Tag: "Central Banks"

When the Music Stops23rd June 2013

Every time I raise sincere doubts, they have a habit of coming to pass, and to do so pretty quickly. I'm not claiming a track record here, and I'd rather be right about good news, but lets aim to keep the run of fortune running. Having called the trouble in Cyprus (see here) a few weeks before it happened, a fortnight ago I blogged that "...the big debate over inflation versus deflation is not yet concluded, and the powers that be may simply have done a great job of sustaining the

The Europe of Broken Dreams, Part 3: Baffling Borrowings4th February 2013

The news from Europe continues to escalate. Funny how things were so quiet just a few weeks ago, but such is the calm before the storm. Over the last week we have more news from Spain. Their parliament is seeking to peel back regional business rules, under which the country’s 17 autonomous regions all have their own business regulations and permits. Want to start a business? You have to wait for all the permits! Want to become an interior designer? That’s a regulated

The Europe of Broken Dreams, Part 2: Leveraged Banking, it takes Three to Tango28th January 2013

Well Europe is quickly back in the headlines with speeches and opinions galore. In last week’s blog we took a foray to Spain, one of the largest and most troubled European economies, to introduce our FYI blog series on Europe. We also briefly looked at how banks create money, as this is a crucial starting point to understanding the economic situation.[1] So why choose Spain, when Greece has been leading the European troubles? Well, a Financial Times article by Victor Mallet piqued my

The Europe of Broken Dreams, Part 1: An introduction to the Modern Monetary System21st January 2013

Gazing across the Channel, Europe’s finances seem to have gone reasonably quiet. Too quiet. Over the past week the Germans announced that they want all their gold bars returned safely from Paris; the IMF announced that Greek funding gaps may be wider than ever; the Spanish Prime Minister made a speech, and David Cameron cancelled a speech. But this counts for quiet in an era when we have lost count of the number of crisis meetings that each tackle the immediate symptom, but not the

Welcome to Robert’s FYI blog21st November 2012

Thank-you for your interest in the FYI website and for finding this opening blog. Writing things down helps to achieve a balanced perspective, and in particular helps me to vent my frustrations with the current woeful lack of real economic thought. No trend lasts forever, and despite howls to the contrary many people did see the 2008 downturn coming; it was the establishment of politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers who believed their own fluff and nonsense, and the coterie of