Tag Archive: Bank of Japan

The Day They Killed the Dollar

2016-07-20

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2016-07-20

LAS VEGAS – It was 113 degrees outside when we rolled through Baker, California, a few days ago. We drove along in comfort, but our sympathies turned to the poor pilgrims who made their way to California in covered wagons. How they must have suffered!

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Bank of Japan: Destination Mars

2016-07-18

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2016-07-18

Asset Price Levitation One of the more preposterous deeds of modern central banking involves creating digital monetary credits from nothing and then using the faux money to purchase stocks. If you’re unfamiliar with this erudite form of monetary policy this may sound rather fantastical.

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FX Daily, July 14: Will BOE Ease on May Day?

2016-07-14

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2016-07-14

Theresa May
After a nearly three weeks of turmoil following the UK referendum, there is now a sense of order returning to UK politics. Two elements of the new government are particularly relevant. First, May demonstrates strategic prowess by putting those like Johnson and Davis, who campaigned for Brexit, to lead the negotiations with the EU, while putting Tories who favored remaining in the EU in the internal ministries.

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“It’s Prohibited By Law” – A Problem Emerges For Japan’s “Helicopter Money” Plans

2016-07-14

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2016-07-14

Over the past four days, risk assets have been on a tear, led by the collapsing Yen and soaring Nikkei, as the market has digested daily news that - as we predicted last week - Bernanke has been urging Japan to become the first developed country to unleash the monetary helicopter, in which the central banks directly funds government fiscal spending, most recently with an overnight report that Bernanke has pushed Abe and Kuroda to sell perpetual...

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Central Bank Wonderland is Complete and Now Open for Business — The Epocalypse Has Fully Begun

2016-07-14

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2016-07-14

Summer vacation is here, and the whole global family has arrived at Central-Bank Wonderland, the upside-down, inside-out world that banksters and their puppet politicians call “recovery.” Everyone is talking about it as wizened traders puzzle over how stocks and bonds soared, hand-in-hand, in face of the following list of economic thrills:

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Stockman Rages: Ben Bernanke Is “The Most Dangerous Man Walking This Planet”

2016-07-12

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2016-07-12

Ben Bernanke is one of the most dangerous men walking the planet. In this age of central bank domination of economic life he is surely the pied piper of monetary ruin. At least since 2002 he has been talking about “helicopter money” as if a notion which is pure economic quackery actually had some legitimate basis.

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Fearing Confiscation, Japanese Savers Rush To Buy Gold And Store It In Switzerland

2016-07-08

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2016-07-08

Japan has pushed further away from being the nation that embraces "Krugman Era" economics and deeper into the new "Bernanke Era" economics of helicopter money. As a result Japan's citizens have been on a blitz to save what little purchasing power they still possess, before hyperinflation finally arrives.

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Kuroda and the BOJ

2016-06-15

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2016-06-15

Following today's FOMC meeting, the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, and the UK meet tomorrow.  The SNB will keep its powder dry to be able to respond to the results of the UK referendum if needed.  The Bank of England is als...

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FX Weekly Preview: Four Central Bank Meetings and More

2016-06-12

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2016-06-12

A couple of weeks ago, the four central banks that meet in the coming days were thought to be a big deal.  Numerous Federal Reserve officials were preparing the market for a summer hike. Risks of a new downturn in Japan spurred spe...

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Brexit: Switzerland Prospers outside the EU, why Can’t the UK?

2016-06-10

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2016-06-10

As the June 23rd BREXIT (the UK-wide referendum to leave the EU) vote draws near, the polls indicate a close result. Those urging a vote for the UK to remain inside the EU are suggesting increasingly...

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Three unintended consequences of NIRP

2016-05-24

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2016-05-24

Central bankers use low or negative interest rates so that it leads to more investment. For them interest rates are a consequence of the currently very low inflation rates. Patrick Watson argues differently: Falling prices are a consequence of low interest rates.

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FX Week Ahead: Evolving Investment Climate

2016-05-22

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2016-05-22

The US dollar’s weakness in recent months, despite negative interest rates in Europe and Japan likely had many contributing factors. These factors include shifting views of Fed policy, weaker US growth, the recovery in commodity prices, including oil, gold and iron ore, and market positioning.

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The Japanese Popsicle Affair

2016-05-20

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2016-05-20

  Policy-Induced Contrition in Japan As we keep saying, there really is no point in trying to make people richer by making them poorer – which is what Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda have been trying to do for the past several years. Not surprisingly,...

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FX Daily, May 18: Greenback Recovers as Rate Support is Enhanced

2016-05-18

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2016-05-18

Apart from GBP, the US dollar is rising against all the major currencies today.  The Australian dollar is retracing a sufficient part of its recent gains to suggest that the current phase of the US dollar’s recovery is not over. Given that the Aussie topped out a week before the other major currencies, it is reasonable …

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FX Daily, May 17: The Meaning of Sterling and Aussie’s Advance Today

2016-05-17

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2016-05-17

The US dollar is mostly weaker today.  It appears to be consolidating the gains scored since the reversal on May 3. Sterling and the Australian dollar are leading the way early in Europe.   The Australian dollar’s gains appear more intuitively clear.  The minutes from the recent RBA meeting indicated that it was a closer decision.  This …

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Kuroda-San in the Mouth of Madness

2016-05-14

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2016-05-14

  Deluded Central Planners Zerohedge recently reported on an interview given by Lithuanian ECB council member Vitas Vasiliauskas, which demonstrates how utterly deluded the central planners in the so-called “capitalist” economies of the West have bec...

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The Twilight Of The Gods (aka Central Bankers)

2016-05-10

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2016-05-10

The current financial market volatility increasingly reflects loss of faith in policy makers. Celebrity central bankers are learning that they must constantly produce new miracles for their followers.

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St. Louis Fed Slams Draghi, Kuroda – “Negative Rates Are Taxes In Sheep’s Clothing”

2016-05-09

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2016-05-09

"At the end of the day, negative interest rates are taxes in sheep’s clothing. Few economists would ever claim that raising taxes on households will stimulate spending. So why would they think negative interest rates will?" Those are the shocking wor...

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Negative Rates: Jim Bianco Warns “The Risk Of An ‘Accident’ Is Very High”

2016-04-29

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2016-04-29

In an interesting interview with Finanz und Wirtschaft, Bianco Research president Jim Bianco discusses a variety of topics such as negative interest rates turning the entire credit process upside down, bank balance sheets being even more complex and ...

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Podcast Discussing Dollar, Fed, BOJ on Futures Radio Show

2016-04-28

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2016-04-28

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Anthony Crudele, who is trader at the CME, for the Futures Radio Show.   There was much to discuss.  The FOMC met yesterday.  The market, judging from the Fed funds futures see little chance of a Ju...

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