In its report on global financial stability published on Wednesday the IMF said that central banks of leading economies would have to take urgent steps to prevent the possible negative impact of close-to-zero interest rates and stimulus programs, the Financial Times reports.In the short term,the IMF agreed that monetary easing to stimulate growth is reasonable in the current situation.“When the patient is still under treatment, you should not suspend the medicine, but you should always be vigilant about the side-effects of this medicine,” IMF’s head of financial stability José Viñals said. In the organization’s view it is not yet time to impose higher interest rates and switch to more traditional methods of supporting growth. Despite the concerns the IMF advised central banks to keep on going with close-to-zero interest rates as lifting them now could destabilize the system. It also said banks’ health in the Eurozone needed close attention emphasizing its previous advice to introduce a unified resolution regime for banks, including a common model for providing financial aid and deposit guarantees.Speaking about the US, that has already moved past the stage of restructuring banks, the IMF said the country’s monetary authorities should start considering the side effects of extreme monetary easing. “While we are at the very early stage [of the US recovery], we are already seeing a deterioration in the quality of issuance, which is typical of the late stages of the credit cycle,” Viñals said.Central bank executives seem puzzled and uncertain about where their extreme monetary easing could take their countries’ economies in the future. A former member of the European Central Bank’s executive board Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said “we don’t fully understand what is happening in advanced economies.” The governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King said that “there is the risk of appearing to promise too much or allowing too much to be expected of us”.Janet Yellen, vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, however is more sure that they are moving in the right direction. “I don’t see pervasive evidence of rapid credit growth, a marked build-up in leverage, or significant asset bubbles that would threaten financial stability. But there are signs that some parties are reaching for yield, and the Federal Reserve continues to carefully monitor this situation,” she said. … Read More
Jacob Sullum on the Ineffectiveness of Gun Background Checks
Urging Congress to expand background checks for
gun buyers, President Obama ;claims ;the current system has
“kept more than 2 million dangerous people from getting their hands
on a gun” during the last two decades. ;If you understand why
that claim is misleading, says Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, you will
understand why background checks are not an effective way to stop
criminals from obtaining weapons. View this article.
… Read More
Operation Decepticon—North Korea
The target of this major backchannel psyop is the American people which need to be managed and re-directed in manner only possible by creation of a state of actual or virtual warfare. … Read More
Assault On Gold Update
Unless the authorities have the actual metal with which to back up the short selling, they could be met with demands for deliveries. Unable to cover the shorts with real metal, the scheme would be exposed. … Read More
‘Bitcoin derivatives, unlike gold and silver cases, is a good thing’
The above is a tweet from the excellent Jon Matonis who has been following Bitcoin for Forbes since its inception with great insight. I’m sure that his tweet referring to news that institutions are now getting into the bitcoin game is giving some bitcoin boosters a few heart palpitations. Why? The early adopters of bitcoin like the fact that it is completely outside the professional traders and hedgies of Wall St. and City of London, so news that these guys have now discovered Satoshi’s baby is worrying. The clue as to why I think these fears are overblown is in the rest of Jon’s tweet. He makes reference to gold and silver and how they are traded on futures markets. On one hand yes, this is true, bitcoin derivatives are coming but I think we need to understand why, unlike in the cases of gold and silver, this is a good thing.To encapsulate my argument succinctly: the quoted price for gold and silver are derived primarily from derivatives markets and this will not be the case for bitcoin.When I asked professor Antal Fekete on the “Keiser Report” recently, ‘what is the current cash price of gold,’ he looked at me quizzically because, technically speaking, there is no real current ‘market price’ for gold. The price quoted for Gold and Silver comes from the Comex futures market and is more ‘implied’ than actual. This is why it’s so easy to manipulate the price of Gold and Silver on Comex. You can borrow virtually any amount of money you want at virtually no cost and sell futures contracts all day until the price drops to the price you want (naked short-selling). It takes approximately 50 times more buy orders to move the price of Silver up $1 than down: these are all the Wall St. banks dumping naked shorts all day to keep the price low – as a favor to the Fed – who in turn keeps rates near zero – citing the ‘deflation’ apparent by the low cost of things like Silver.Bitcoin derivatives, in my opinion, will not suffer a similar fate because price discovery is set by an actual supply and demand market place. As I noted in a previous article, if the intention of Wall St. is to disrupt bitcoin before it disrupts the Fed the ‘soft underbelly’ of vulnerability for bitcoin appears through attacking exchanges through patent law (claiming that the patent to make virtual markets belongs to Wall St.).So what’s the upside of bitcoin derivatives?I think the presence of institutional players will increase the capitalization of bitcoin and get us closer to $10 billion and beyond. (There’s no reason why BTC’s market cap can’t equal to Apple for example with a market cap of $400 billion) Bitcoin supporters should welcome this development. … Read More
Rand Paul to speak at black university
Republican Sen. Rand Paul will make a pitch to minority voters this week at Howard University, the historically black college in Washington, D.C. The potential 2016 hopeful’s message Wednesday will focus on inclusion, according to a press release from the school:Sen. Paul’s speech will focus on the importance of outreach to younger voters, as well as minority groups. He will also discuss the history of the African-American community’s roots in the Republican Party and current issues, such as school choice and civil libertiesIt will be interesting to see what the audience at the school, which is still overwlhmingly African American, makes of the speech from a senator who once said he didn’t support the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the grounds that it impinged on business owners’ rights (he later walked back the remark).Continue Reading… … Read More
