Business

Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,

A Whiff of Panic

Ahead of Thursday’s ECB meeting, there was a widespread consensus that Europe’s chief printing press supervisor would make up for the alleged “mistake” of under-delivering on monetary lunacy last time around. Therefore, a sizable dose of fresh absurdities had to be expected, with only small disagreements on the details. It is fair to say the man didn’t disappoint.

Draghobert the Terrible, trying to assault the euro again

It’s debatable whether or not the most recent move of the European Central Bank was unexpected, but it certainly sparks a lively discussion on the open market. Not only did the ECB reduce the lending rate on the refinancing facilities from 0.05% to 0% which basically means the banks that are part of the Eurosystem can borrow money for free, it also reduced the interest rate on the deposit facility by 0.10% to a negative 0.40%. Yes, -0.40%.

Source: Bloomberg.com

By EconMatters

Negative interest rates may or may not be a thing of the past (many thought that the ECB had learned its lesson, and then Vitor Constancio wrote a blog post showing that the ECB hasn't learned a damn thing), but the confusion about their significance remains. Here is Deutsche Bank's Dominic Konstam explaining how, among many other things including why Europe will need to "tax" cash before this final Keynesian experiment is finally over, negative rates are merely the logical failure of globalization.

Misconceptions about negative rates

For the past month, the price of oil has soared by a 50% on no fundamental catalyst; in fact, the "fundamental" situation has gotten progressively worse with the record oil inventory glut increasing by the day even as US crude oil production posted a modest rebound in the past week after two months of declines, while the much touted OPEC/non-OPEC oil production freeze has yet to be discussed, let alone implemented.