END the FED

15 new UK banks in five years, predicts Metro founder

"Mr Thomson, backed by US banking entrepreneur Vernon Hill, launched Metro Bank in 2010. It was the first award of a new full banking licence since the 19th Century, underlining the barriers to entry that new competitors face. New entrants to the market have failed to loosen the grip of the 'Big Five' banks, which includes the taxpayer-owned Lloyds-Halifax brands and RBS-NatWest. It was announced in March that new applicants for UK banking licences would face more 'relaxed' demands on the amount of capital they hold as part of plans to reduce barriers to entry and stimulate competition." Continue reading →

Continue Reading15 new UK banks in five years, predicts Metro founder

Banks Warn Fed They May Have To Start Charging Depositors

"A less discussed issue was the Fed's comment that it would consider lowering the Interest on Excess Reserves to zero as a means to offset the implied tightening that would result from the reduction in the monthly flow once QE entered its terminal phase (for however briefly before the plunge in the S&P led to the Untaper). After all, the Fed's policy book goes, if IOER is raised to tighten conditions, easing it to zero, or negative, should offset 'tightening financial conditions', right? Wrong. As the FT reports leading US banks have warned the Fed that should it lower IOER, they would be forced to start charging depositors." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBanks Warn Fed They May Have To Start Charging Depositors

Bitcoin: Experts clash over the crypto-currency

"Bitcoin is reaching new heights thanks to a combination of speculation on future value and genuine, undeniable usefulness. Think about it: Why can it take days or weeks for banks to send money around the world, when an email travels in seconds? Does the money travel by steamboat? Are they loading gold bars onto the side of a camel and sending it over the mountains of Mongolia? Of course not. The real answer is depressing - banking is a stagnant market running on long-obsolete infrastructure, which improves only when forced to by government. [..] When Metro Bank opened in 2010, it received the first new UK banking licence issued in 150 years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin: Experts clash over the crypto-currency

Monetary Madness, Part II

"Like today, the Fed helped create a bond market bubble in the 1970s … but then began a panicky retreat in 1979 that helped drive T-bond yields to 13%, T-bill rates to 17% and the prime rate to 21%. Like today, the Fed kept the lid on short-term interest rates in the early 1990s … but then was forced to unleash them in 1994, causing the largest calendar-year decline in bond prices in modern history. And like today, in the first half of the 2000s, the Fed papered over every financial disaster it ran into — only to beat a sudden retreat by letting Lehman Brothers fail. They will do the same thing again — not because of any particular plan, but because they will have no other choice." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMonetary Madness, Part II

Most Bizarre Hedging Statement Ever?

"This last blow-off is going to be a merciless one that will precede perhaps a movement toward a more global currency or a diminishment of the dollar reserve standard itself. Many may be tempted to sit out this latest – promulgated – rally based on the obvious and evident macro-manipulations. And I will continue to point out the various machinations that are setting up the Party. They are a long ways away from snatching the punch bowl on this one and fortunes will be made because one thing this sort of vast manipulation portends is volatility and plenty of it. Is the market a kind of Titanic heading toward an iceberg? Of course it is. But it's going to be a helluva ride." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMost Bizarre Hedging Statement Ever?

How a wire transfer stuck in OFAC almost cost me $140K

"My wire transfer for $600,000 got stuck for more than a week in two banks and I almost lost my $140,000 deposit on a house as a result. If the funds transfer had been done with bitcoin, I would have had the funds there within an hour of sending them, and nobody could have stopped it. The escrow part could also have been done with bitcoin. One this becomes the norm, bitcoin is going to revolutionize the process of closing a house purchase, making it safer, cheaper, and faster for everyone. Here is the OFAC SDN list. If your first and last names match any of the names in this list, don't do any large wire transfers!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow a wire transfer stuck in OFAC almost cost me $140K

Economist Recommends ‘E-Dollar’ That Loses 5% Of Its Value Per Year

"'If you care at all about the future of this country, one of the things you need to realize is we need to solve the demand side so we can get back to the supply side issues that are really the tricky thing for the long run,' he said. 'The way to solve the demand side issues that is the most consistent with not messing up our supply side is monetary policy and making it so we can have negative interest rates.' At the moment, e-dollars are still only a theoretical concept, but Kimball is hopeful that they could be put into action in the near future. He believes that if a government bought in, it could be using an electronic currency in three years and reap the benefits of it soon after." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEconomist Recommends ‘E-Dollar’ That Loses 5% Of Its Value Per Year

Australian central bank’s talk of intervention sends Aussie dollar down

"The overnight fall in the Australian dollar shows once again that just a few carefully targeted words from Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens have the power to move markets. While Mr Stevens did not say the Reserve Bank was about to intervene to pull the dollar down, his comment that the option was in the monetary policy 'toolkit' proves that words from the central bank governor can be timely bullets. The impact-laden comments show the RBA's frustration in its attempts to lower the dollar, despite 2.25 percentage points of cuts to the official cash rate since late 2011." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAustralian central bank’s talk of intervention sends Aussie dollar down

Bitcoin: Hoping for the Best After Bernanke’s Endorsement

"Presumably we could discuss forever the occurrence of bitcoin and its evolution. Was it merely the first evolution of digital currency or was it put in place as a kind psyop to develop a currency that could then be subject to discussion, regulation and enforcement? Inevitably, we know what we are rooting for, which is the emergence of bitcoin as a truly untouchable digital currency that finds its own market path without the heavy hand of central bank supervision. The method that the power elite follows is all too predictable by now. They use false flags to get ahead of a trend and then attempt to steer that economic or sociopolitical trend toward a destination with which they are comfortable." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin: Hoping for the Best After Bernanke’s Endorsement