A Brief (and Messy) History of Modern Gold Standards
Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna Although gold prices hit a new high in mid-January, Americans, by and large, are still reluctant about gold. They don’t quite “get it.” This…
Jeffrey P. Snider: Good or Bad, But Surely Not Transitory
by Jeffrey P. Snider When Federal Reserve officials first started last year to mention wireless network data plans as a possible explanation for a…
The Swiss Franc and The Euro: What Now?
By Mihai Macovei In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) unexpectedly removed the de facto peg of the franc to the euro.1 The move was welcomed by…
The Hanseatic League: An “Empire” of Commerce
By Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna Once upon a time there was a northern, medieval phenomenon as much the subject of universal myth and curiosity as that of…
Why the Stock Market Is Rising
Global Growth Is the Real Driver of the Supposed “Trump Effect” By Benn Steil and Benjamin Della Rocca “The reason our stock market is so successful is…
It’s More Than Just The Absence of Acceleration, It’s The Synchronization Where There Should Be None by Jeffrey P. Snider
by Jeffrey P. Snider According to the latest ECB figures, as of yesterday total “liquidity” added to the European banking system for that central bank’s…
Cradles of Capitalism: the City-States of Greece and Italy
By Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna There long has been a persistent academic debate as to whether an “ancient economy,” referring mainly to Greece, even existed at all. In…
Benn Steil: The Fed could be tightening more than it realizes
Ten years ago, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers rocked global financial markets, the Fed’s balance sheet stood at $925 billion—mostly U.S. Treasuries. After…
Is There Any Way Out of the ECB’s Trap?
By Daniel Lacalle The ECB faces the Devil’s Alternative that Frederick Forsyth mentioned in one of his books. All options are potentially riskly. Mario Draghi knows that…
What Hayek Tells us about the Link between Ultra-loose Monetary Policy and Political Instability
By Professor Gunther Schnabl, University of Leipzig The European Central Bank will increase the overall volume of its bond purchase program to…