Wednesday the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) gave no date for an interest rate hike, leaving analysts and economists speculating as to when the long anticipated .25 percent increase in the federal funds rate, which now officially stands at “zero to .25 percent,” will come. Following the Fed’s official statements issued after FOMC meetings has
A great uproar was heard when the US Mint temporarily suspended sales of its 1-oz Silver Eagles, the world’s most popular government-issued 1-oz silver coins. The biggest outcry came from people who could not comprehend why the price of silver went down while the Mint admitted it could not meet demand. It’s not hard to
If there is anything that haunts the Fed chairpersons it’s the fear that they will be blamed for causing another Great Depression. Ben Bernanke, noted for his studies of the era, has said that the Fed did not do enough to prevent the calamitous 1930s depression. That position, undoubtedly, led to the Bernanke Fed implementing
In the scheme of things, Greece’s problems are small potatoes compared with China’s. What makes the possibility of a Grexit (Greece exit from the Eurozone) significant is that it would call into question the concept of a unified Europe. If Greece exits, what about Portugal, Spain and Italy, which are also struggling with massive debt?
In the financial news, nothing is getting more attention than Greece’s financial plight. In short, Greece cannot meet its debt payments schedule without further assistance from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, both of which want a more strident austerity program than the present one that has already brought the people of
Greece remaining in the eurozone monetary system and keeping the euro as its currency appears less likely at the end of every marathon meeting of eurozone prime ministers and Greek representatives. Many analysts are of the opinion that dumping the euro and going back to the drachma would alleviate some of Greece’s pain. Of course,
Reaching an agreement on Greece’s bailout is beyond the 11th hour. It’s striking midnight. Monday all eurozone presidents and prime ministers have been summoned to meet in Brussels in a final attempt to resolve Greece’s bailout stand-off. This confab is necessary because the finance ministers of the currency union failed to reach an agreement earlier
China has come a long way since the days of Richard Nixon’s and Henry Kissinger’s “Ping Pong Diplomacy.” Its economy has grown to be the world’s second largest economy, and its manufacturing base is home to consumer products used around the globe. Now, China has broken into a nearly century-old financial club, the London Bullion
Belatedly, Zimbabwe recently declared its currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, worthless. The marketplace recognized the worthlessness of the Z$ in 2009, when the Zimbabwe government adopted the US dollar as its main currency. Account holders with Z$ balances of zero to Z$175 quadrillion will be paid a flat US$5. A “quadrillion” has fifteen zeros.
In The stock market is managing the Fed, I said that the Fed will put off raising interest rate until after September because of stock market action. Now, the IMF is using the same reasoning in arguing that the Fed should wait until 2016 before raising interest rates.