Entries by Keith Weiner

Why is the Gold Standard Urgent?

After President Nixon’s gold default in 1971, many people have advocated a return to the gold standard. One argument has been repeated: consumer prices are rising. While this is true, it wasn’t compelling in the 1970’s and it certainly doesn’t fire people up today. Rising prices—what most people think of as inflation—is a dead-end, politically. […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 5 Oct, 2014

How much higher can the dollar go? Betting on the Fed’s paper has been one helluva speculation. No doubt the Fed’s credit quality has been falling, but powerful forces are driving it up, such as desperate debtors clutching for cash to calm their creditors (sorry, couldn’t resist). The dollar was up this week, from 25.5 […]

Perception vs. Reality at the Fed

Last week, a story broke about Fed whistleblower Carmen Segarra. I wrote an article on Forbes about it, Disgruntled Fed Lawyer Blows Whistle on Regulatory Capture. Segarra is a former Fed regulator assigned to supervise Goldman Sachs. She secretly recorded 46 hours of audio from her meetings, during her short stint on site at Goldman […]

A Monetary Cancer Metastasizes in Europe

The European Central Bank again cut the interest rates it controls. Notably, the deposit rate was moved deeper into negative territory. It is now -0.2% (minus 20 basis points, that is not a typo). The ECB says it’s trying to nudge prices higher, but it’s actually feeding the cancer of falling interest. The linked article […]