and get the US play a "leading role" in the development of international standards, said Fed chairman Jerome Powell in a video message. "To help stimulate broad conversation, the Federal Reserve Board will issue a discussion paper this summer outlining our current thinking on digital payments, with a particular focus on the benefits and risks associated with CBDC in the U.S. context," Powell said. "As part of this process,...

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING – Each August for the past several years, a conference room on the third floor of the Jackson Lake Lodge has been stocked with financial data terminals, secure phone lines and all the other accessories that Ben Bernanke and his top lieutenants at the Federal Reserve might need to fight a global financial crisis. Many of the world’s leading central bankers are back at their annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole this weekend. But the conference room is empty. The crisis — which started in subprime U.S. mortgages six years ago, engulfed banks on both sides of...

Here’s yet another huge financial story that has been virtually blacked out by the US financial media. Although on the surface, this story appears to be a non-event, if we consider some of the released facts about this case, you will understand why I consider it to be a huge story. On June 8th, the Asia News reported the following story: “Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds...

"I must have been asked about that a hundred times in China. I was asked at every single meeting about our purchases of Treasuries. That seemed to be the principal preoccupation of those that were invested with their surpluses mostly in the United States," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Iraq - U.N. Oil Probe Official Out After Comparing Bush To Bin Laden AFP: 9/24/2004 UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (AFP) - An official from the corruption probe into the UN's "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq resigned on Friday following reports she had compared US President George W. Bush to Osama bin Laden. Anna Di Lellio's resignation was accepted by Paul Volcker, the former head of the US Federal Reserve banking system appointed to head the independent commission investigating the now-defunct programme. Volcker said he had accepted the resignation with "regret" in a letter to Di Lellio, who had been the director...