In 2017, we advised readers that Trump “owns” the Federal Reserve. This was not hyperbole; it was just simple math. There are seven seats on the Fed board of governors. The seven seats include a chair, a vice chair and five other governors. But two of the seats were vacant when Trump was elected.
FISA stands for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. That’s a law which allows electronic surveillance and other intelligence collections of information and communications “between foreign powers” and “agents of foreign powers” involving espionage or terrorism. The CIA is not allowed to conduct spying information inside the U.S., so that responsibility falls to the
Investors have been speculating for years about the demise of the “petrodollar” deal struck by Henry Kissinger and Treasury Secretary William Simon in 1974. It was first set up between the U.S. and Saudi princes to prop up the U.S. dollar. At the time, confidence in the dollar was on shaky ground because President Nixon
When liberals and conservatives unite to oppose you, that’s a sign you may be doing something right. Such is the case today with economist Steve Moore. President Trump is moving toward nominating Moore for a vacant seat on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. Judging from the outcry, one would think Trump had
The global growth slowdown now looks contagious. China has been slowing for the past several years. The Chinese government has tried monetary ease, currency manipulation and bank lending mandates to prop up growth, but it’s not working. Chinese corporate defaults are on the rise. The situation in Europe is no better with Italy, France and
Liberals, progressives and the media have been wringing their hands about Donald Trump since he announced he was running for president in June 2015. At first, Democrats said Trump could not get the nomination. Then they rooted for him to get the nomination because he would be the “easiest to beat.” Then they confidently expected
The Fed cut interest rates in 2007 and 2008 in a frenzied response to the mortgage meltdown and the financial panic after the collapse of Lehman Bros. Rates hit zero in late 2008. When that was not enough to stop the panic, the Fed resorted to guarantees of all bank deposits and money market funds,
As the U.S. economy worsens (Q4 2018 GDP was just revised downward from 2.6% to 2.2% and Q1 2019 GDP is currently estimated at 1.7%), we have repeatedly reported on growth warnings from well-respected institutions including the IMF, the Bank for International Settlements and leading academics. The point was to make it clear that economic
Following the Panic of 1907, John Pierpont Morgan was called to testify before Congress in 1912 on the subject of Wall Street manipulations and what was then called the “money trust” or banking monopoly of J. P. Morgan & Co. In the course of his testimony, Morgan made one of the most profound and lasting
June 23, 2016, was the date that U.K. voters chose to leave the EU in a national referendum. This was a choice for the so-called “Brexit.” Everyone realized that a Brexit would take time to implement. There was a formal notification of the intention to leave the EU. This started the clock running on an
