Tag Archive for: interest

100% of Mainstream Interest Rate Theory is Wrong

An interesting article on MarketWatch today caught my attention. The subhead is the money quote, “Back in April every economist in a survey thought yields would rise. Guess what they did next.” Every? The article refers to 67 economists polled by Bloomberg, all of whom would seem to believe in the quantity theory of money. […]

How Can the State Bank of India Pay Interest in Gold?

How Can India Pay Interest On Gold?

An article caught my eye this week. The Tirumala Tirupati Temple in India has deposited gold at the State Bank of India, and is getting paid interest on their deposit. There is something unique about this. The interest is paid in gold. To understand why no one else is paying interest in gold, let’s first […]

Rising Interest Rates Spoil the Party

I originally wrote this in September 2013. It is just as relevant now in December. The big news in America is that the rate on the 10-year Treasury bond has risen dramatically from around 1.6% to over 2.9%. This is 130 basis points from a starting point of 160, or an increase of more than […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Practice

Medieval thinkers were tempted to believe that if you throw a rock it flies straight until it runs out of force, and then it falls straight down. Economists are tempted to think of prices as a linear function of the “money supply”, and interest rates to be based on “inflation expectations”, which is to say […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part VI (The End)

In Part I , we looked at the concepts of nonlinearity, dynamics, multivariate, state, and contiguity. We showed that whatever the relationship may be between prices and the money supply in irredeemable paper currency, it is not a simple matter of rising money supply à rising prices. In Part II, we discussed the mechanics of […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part V (Falling Cycle)

In Part I, we looked at the concepts of nonlinearity, dynamics, multivariate, state, and contiguity. We showed that whatever the relationship may be between prices and the money supply in irredeemable paper currency, it is not a simple matter of rising money supply à rising prices. In Part II, we discussed the mechanics of the […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part IV (Rising Cycle)

Rising Cycle

In Part I, we looked at the concepts of nonlinearity, dynamics, multivariate, state, and contiguity. We showed that whatever the relationship may be between prices and the money supply in irredeemable paper currency, it is not a simple matter of rising money supply à rising prices. In Part II, we discussed the mechanics of the […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part III (Credit)

In Part I, we looked at the concepts of nonlinearity, dynamics, multivariate, state, and contiguity. We showed that whatever the relationship may be between prices and the money supply in irredeemable paper currency, it is not a simple matter of rising money supply –> rising prices. In Part II, we discussed the mechanics of the […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part II (Mechanics)

In Part I, we looked at the concepts of nonlinearity, dynamics, multivariate, state, and contiguity. We showed that whatever the relationship may be between prices and the money supply in irredeemable paper currency, it is not a simple matter of rising money supply –> rising prices. Here is a fitting footnote for Part I. I […]

Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency Part I (Linearity)

Linear

Under gold in a free market, the theory of the formation of the rate of interest is straightforward[1]. The rate varies in the narrow range between the floor at the marginal time preference, and the ceiling at the marginal productivity. There is no positive feedback loop that causes it to skyrocket (as it did up […]