Austerity Under Fire: One of Several Economic Drags on the U.K. Versus the U.S.

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 30, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) As recession descends across Europe, fiscal policies have received extra scrutiny. Austerity measures have been promoted as keys for long-term economic stability but the necessary short-term pains have been understated. Without … Read more

If Gold Is Going Higher On Fear, It Is Fear of Greenspan

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} …if fear is running rampant in the gold trade, it is not fear of a recession, depression, etc… Instead, it is the fear of former chairman Alan Greenspan – better yet, it is the … Read more

A Case for the Importance of Headline Inflation from James Bullard

(Originally appeared in Inflation Watch) The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis just published an article written by James Bullard, a non-voting member of the Federal Reserve and President of the St. Louis Fed, called “Measuring Inflation: The Core Is Rotten.” It is based on a speech Bullard delivered two months ago to the Money … Read more

The Federal Reserve May Choose to Ignore the Inflation Expectations of Households

First, Bernanke made it clear he thinks gold is not a good indicator of inflation expectations. Now, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has produced research that could convince the Fed to insulate itself from the inflation expectations of average Americans in “Household Inflation Expectations and the Price of Oil: It’s Déjà Vu All … Read more

Federal Reserve 1, Bank of Japan 0

As the world’s currency wars rage on, the Federal Reserve is re-emerging as the “victor.” The dollar index looks ready to erase all its gains for 2010 on the heels of the Fed’s threat to roll out quantitative easing (QE) Part 2. This threat in turn came on the heels of the Bank of Japan’s … Read more