The focus of the anti-Trump forces has shifted. Trump was not removed from office as his opponents had hoped. And the long-awaited Mueller report on “collusion” by Trump with Russia has turned out to be an anticlimax showing no collusion. In fact, Trump is on track to complete a mainly successful first term. Instead, the
Trump has already exerted more influence over one institution than any other president in over 100 years — the Federal Reserve. That’s because Trump has had more control over Fed personnel than any president since the Fed was founded in 1913. As I’ve written before, Trump now “owns” the Fed. When Trump was sworn in,
We’ve reported extensively on Russia’s accumulation of gold, their development efforts at a private internet and cryptocurrency to control communications and money and actions the they’ve taken to defeat U.S. economic sanctions. Where is all of this leading? This article provides some of the answers. At a meeting of Russian students and professors at Russia’s Diplomatic Academy,
A few weeks ago, I unveiled my first forecast on the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. My estimate was that Trump had a 60% chance of winning. I was also careful to explain that my forecasting model includes constant updating (using what’s called Bayes’ rule) and would no doubt change between now and Election
When President Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017, he inherited two vacant seats on the seven-person board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. Holders of those two seats are also members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group that sets U.S. interest rates and monetary policies. President Obama also had
For years, currency analysts have looked for signs of an international monetary “reset” that would diminish the dollar’s role as the leading reserve currency and replace it with a substitute agreed upon at some Bretton Woods-style monetary conference. That push has been accelerated by Washington’s use of the dollar as a weapon of financial warfare,
In my 2014 book, The Death of Money, I wrote, “The United States is Japan on a larger scale.” That was five years ago. Last week, prominent economist Mohamed A. El-Erian, formerly CEO of PIMCO and now with Allianz, wrote, “With the return of Europe’s economic doldrums and signs of a coming growth slowdown in
We all know the outlines of how the Fed and other central banks responded to the financial crisis in 2008. First the Fed cut interest rates to zero and held them there for seven years. Then the Fed guaranteed every bank deposit in America regardless of the $250,000 limit on FDIC insurance. Next the
Almost two years ago, not long after Donald Trump was sworn in, I wrote several articles on the theme that “Trump owns the Fed.” The logic behind this claim was simple. There are seven members on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. When Trump came into office, only five of those seats
Attacks on the dollar are not limited to SDRs. The most imminent threat comes from the oldest form of money — gold. Specifically, a combination of gold and digital currency may constitute a potent alternative to the dollar. The fact that Russia and China have been acquiring gold is old news. Both countries have more
