Just two days separated a letter from Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine and a report from the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, each remarkably calling for the end of “too big to fail” (TBTF) banks.
A sugar-coated analysis of the global economy released by the International Monetary Fund April 17 nevertheless contains dire warnings about a world in a looming global government bond crisis.
As free market-based digital currencies like Bitcoin and e-gold continue to gain traction around the world, the government of Canada responded with the “MintChip,” an electronic payment system touted by authorities as “better than cash” and the “evolution of currency.” Critics of the scheme, however, were not so enthusiastic about the accelerating march toward a cashless society.
The Federal Reserve System investigated itself and determined that concerns about undue political influence surrounding its alleged role in the Nixon Watergate scandal and a subsequent cover up, as well as allegations that the Fed facilitated a massive weapons loan to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were unfounded. Analysts and critics of the central bank, however, were not entirely convinced.
JBS CEO Art Thompson's weekly video news update for April 2-8, 2012.
The statist rulers of the so-called “BRICS” countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — have been subtly calling for an end to the U.S. dollar’s status as the world reserve currency for years. Now, they are making more moves to turn that rhetoric into reality, proposing a jointly controlled “development” bank and working to sideline America’s already-troubled Federal Reserve Notes in trade by relying more heavily on their own fiat currencies.
On Wednesday, Republican presidential contender Dr. Ron Paul delivered a rousing speech in defense of liberty to a standing-room-only crowd at the University of Maryland-College Park Campus.
In his attempt to explode the myth that there is unlimited demand for U.S. government debt, former Treasury official Lawrence Goodman explained that there is high perceived demand because the Federal Reserve is doing most of the buying.
When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke donned his professorial cap and addressed 30 undergraduate students at George Washington University on Tuesday, he claimed it was all in the interest of transparency. According to the New York Times, “The Fed is concerned that it is neither loved nor understood by many Americans, and that public anger could lead to constraints on its powers.”
As Greece’s economy and the euro continue to struggle, regular Greeks are increasingly taking matters into their own hands, creating informal underground barter markets and even alternative currencies. And the government is actually encouraging it.
