Tag Archive for: Federal Reserve

The Fed has a Hammer, and You’re a Nail

The Fed has a Hammer, and You're a Nail

Our present moment is precarious. Like it or not—we don’t—we live in the age of Central Banks. And as we witness, and alas participate in, the global drama to create or destroy wealth, there is a great and tragic irony at work. On the one hand the rhetoric we hear from Fed Chairman Jay Powell […]

Growing Dollar Demand, Silver Weirdness, Market Report, 15 June

The Federal Reserve has become more aggressive again, after several years of acting docile. As you can see on this chart of the Fed’s balance sheet, it has very rapidly expanded from a baseline from (prior to) 2015 through 2018, of about $4.4 trillion. After which, it had attempted to taper, getting down to $3.8 […]

Keith interviewed by Mining Stock Education & Classic Value Investors

Mining Stock Education http://www.miningstockeducation.com/2020/05/keith-weiner-the-central-bankers-i-know-have-no-interest-in-gold/ Bill Powers of Mining Stock Education interviews Keith about whether the Federal Reserve can save the economy, if debt cancellation would have been better than giving away money, whether the USD will survive the coronavirus crisis, James Rickards’ $10,000 gold theory, and much more. Classic Value Investors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lb1-pOSeEY Watch as Keith […]

How to Maintain a Bull Market after Covid

How To Maintain A Bull Market after Covid

Everyone thinks they know the cause and effect of the Federal Reserve’s response to crises such as 2008 and 2020. The Fed prints money to buy assets. This increases the quantity of money. And this causes prices to rise. The Fed wants this, because it thinks that inflation eases the burden on debtors. The mainstream […]

Open Letter to John Taft, Report 17 Dec

Dear Mr. Taft: I eagerly read your piece Warriors for Opportunity on Wednesday, as I often do about pieces that argue that capitalism is not working today. You begin by saying: “Financial capitalism – free markets powered by a robust financial system – is the dominant economic model in the world today. Yet many who […]

Treasury Bond Backwardation, Report 22 Sep

Something happened in the credit market this week. A Barron’s article about it began: “There have been disruptions in the plumbing of U.S. markets this week. While the process of fixing them was bumpy, it was more of a technical mishap than a cause for investor concern.” Keep Calm and Carry On So, before they […]

What Causes Loss of Purchasing Power, Report 7 Apr

We have written much about the notion of inflation. We don’t want to rehash our many previous points, but to look at the idea of purchasing power from a new angle. Purchasing power is assumed to be intrinsic to the currency. We have said that the problem with the word inflation is that it treats […]

We Need a Free Market in Interest Rates

We do not have a free market in interest rates today. We have not had one since the creation of the Fed in 1913. The Fed began buying bonds almost immediately, which pushes up the price and hence pushes down the interest rate. However, as I discuss in my theory of interest and prices, the […]

Why the Fed Denied the Narrow Bank, Report 9 Sep 2018

It’s not every day that a clear example showing the horrors of central planning comes along—the doublethink, the distortions, and the perverse incentives. It’s not every year that such an example occurs for monetary central planning. One came to the national attention this week. A company called TNB applied for a Master Account with the […]

Wealth-Destroying Zombies

Wealth Destroying Zombie Firms

The hot topic in monetary economics today (hah, if it’s not an oxymoron to say these terms together!) is whither interest rates. The Fed in its recent statement said the risk is balanced (the debunked notion of a tradeoff between unemployment and rising consumer prices should have been tossed on the ash heap of history […]