Submitted by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,
Some reflections to read over the Easter holidays
With Japanese and Eurozone interest rates becoming increasingly negative, and the Fed backing off from at least some of the planned increases in the Fed funds rate this year, economists are reassessing the interest rate outlook.
Much like BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda, Paul Krugman thinks that the key for Japan when it comes to overcoming decades of deflation is a positive outlook.
“Japan needs to reach a point where everyone believes that it has pulled out of deflation. And then if that can be believed, then it may be able to stay out of trouble thereafter,” he told an audience in Tokyo last September.
Authored by Sean Corrigan, originally posted at TrueSinews.com,
That usually perceptive and always interesting observer of the financial Zeitgeist, Bloomberg’s estimable Mark Gilbert, recently penned an article entitled: “Milton Friedman’s ‘Helicopter Money’ Is Looking Less Crazy.” In response, I mailed him the comments which follow (with light editing) here.
Over the past several months, we’ve kept a close eye on post-crisis CLOs or, CLO 2.0s, as they’re affectionately known. In the interest of not recounting the story in its entirety here (i.e. for the sake of brevity), here's a list of posts those interested should review:
While this all started with a currency "war," it seems - according to a stunningly candid transcript of Japan's finance minister's conversation with none other than Paul Krugman - that the real endgame here is actual war. Aso remarked that "a similar [deflationary mindset] had occurred in the US in the 1930s. What solved the question? War! Because World War II had occurred during the 1940s and that became the solution for the United States. [We] have to switch [the Japanese] mindset... we are looking for the trigger."