Tag Archives: central banks
Globalization: a warning from Brexit
“Yesterday’s vote speaks to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization,” President Obama said yesterday in his first comment on the UK referendum. He is right. The “Out” vote should be viewed as part of the geo-political fallout of the financial crisis and the failure of governments and bodies such as…
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Brexit shows need for new rules on money
The vote for Brexit is about much more than the UK and Europe. It shows that new rules to guide the process of globalization are needed. The policies followed since the financial crisis have two major errors. First there is a failure to diagnose the true causes of the crisis. Second, governments have failed to…
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Mervyn King’s alarmist warning
According to the World Gold Council, Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England, believes that in certain circumstances China’s assets in the US could be “annulled”. Mervyn King’s alarmist warning is made in an interview, entitled “Present perilous, future imperfect” that appears in the June issue of Gold Investor, a WGC publication. After pointing…
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Status quo or needed reforms?
Interests barring change Powerful interests benefit from the existence of the money trap. These interests include the state and the monied elite. They benefit, at least in the short to medium term, from official manipulation of money under the present (IT plus CBI) regime – the state from cheap finance, the monied elite from the…
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Gold price – is the bottom in?
Gold investors are debating whether “the bottom is in” for gold – the dollar price is already 19% percent above its seven year low of $1050 reached in December. Many gold experts remain bearish on the view that the dollar will stay strong against other currencies. And market analysts cling to the view that the…
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Stop activist monetary policies now
Central banks confront the kind of scenario outlined in The Money Trap. In the book, I anticipated a world of generalised deflation, with zero nominal rates on risk-free assets. At the time of publication, in 2012, this seemed unlikely, to say the least. But it is materialising. The challenge now is to seize the…
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Recycling the rewards of equity finance
There is an urgent need to reintegrate society with its productive side through broadening share ownership. This is the theme of a new book, “Debtonator”. (Elliott and Thompson, £9.99), by Andrew McNally, an experienced institutional investor. In a lively account, McNally shows how equity finance benefits society, companies and individuals. Equity should form the basis…
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Are investors right to pin their hopes on central banks?
Central banks disown any responsibility for stock markets; yet we all know they take market conditions into account. How will they respond if the turmoil resumes? Apparently the banks want central banks to get interest rates back to “normal”. Axel Weber, head of UBS, former head of the Bundesbank and former council member of the…
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Scary scenarios for investors
What to invest in? Investors are at their wits’ end. What should they do to protect their assets? Well, your choice of assets depends on what you think central banks will do – especially if the stock market rout goes on. Will they EITHER extend/revive QE, keep rates low and print more money? OR will…
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Money, civilisation and their discontents
The usual way to destroy the social value of money is through inflation, and that has indeed been the fate of most fiat currencies. Yet there are other ways to reduce the quality of money and thus its ability to support a civilisation. Money becomes less useful, for example, when the objects you can spend…
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