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UK financial official: Monetize state debt when deflation risks persist

"There is no need for central banks’ balance sheets to shrink. They could stay permanently larger; and, for some countries, permanently bigger central-bank balance sheets will help reduce public-debt burdens. Even when permanent monetization occurs — as it almost certainly will in Japan and possibly elsewhere — it may remain forever the policy that dare not speak its name. Such reticence may serve a useful purpose. But it must not blind central banks and governments to the full range of policy tools available to address today’s severe debt overhangs." Continue reading →

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Weather seems to blame for U.S. slowdown, Fed’s Yellen says

"Unusually harsh winter weather appears to be behind recent signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, suggesting the central bank was poised to press forward in ratcheting back its stimulus. Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said the Fed would watch carefully to ensure weather was indeed the culprit, but she reiterated that it would take a 'significant change' to the economy's prospects for the Fed to put plans to wind down its bond-buying program on hold. The world's largest economy added fewer than 200,000 jobs combined in December and January, well below expectations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWeather seems to blame for U.S. slowdown, Fed’s Yellen says

Everyone Is Baffled By Alan Greenspan’s Comment About Bitcoin

"'You really have to stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven't been able to do it. But if you ask me, 'Is this a bubble in Bitcoin?' 'Yeah, it's a bubble.' People are baffled by this remark. That's because Greenspan refused to call the housing bubble a bubble, and presided over the dot-com bubble despite seemingly having recognized it as such as far back as 1996, when he made his "irrational exuberance" speech." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin hype worse than ‘tulip mania’, says Dutch central banker

"The former president of the Dutch Central Bank, Nout Wellink, has told students at the University of Amsterdam that the hype around bitcoin is worse than his country's Tulip mania in the 17th century. 'Sooner or later the facade will fall', Wellink said, calling bitcoin 'pure speculation' and 'hype' according to comments reported in the Dutch press. 'This is worse than the tulip mania,' he continued. 'At least then you got a tulip [at the end], now you get nothing.' Wellink's comments follow a warning from the Dutch Central Bank about the risks of virtual currencies like bitcoin, which fall outside Dutch financial supervision laws." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin hype worse than ‘tulip mania’, says Dutch central banker

Alan Greenspan: Bitcoin Is a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value

"The former Federal Reserve chairman said Bitcoin prices are unsustainably high after surging 89-fold in a year and that the virtual money isn’t currency. 'It’s a bubble,' Greenspan, 87, said. 'It has to have intrinsic value. You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven’t been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can.' 'I do not understand where the backing of Bitcoin is coming from,' the former Fed chief said. 'There is no fundamental issue of capabilities of repaying it in anything which is universally acceptable, which is either intrinsic value of the currency or the credit or trust of the individual who is issuing the money.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAlan Greenspan: Bitcoin Is a Bubble Without Intrinsic Currency Value

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

Meet Two Economists Who Can Ruin Your Retirement

"Messrs. English and Wilcox are two of the most important economists at the Federal Reserve. Their work greatly influences the Fed’s policies … and they recently presented their latest findings at the International Monetary Fund’s annual research conference. Essentially, English and Wilcox’s new research argues that the Fed should start reducing the size of its money-printing programs in the next few months. But at the same time, the economists recommend that the Fed should offset that tapering with extremely dovish guidance on interest rates. More specifically, they suggest that the Fed should promise to keep rates close to zero until 2017!" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMeet Two Economists Who Can Ruin Your Retirement

Plans for Political Union Unravel in Europe

"Advocates of tighter integration believe that the euro zone needs to go further by borrowing elements from the American system of federalism. Many proposals reflect a belief that the euro zone needs to partially mimic the U.S., where the dollar works well across all states partly because of budgets, bonds, financial oversight and depositor protection at the national level. Over the past year, however, the political winds have shifted. Interviews with more than a dozen officials across Europe reveal how plans for deeper integration have run aground as financial markets have calmed and mistrust has simmered between power centers including Berlin, Brussels and Paris." Continue reading →

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NJ Causes Bridge Jam With Unannounced Lane Closures For ‘Study’

"Police and elected officials in Fort Lee, N.J., say they weren't given warning that the Port Authority planned to reduce the number of local access lanes directly from Fort Lee to the bridge from three to one—causing traffic to back up in the borough—and are still puzzled by the official explanation that the agency was conducting a study of traffic patterns. After the two local lanes handling Fort Lee traffic were closed, cars and trucks quickly clogged streets used by local travelers to reach the bridge and New York City. Local officials said the backup led to long delays for Fort Lee buses traveling for the first day of school Monday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNJ Causes Bridge Jam With Unannounced Lane Closures For ‘Study’

Arkansas mayor fires rifle seized by police, shattering city hall window

"An Arkansas mayor admitted this week that he had accidentally fired a rifle inside city hall, shattering a window. Flippin James 'J.J.' Hudson told the Baxter Bulletin that nine days after he fired the rifle that had been seized by police, the incident had been 'all been taken care of; it’s all been cleaned up.' 'I’m not going to have any further comment on it,' he said. But according to the paper, the shards of glass could still be seen over the entrance of city hall and the window had still not been repaired." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArkansas mayor fires rifle seized by police, shattering city hall window