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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in an October 1 speech that his U.S. central bank would copy Japanese economic policy to get the U.S. economy moving, despite the fact that the Japanese economy hasn't seen significant economic growth since the 1980s. In that speech before the Economic Club of Indiana, Bernanke said he would keep suppressing interest rates in the United States over the long-term and purchasing long-term debt instruments, just as Japan has done. Bernanke, referring to suppression of U.S. interest rates in the domestic economy since the “great recession” began, noted: Once at zero, the short-term interest...

So How Do These Sorts of Crises End? Interest-Rates / Global Debt Crisis Oct 28, 2011 - 01:38 AM By: Paul Tustain However this crisis is resolved, guess who'll be footing the bill... The World has endured these sorts of crises before. Somehow they come to an end. What happens? Sometimes, someone turns up who can prop up the collapsing debt mountain, and they make it grow higher, for a little bit longer. For a short while they are even called brilliant, but they leave a bigger problem than they started with. Eventually the thing comes crashing down and the...

STOCKS SURGE AHEAD OF HUGE WEEKEND FOR EUROPE: Here's What You Need To Know Sam Ro Oct. 21, 2011, 3:59 PM Stocks rally for the fourth week in a row ahead of this weekend's EU leaders' summit. First, the scoreboard: Dow: +268 pts, +2.3% S&P 500: +23 pts, +1.9% NASDAQ: +39 pts, 1.5% And now, the top stories: * Jitters returned to the global markets overnight on rumors that Germany and France had reached an impasse on eurozone debt crisis solution talks. Then a German official came out and said the concerns over disagreements were exaggerated. U.S. futures spiked, setting...

In recent weeks and months, there’s been much public debate in the financial press whether we’re going to hyper-inflate or suffer a deflationary collapse? I know this to be the case because I field many questions about this topic from readers around the world on a regular basis. To better understand which of these two competing forces will ultimately win the day, let’s consider the following observable basics: * In a hyper-inflation, the value of currency [in this case, fiat money] is driven toward zero as prices rise. * In a deflationary collapse, the value of currency increases as prices...