We normally don’t include central bank blogs in our weekly media links. They tend to be boring and technical (just like central banks). But this article caught our eye. It’s from the website of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands. DNB owns 600 tons of pure gold bullion. About 31% of this gold
The problem with any kind of market manipulation is that there’s no way to end it without unintended and usually negative consequences. Manipulation by government agencies and central banks always starts out with good intentions. They are trying to “save” the banks or “save” the market from extreme outcomes or crashes. Of course, this desire
Do you drive a Tesla? Does someone you know? Tesla drivers are generally a self-satisfied lot. The cars have had a lot of well-publicized problems including battery fires and quality-control issues with doors, windows and other onboard systems. The battery range of about 275 miles is a bit confining for me; I often take trips
Are there Russian nuclear weapons in Venezuela today? According to this article, the answer is yes. I’m not so sure myself. The sourcing in this article is from a single member of Congress who does not offer any proof to back up the claim. Still, the presence of nukes in Venezuela is a possibility that cannot be
President Trump shocked markets yesterday when he announced that a new, heavy round of tariffs on Chinese goods will take effect this Friday. Complacent markets had assumed that a trade deal would get done, that it was just a matter of sorting out the details. Now that is far from certain. Failing a last minute
It has been a while since we wrote much about cryptocurrencies. Still, it’s the gift that keeps on giving from an editorial perspective. In late 2017, I was one of the loudest voices warning that bitcoin was a bubble (actually the greatest bubble in history, as it turns out) and a collapse was coming
You’ve heard a lot in recent years about “negative interest rates.” The idea is simple. Instead of the bank paying you interest on money you have in the bank, you pay the bank for holding your money. Normally, if you put $100,000 in the bank and they have a 2% interest rate, then at the
We all know the legend of cryptocurrencies. Cryptos were created by applied mathematicians and digital engineers who were looking for a form of “money” that would not rely on any centralized issuer or depository. Cryptocurrencies had immediate appeal to libertarians, anarchists, criminals and Ayn Rand followers who were cheered by the chance at liberation from
Is it over? I’m talking about the allegations of “Russian collusion” aimed by the media and the deep state at President Trump. The Mueller report on collusion was issued a few weeks ago and it gave Trump a clean bill of health. Can we put that two-year “witch hunt” behind us and move on? Unfortunately
By now you’ve heard that the U.S. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3.2% in the first quarter of 2019. That was reported by the Commerce Department last Friday morning. After another week of being bashed by the mainstream media, this was great news for President Trump. You can read about it in this article.
