A few weeks ago most pundits were certain the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates sometime this year. Now it doesn’t seem so certain. In fact, it seems unlikely now.
Janet Yellen may be an even better predictor than she knew. She said rates might not increase until 2017. As the years went by, the dial seemed to move to an earlier date as the ...
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Three days ago Greece seemed split on the referendum. The results, however, showed the “No’s” won by a wide margin. On July 4th I was told, by someone who is pretty knowledgeable about history, that the Greeks would probably vote “No.”
His reason was that “No” is the same response the Greeks gave Mussolini at the start of WW2 – another time in history when the Greeks felt bullied by larger European neighbors. The connection seems like a ...
More →What just happened would not have happened. The Fed, which is charged with regulating banks, just told Citigroup they needed to be more stable before shelling out money to shareholders.
This never would have happened had Larry Summers become chairman of the Federal Reserve. There is absolutely no way he would have signed off on tougher requirements for Citigroup. Let’s all breath another sigh of relief that ...
More →Did Emanuel Cleaver just complain to Janet Yellen about how you order food at Chili’s?
Why yes he did. Apparently Chili’s has a system where you sit at your table and order food over an intercom rather than having a waiter come to your table. Cleaver thinks that this is an example of why we have high unemployment.
First there is the obvious issue of technology and change. It is a big mistake to ...
More →Watching Janet Yellen’s first testimony to Congress as Chairman(woman) of the Federal Reserve.
It is one of the more ridiculous things I have seen in the political sphere. We all know that politics is a lot about posturing and show – then behind the scenes all sorts of deals take place that we aren’t told about. We also know that congressional hearings have little to do with finding truth and more to do with making a public show.
But ...
More →Janet Yellen was confirmed today as Chariman of the Federal Reserve.
Say what you want about her being too liberal — or whatever the criticism is — there are two things that I believe are important to point out.
1. This is following a long line of non-partisan appointments. Greenspan with Reagan, which was continued by Clinton. Bernanke (the Democrat) who was appointed by Bush and continued by Obama. And now Yellen. More than anything, they simply seem to ...
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I’m going to publicly forecast that Bitcoin isn’t going to work.
Apparently the market price of a Bitcoin has reached the $600 mark. Is Bitcoin just like other money or commodities, or not?
There are two important factors
1 ) Will a military accept Bitcoins as payment?
No. (Although if a military ever did, that might change things)
2) Does it have any useful physical properties?
No. It isn’t shiny, it isn’t pretty, it ...
More →Not quite 100% inevitable, but it is likely.
There is always a chance an extraordinarily unusual event will happen that changes everything, like the discovery of cold fusion. Absent an event like that, it is likely interest rates will stay low until 2017, as is speculated in this video.
Not predicting direction of rates
I am not predicting rates will go down. I have More →
I did quite a bit of sight seeing in New York today. Unfortunately Alexander Hamilton’s grave was under restoration. Above is a photo of the Trinity Church where the grave is located, and below is a photo of the grave, taken by someone else.
In a way, this ties back to the first post of this blog. The first post referenced the place where Hamilton was born. ...
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No it won’t. And I lose exactly zero sleep over this.
I want to make something clear. It is absolutely, unarguably inevitable that the dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency….someday.
This is not a condemnation of US policy or a prognostication of doom. It is just inevitable. Nothing lasts forever. Not even our planet.
When the US dollar will lose its dominant status is much more debatable. Is it going to happen six months from now!!!! or ...
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