Late in March 2020, the Bank of Russia (BoR) abruptly announced it would no longer purchase gold. For years, Russia’s monetary authorities had been the metal’s biggest buyer, not just among official institutions but anywhere in the world. In fact, the country had been steadily accumulating bullion ever since October 2006; an effort that accelerated, not coincidentally, in April 2014 [...]
A full part of the inflation hysteria, the first one, was the dollar’s looming crash. The currency was, too many claimed, on the verge of collapse by late 2017, heading downward and besieged on multiple fronts by economics and politics alike. Basically, the Fed had “printed” too much “money” and the Chinese playing some “long game” were purportedly ready at [...]
On March 15, 2013, the US Treasury Department issued a request for a “large position report” (17 CFR Part 420). Any institution holding $2 billion or more of the 2% notes expiring in February 2023 (10-year maturity) had until March 21 to disclose that fact to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (faxed disclosures accepted). The repo rate for [...]
Scarcely a week will go by without some grand prediction of the dollar being dethroned. Set aside how if anything is to be deposed it would have to be the eurodollar, these stories typically follow the same formulaic approach: Country X is moving away from dollar reserves, “diversifying” its holdings because of the geopolitics of Y. Usually, it is the [...]
Ever since the first major outbreaks of Euro$ #4 last year, the balance of data has tipped further and further toward the minuses. Yesterday was a big one. US income growth in 2019 is no longer growth. Not huge declines, but minus signs where, if the prior boom narrative had been valid, large plus signs should rule unchallenged. The business [...]
Someone emailed me this article published at Yahoo!Finance that purports the Fed’s tightening is going to send stocks soaring, the DJIA mentioned specifically heading toward 25,000. The way in which this thesis was derived is the object of inquiry, starting with the belief that QE4 (QE5 by my reckoning) is forthcoming. This is not due to the Fed realizing its [...]
Economists had noticed by the mid-1970’s that what they thought were steady money relationships with the economy had broken down. This divergence was not slight; how could it be given that the era still stands today as the Great Inflation? Ostensibly, a great deal of research on the topic was devoted to monetary policy implications which is a direct assault [...]
By all count of orthodox economics, the harmonization of “inflation” rates across the US, Europe, and China should not happen. While the former two might be more forgiving given close economic ties, the assumed vast differences with the Chinese economic framework (particularly PBOC operations) should prevent what can only be observed as a highly contagious global environment. With China’s CPI [...]
European GDP disappointed for Q2, which was only surprising to those expected something out of QE. At +0.3% (Q/Q), the European economy is clearly stuck in the same mindless rut that has taken hold since the 2011 crisis re-flaring. While recent convention holds, in light of this year’s QE, that the ECB has been idle during this time that simply [...]
Part 1 is here, the history of defining systemic operation since 1907. The quest over equality or the “right” to impose optimal outcomes is one that cannot go backward. The inevitable failures lead no duty to re-assess overall, but only the means by which the results are to be commanded. That was the essence of Triffin’s Paradox, which was only [...]
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