China has begun to build a parallel international order, centered on itself. If the European Union aids in its construction – even just by positioning itself on the fault line between China and the United States – it risks toppling key pillars of its own edifice and, eventually, collapsing altogether. mehr hier
Dass der Staat so viele Schulden machen kann, wie er will, ist eine eher gefährliche, wenn auch weit verbreitete Annahme. weiter hier
The idea that governments can’t lower taxes because there is a deficit, but are free to raise all expenses even if there is a deficit can be found in many political manifestos these days. Central planners always see the economic challenges as a problem of demand, and as such cringe at the idea of prudent investment and saving. When GDP growth, gross capital formation, and consumption are lower than what Keynesians would want, they always blame the alleged problem on “too much saving.” This is a ridiculous premise based on the perception that economic cycles and excess capacity do not matter and if companies and citizens don’t spend as much as the government wants, then the public sector should spend a lot more. mehr hier
For the first time in 21 years, Germany has openly bought gold into its reserve holdings. mehr dazu hier
More than three years ago, Fed watchers were stunned when none other than Ben Bernanke’s former special advisor, Andrew Levin, said that “a lot of people would be stunned to know” the extent to which the Federal Reserve is privately owned, stating next that the Fed “should be a fully public institution just like every other central bank.” But is that true? Are all other central banks “fully public”? For the answer we go to a recent post from The BOE’s Banker Underground blog which looks at the question of who really owns central banks. Here is what it found. weiter hier
Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell are well-known free market economists, and they do not look with favor on a disturbing trend among American young people. “In the spring of 2016,” they tell us, “a Harvard survey found that a third of eighteen-to twenty-nine year olds supported socialism. Another survey, from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, reported that millennials supported socialism Weiterlesen
It is now well over three years since the United Kingdom voted, by a narrow but significant margin, to leave the European Union. Yet we still have no idea what kind of economic relationship the UK will have with the 27 countries it leaves behind. (Some of the debate in London recalls in its insularity the apocryphal 1930s headline: “Fog in Channel: Continent Cut Off.”) Insofar as one can hazard a guess, the most likely outcome seems to be Weiterlesen
“…Now, with both the departing and next leadership of the ECB advocating for negative interest rates, we should fear for the future of Europe. The banking sector of Europe is already weak, but likely to get weaker due to the approaching recession. European economic turmoil will likely be exacerbated by significant numbers of zombie companies unable to cope with the recession, and the malign incentives associated with negative interest rate structures. All this, because central banks, and especially the ECB, are unable to admit that their monetary policy experiment has failed. They have become a massive liability for the global economy. If central bankers cannot admit their failures, and “face the music”, it’s time for them to go.” mehr hier
Last week’s failure in the US repo market might have had something to do with Deutsche Bank’s disposal of its prime brokerage to BNP, bringing an unwelcome spotlight to the troubled bank and other foreign banks with prime brokerages in America. There are also worrying similarities between Germany’s Deutsche Bank today and Austria’s Credit-Anstalt in 1931, only the scale is far larger and additionally includes derivatives with a gross value of $50 trillion. mehr hier
Hong Kong was until very recently the world’s most expensive housing market, featuring sky-high rents and cramped apartments as small as 100 square feet. But thanks to the pro-democracy protests that have disrupted the city-state’s economy and ushered in a new wave of political uncertainty and chaos, many of Hong Kong’s most critical industries have seen serious disruptions, especially tourism. mehr hier
“…What the climate apostles of today want instead goes much farther. They want to attain climate justice, something which sounds similar to another famous weasel term, namely social justice, and in fact is even more similar than one thinks at first. Weiterlesen