German Gold Stays in New York in Rebuff to Euro Doubters

“Surging mistrust of the euro during Europe’s debt crisis fed a campaign to bring Germany’s entire $141 billion gold reserve home from New York and London. Now, after the Free Democratic Party, which flirted with bringing the gold home, dropped out of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition and was replaced by the Social Democrats, the government has concluded that stashing half its bullion abroad is prudent after all. Ending talk of repatriating the world’s second-biggest gold reserves is a rebuff to critics including the anti-euro Alternative for Germany party, which says all the gold should return to Frankfurt so it can’t be impounded to blackmail Germany.” Continue reading

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Fed fears risks posed by exit tools; plan almost done

“The sheer magnitude of the amounts of money used to combat the crisis – $2.6 trillion sitting at the Fed as bank reserves and $4.2 trillion held by the Fed in various securities – may complicate the U.S. central bank’s ability to control its target interest rate once the decision is made that it should be raised. The Fed has neared consensus that its workhorse tool will be the interest it pays banks on excess reserves on deposit at the Fed. Another tool would have a similar impact but apply more broadly, using overnight repurchase agreements that would let money market funds and other institutions as well as banks essentially make short-term deposits at the Fed.” Continue reading

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Will Newspaper Columnist Respond to Truth About Nullification History?

Kansas City Star columnist Mary Sanchez wrote a column asserting that nullification was a tool of slave holders. Of course, nullification was never used in support of slavery. But it was invoked by northern abolitionists to thwart the return of escaped slaves as required by the fugitive slave acts. I tweeted at her with this…

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CA Senate panel passes bill to ban warrantless drone surveillance

A California bill to strictly limit drone use passed out of an important state senate committee last week, and is now slated to receive a vote from the full senate. The bill had previously passed through the state assembly by a 63-6 vote. Assembly Bill 1327 (AB1327) passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee on Jun.…

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