Vladimir Putin stands accused in the media and global public opinion of rigging his recent reelection, imprisoning his political enemies, murdering Russian spies turned double-agent, meddling in Western elections, seizing Crimea, destabilizing Ukraine, supporting a murderous dictator in Syria and exporting arms to terrorist nations like Iran. At the same time, the country of Russia
The Fed has the worst economic forecasting record of any major institution, with the IMF running a close second. Every year the Fed produces a one-year forward forecast. In 2009, a 2010 economic forecast is produced, and so on through today. If the Fed were off by a few tenths of one-percent, I’d be the
I’ve been a consistent critic of Jamie Dimon as CEO of J. P. Morgan and its predecessor banks where Dimon worked. He has enriched himself to billionaire status and JPMorgan Chase stock (JPM) is near an all-time high thanks in part to over $40 billion of stock buybacks. That’s fine for himself and his
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” As a long-time cat owner (one lived 13 years and the other 16 years), that’s not my favorite expression, but I’ll grant it’s true enough. It leads directly to the idea that, “There’s more than one way to win a trade war.” Typically, trade wars are
Dealing with the same topic of lackluster cash relevance in banks, this article is more sensational, but no less important. Just as Sweden is making the shift to electronic currency over cash, Russia is making U.S. Treasury securities disappear. According to an official U.S. Treasury report issued July 18, holdings of U.S. Treasury securities plunged 84%
Fans who put forward the Bank of England as the world’s oldest central bank (1694) are swiftly reminded that the actual oldest central bank is the Sveriges Riksbank (Swedish Central Bank, 1668). So, when Stefan Ingves, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, gave remarks to the IMF recently, just published in the IMF Finance & Development
