Free Republic

In the wake of all the misguided pleas for negative interest rates in Europe (hoping to get banks to lend), comes news US banks warn Fed interest cut could force them to charge depositors. Leading US banks have warned that they could start charging companies and consumers for deposits if the US Federal Reserve cuts the interest it pays on bank reserves. Depositors already have to cope with near-zero interest rates, but paying just to leave money in the bank would be highly unusual and unwelcome for companies and households. The warning by bank executives highlights the dangers of one...

Why the sudden anxiety over a one time 10 percent haircut out of Cypriot bank accounts?

Is the Comex Doing Fractional Reserve Delivery of Gold? An acquaintance who works for a small precious metals fund sent this to us today, asking if we had ever heard of anything like it. The short answer is no, but this is not a strong area of specific expertise, and we never attribute to a bad intent what we can attribute to sheer incompetency, especially when dealing with large organizations. When one is promised specific bars with specific serial numbers of a specific size and weight one week, and they are not available the next week when you confirm that...