Free Republic

Jared Bernstein is perhaps the most influential "economist" in the United States. I put economist in quotes, despite his being an academic who has taught the subject and has advised Congress and the highest elected officials in America. I do so because he is a moron. He is such a moron that Paul Krugman himself admires him for his economic insights. He is that bad. ... This is absolutely priceless. And probably the most frightening clip you'll ever watch on the people in charge of the US economy. Jared Bernstein is literally the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers,...

This addresses some of the questions I've had about the pros vs. cons of a reserve currency. (Source article has links)

Hello fellow FReepers, would love to pick your brain on a topic I've been thinking about. Are there any reasons why BRICS would NOT want to be the world reserve currency? Are there responsibilities and burdens that would become theirs, should they succeed in doing this? Seems to me that, since the U.S. dollar became the world reserve currency, it is the U.S. that has shouldered the brunt of every (or most) debt, war, international bailout, humanitarian aid, and so forth. If BRICS should succeed, wouldn't these responsibilities/liabilities then transfer to them? This is not a question of "Will or...

The price of bitcoin fell Tuesday after breaking through $52,000 late Monday, reaching its highest level since May.The price action comes on the day El Salvador is set to adopt the largest cryptocurrency by market cap as legal tender, becoming the first country to do so. Bitcoin dropped as much as 16% on Tuesday morning. It was last down by about 9.8% and trading at $46,741.00, according to Coin Metrics. Ether fell about 12% to $3,438.00.Crypto adjacent stocks MicroStrategy and Coinbase also fell about 7% and 3%, respectively. Coinbase users were experiencing delayed or canceled transactions at “elevated rates” in...

Many modern East Asian currencies have roots in Ming dynasty trade and Chinese traders’ faith in the Mexican silver dollar. Attempts to dislodge it, such as the Hong Kong-minted silver British dollar, were not always successfulAt the antiques market near the old Qingjing mosque in central Quanzhou, a city in China’s south-eastern Fujian province, it is sometimes possible to purchase unusual silver objects that reveal much about the currencies in circulation in East Asia today. On one stall, crammed with opium pipes, blue-and-white ceramics and jade trinkets, is a small, dome-shaped lump of metal in a rusty tin box. It...

The European Central Bank should begin winding down its expansive monetary policy in 2017 as inflation returns in the eurozone, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview on Friday. “It would probably be right if the ECB starts daring to head for the exit this year,” Schäuble told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper — although he acknowledged it would be a “difficult task”. The ECB has fixed interest rates at record lows in the 19-nation single currency area, as well as offering cheap loans to banks and buying up tens of billions of euros per month of government and...

The European Central Bank left its stimulus measures on hold Thursday and warned governments in the 19 country euro currency union that they need to do more to help the economy grow and push up inflation to healthier levels. The bank kept its key interest rates unchanged and decided against extending the duration of its existing bond-buying stimulus program. Bank President Mario Draghi seemed relatively confident about the economy and less inclined to hint at more stimulus than some analysts had expected. Instead, he used his news conference to urge governments to do their part. He said that implementation of...

You’ve all heard about Bitcoin. No one knows who created it, although some writers have made very educated guesses about the identity of the pseudonymous creator. I have sometimes wondered whether Bitcoin is the product of some transnational criminal organization or rogue state that wants to undermine developed economies by casting their payment systems into doubt. I am less concerned with Bitcoin’s origin than with its flaws. I shall enumerate those flaws forthwith. Bitcoin enables fraud and other criminal activities. This is absolutely the single most salient feature of Bitcoin’s anonymity. Conventional currencies are indeed subject to laundering and counterfeit....

Despite the US being largely on holiday, the demand for digital currencies continues to surge. Bitcoin has rallied another 10% overnight as Chinese appetite for alternative stores of value remains unabated (BTC China is nearing its record highs) as USD/BTC is trading at $1170 - on its way to crossing the Maginot line of gold's spot price (within a few hours at this pace). Bitcoin though has nothing on its smaller cousin Litecoin which has now run from $1.11 to over $48 in the last 5 weeks. In fact, almost every crypto-currency in the world - from Infinitecoin to AnonCoin...

Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the U.S. economy still needs help from the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policies. Bernanke told the National Bureau of Economic Research that because unemployment remains high and inflation is below the Fed’s target, the policies are still necessary. He also said the economy is being held back by higher taxes and federal spending cuts. … Stock index futures rose as Bernanke spoke. The Standard & Poor’s index futures were up eight points, or 0.5 percent, at 1,656 as of 5:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time—shortly after Bernanke wrapped up his remarks. Bernanke’s comments were...

The European Commission on Tuesday (14 May) tabled several scenarios for the withdrawal of the 1 and 2 euro cent coins, with the cost of minting these coins greater than their use. “The production of 1 and 2 cent coins is clearly a lossmaking activity for the euro area, with the difference between the face value of the coins and the price paid by the state to get them pointing at an estimated total cumulative loss of €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) since 2002,” the commission said in a press release. Public opinion about the 1 and 2 euro cent coins...

On the 17th the bank issued three values of bullion: 31.1g silver pieces with a 3RUB face value 7.78g gold pieces with 50RUB face 15.55g gold pieces with a 100RUB face value These bullion pieces are legal tender in the Russian Federation. The announcement on the Central Bank of Russia’s website is, of course, in Russian. However, if you trust Google Translator, below is an English summary of the announcement.... In English... The coins are legal tender cash payment in the Russian Federation and must be accepted at face value in all kinds of payments without any restrictions.

The euro crisis continues to weigh down the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said Monday (16 July), putting pressure on the European Central Bank to lower its interest rate even further and issue more cheap loans to the banks. "There is room for monetary policy in the euro area to ease further. In addition, the ECB should ensure that its monetary support is transmitted effectively across the region and should continue to provide ample liquidity support to banks under sufficiently lenient conditions," the IMF said in its annual World Economic Outlook. … The specific reference to the ECB is...

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (AP Photo) During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the BLS. (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation.) Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon,...

The United States has run up a cumulative $7.5 trillion Trade Deficit. The last time the country ran a trade surplus was in 1976. Nixon closed the Gold Window in 1971. Do you believe it's just a coincidence that the rise of an un-backed Fiat Dollar and the rise of the Trade Deficit haapened so close in time? The Country has been in a pronounced economic decline since the 1970's and when the Gold Window was closed. Since then the money supply has increased many times as has inflation. While living standards have declined, so has domestic energy production. This...

David A. Banister of www.ActiveTradingPartners.com and www.TheMarketTrendForecast.com joins us for a lively discussion on why gold and silver are now as low as they're ever going to be, and why it's a good time to buy--for many reasons. David is a student of history and understands that while bubbles come and go, the market is the market. One of his favorite titles is Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, first written by Chalres Mckay in 1841. David uses a number of different technical analytical methods, but they are all firmly grounded in fundamental reality. Most importantly, David has...

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po6HhQ1ZRxE&feature=player_embedded Subscribe Free http://www.inflation.us Must See! End of Liberty http://www.inflation.us/videos

Global Currency Meltdown Currencies / Fiat Currency Oct 15, 2010 - 03:41 AM By: Peter Schiff As the recession and resultant stimulus packages add to higher unemployment and increasing public-sector deficits, the government is seeking to boost the value of overseas earnings that are accrued by US corporations. To aid in this effort, the Fed is being pressured to erode the value of the US dollar, thereby making foreign sales more lucrative in nominal terms. But this form of stealth protectionism will fail just as surely as more overt trade barriers. Like all commodities, the relative value of currencies is...

When the mainstream media told the American people that the Federal Reserve was going to "help" the housing industry by buying up hundreds of billions of dollars worth of toxic mortgage backed securities, very few people probably even stopped to wonder where all of that money was going to come from. Well, the truth is that it did not come from anywhere. It was made up out of thin air. In fact, a total of 1.3 trillion dollars was just "printed into existence" so that the Fed could soak up these problematic securities (and help their buddies down on Wall...