We’ve previously showed you 31 Fascinating Facts About the Dollar’s Early History, which highlighted the history of U.S. currency before the 20th century. This was a very interesting period in which we looked at the money used by the first colonists, the extreme bust of the Continental currency, the era of privately-issued bank notes, and Congress’ emergency issuance of the fiat “greenback” during the Civil War.
Authored by EconomicPrism's MN Gordon, annotated by Acting-Man's Pater Tenebrarum,
A Great Big Dud
Many of today’s economic troubles are due to a fantastic guess. That the wealth effect of inflated asset prices would stimulate demand in the economy.
Some potentially displeasing "Sunday Start" thoughts to market bulls, from Chetan Ahya, Morgan Stanley's global co-head of economics, who warns that in light of the recent "hawkish tilt" by central banks, the message is clear: "central banks are more watchful of financial stability risks: It is in this context that central banks now appear to be keen to lean against easy financial conditions so as to pre-empt the rise of financial stability risks.
Authored by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,
While it may come as a surprise to the current crop of 17-year-old hedge fund managers, the current period of persistently low long-term interest rates and plunging, near reocrd volatility in the face of a hawkish Fed and rising short-term rates, is hardly new: exactly the same happened from 2004 through 2006, despite the Fed's continued rate hikes and jawboning. Alan Greenspan, the Fed's Chair at the time, called this phenomenon a "conundrum" and blamed it on many things, including the global savings glut.