Commentary How do you know something just isn’t so? It usually requires an understanding that there’s a misconnection or gap between two things. It may be something in your personal life or in the economy. As I explained in my previous column, we found this “gap” in the world economy in March 2017 (pdf). In…
Markets Are Not Prepared for a Crisis
Commentary The most common question among investors these days is when to buy the dip. Very few market participants seem to be worried about a crisis or deep recession, let alone a nuclear threat. However, those three scenarios are not unimaginable. In its Global Data Watch of June 17, JP Morgan says that its internal…
British Central Bank Hikes Rates In Bid to Tame Runaway Inflation
Britain’s central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate for the fifth time in a row in an effort to quell the country’s cost-of-living crisis, becoming the latest monetary authority to tighten in response to runaway inflation. Policymakers at the Bank of England (BOE) decided on June 16 to raise the so-called Bank Rate by…
HKMA Participates in China Central Bank’s Preparation of Countermeasures for US Sanctions
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) recently admitted that it’s been collaborating with China’s Central Bank on countermeasures for potential U.S. sanctions, a mutual geopolitical risk for both Hong Kong and mainland China. At a May 3 meeting in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, questions were raised about the geopolitical risks and the overall financial…
90 Percent of Nations Planning Central Bank Digital Currencies: Report
Nearly 90 percent of national central banks are planning to launch their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to the general public, according to a new report (pdf) from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). BIS surveyed 81 central banks in fall 2021 regarding their engagement in CBDC work as well as their motivations and their intentions regarding CBDC…
Sweden’s Central Bank Raises Interest Rate to Hit Inflation
STOCKHOLM—Sweden’s central bank on Thursday raised a key interest rate from zero to 0.25 percent, citing the highest inflation level since the 1990s. Riksbanken said there had been “unusually large fluctuations in inflation in Sweden” and the rise last year “was largely due to rapid increases in energy prices.” The Consumer Price Index for March…
Key Interest Rate Could Soon Go up Another Half Percentage Point, Central Bank Says
The governor of the Bank of Canada is signalling Canada’s key interest rate could go up another half percentage point in June to help wrestle inflation under control. Tiff Macklem is appearing at the House of Commons standing committee on finance today. Two weeks ago the central bank raised its key interest rate a half…
Fed’s Bullard Says Central Bank Must Put Brakes on Economic Activity: FT
The U.S. Federal Reserve must put the brakes on economic activity to tackle surging prices, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, told the Financial Times in an interview. It is a “fantasy” to think the Fed can bring inflation down sufficiently without raising interest rates, he said, adding that the Fed needs to…
The Failure of Central Banking: Zombies
Commentary A zombie is an aberration, something that should not exist in the real world. Yet in modern economies, such creatures do exist. Zombies were introduced to the economic jargon by Ricardo Caballero, Takeo Hoshi, and Anil Kashyap in their article, “Zombie lending and depressed restructuring in Japan” in 2008, where they named the unprofitable…
Russia’s Central Bank Reopens Bond Trading
NEW YORK—Russia’s central bank has cautiously reopened bond trading on the Moscow exchange for the first time since the country invaded Ukraine. The price of Russia’s ruble-denominated government debt fell Monday, sending borrowing costs higher. Stock trading has remained closed, with no word on when it might reopen. The central bank bought bonds to support…
US News
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