Discussion point: Is it time for the Fed to start contracting its’ balance sheet and otherwise withdrawing the special financing it provided while it was faced with the zero interest rate boundand preparing to soon raise fed funds. My fed policy index says the zero bound should no longer apply and that it is time […]
The New Yorker gives us a small look into policy in china other than the currency peg: The Problem Statement U.S. manufacturing’s competitive status is increasingly challenged by other economies. Established industrialized nations such as Japan, Germany, Korea and Taiwan are developing state-of-the-art technologies, which range across all areas of manufacturing from electronics to discrete […]
by cactus Congress thinks by analogy I don’t remember what link I followed to get to this, but never in my life did I expect to agree 100% on any issue with David Stockman. Yes, that David Stockman. Holy wow: DAVID STOCKMAN: Credit default swaps, OK? And we weren’t bailing out AIG. We were bailing […]
by Bruce Webb This figure shows graphically the outcomes for the OAS (black line) and DI (gray line) under the three alternative scenarios Low Cost (I), Intermediate Cost (II), and High Cost (III) in the 2008 Report. Almost universally reporting on Social Security revolves around Intermediate Cost and if we examine its lines we see […]
Mark Thoma at Moneywatch writes a made up interview “with William Dudley, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on the Fed’s failures as a regulator prior to the crisis, and its plans to improve regulation going forward.” (via Economist View)
by Linda Beale Limit Banks’ Proprietary Trading? Links Worth Noting on Possible Reprise of Glass Steagall Maybe Obama takes on America’s banks with new Glass-Steagall act, Guardian.co.uk, Jan. 21, 2010 President Obama came out in support of the “Volcker rule” intended to stop depositary banks from running hedge funds and using their money to bet […]
by Dale Coberly AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL Bruce Webb offered a modest proposal in a recent post to “fix” the Social Security “problem” by (essentially) cutting the payroll tax a few tenths of a percent to reduce the surplus and thereby reduce the debt by that much money borrowed from and owed TO Social Security. What […]
Many months ago, I quoted the brilliant Janet Tavakoli‘s book Credit Derivatives and Synthetic Structures: The trader then went on to tell me that Commercial Bank of Korea would sell credit default protection on bonds issued by the Commercial Bank of Korea.“That’s very interesting,” I countered, “but the credit default option is worthless.”“But people are […]
Or, nothing to see here. (via Felix’s Twitter feed)
by Rebecca Wilder Yes, the renminbi (RMB) is closer to fair value. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu states: “Our currency, the RMB, has appreciated more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since July 2005, when China moved to a floating exchange rate regime,” Ma said. Before 2005, the RMB was pegged to the […]