Is Bernanke Hiding A Smoking Gun?

A Republican senator said Tuesday that documents showing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke covered up the fact that his staff recommended he not bailout AIG are being kept from the public. And a House Republican charged that a whistleblower had alerted Congress to specific documents provide “troubling details” of Bernanke’s... Read more...

Fed Made Taxpayers Junk-Bond Buyers

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then-New York Fed President Timothy Geithner told senators on April 3, 2008, that the tens of billions of dollars in “assets” the government agreed to purchase in the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. were “investment-grade.” They didn’t share everything the Fed knew about the money. The so-called assets... Read more...

Russia Buys 22 Tons Of Gold In May

Ten days ago we reported the most recent data on gold reserve holdings as presented by the World Gold Council, where we pointed out that Russia had purchased 27.6 tons of gold in the most recent reporting period, bringing its total to 668.6 tons. It appears Russia is only getting started. According to the latest IMF data, in the period between April... Read more...

Time to Shut Down the Federal Reserve?

Like a mad aunt, the Fed is slowly losing its marbles. Kartik Athreya, senior economist for the Richmond Fed, has written a paper condemning economic bloggers as chronically stupid and a threat to public order. Matters of economic policy should be reserved to a priesthood with the correct post-doctoral credentials, which would of course have excluded... Read more...

The Fed Bashes Bloggers

Some Fed economist (with a hard-earned Ph.D mind you) named Kartik Athreya (who lasted at Citigroup as an associate Vice President for a whopping 7 months before getting sacked in 1998 only to find solace for his expiring unemployment benefits in the public sector) has written the most idiotic “research” piece to come out of the Federal... Read more...

Fed’s Warsh Wary of Further Asset Purchases

The Federal Reserve should be wary of the short-term allure of further asset purchases, said Fed governor Kevin Warsh on Monday. In a speech in Atlanta, Warsh set a high bar for his support of further asset purchases, saying he would need to be convinced the benefits of the purchases would outweigh the costs of “erosion of market functioning,... Read more...

Strongest Yuan Rate in Years

China set the strongest yuan exchange rate in years yesterday after Beijing came under renewed pressure at the Group of 20 summit over the weekend to let the currency appreciate. The People’s Bank of China said it set the central parity rate – the centre point of the currency’s allowed trading band – at 6.7890 to the dollar,... Read more...

China Liberalises RMB Trade Settlement

Geographic restrictions on China’s year-old renminbi cross-border trade settlement pilot scheme have been lifted, a move that is in line with the country’s push to slowly internationalise its currency. Trade transactions from anywhere in the world can now be settled in renminbi under new rules announced by the People’s Bank of China,... Read more...

Central Banks Warn of New Crisis

Governments must slash budget deficits decisively and central banks should not wait too long to raise borrowing costs as side effects from measures prescribed to tackle the global recession  may create the next crisis, the Bank for International Settlements said. The global economy as well as financial markets were on the mend, though the recovery... Read more...

Are Southeast Asia central banks ready to raise rates (MalaysiaNews.net)

SINGAPORE: Asian central banks may be among the first in the world to raise interest rates as regional economic growth rapidly outpaces that in the West and fuels inflationary pressures, according to … Read more….  Read More →

Are Southeast Asia central banks ready to raise rates? (The Edge)

SINGAPORE: Asian central banks may be among the first in the world to raise interest rates as regional economic growth rapidly outpaces that in the West and fuels inflationary pressures, according to Reuters. Read more….  Read More →

Central Bank expands as other banks struggle (Stillwater Gazette)

Bad news for banking has good news for Central Bank of Stillwater. Read more….  Read More →

Bernanke Defends Fed’s Ability to Supervise Banks (New York Times)

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke , urged senators on Thursday not to strip the central bank of its authority to supervise the country’s largest banks, warning that to do so would pose a “grave risk,” The New York Times’s Sewell Chan reports from Washington. Read more….  Read More →

European Central Bank Keeps Interest Rate at 1 Percent

The European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1 percent as it waits to see whether a massive infusion of credit into the banking system will help the euro zone’s struggling economy. Markets and analysts will be looking to Thursday’s remarks by bank President Jean-Claude Trichet about the ECB’s $623 billion in 12-month... Read more...

N.Y. Fed’s Chief Backs Preemptive Crisis Moves

The Federal Reserve should break with past policy and try to identify and deflate asset bubbles before they can damage the U.S. economy, New York Federal Reserve President William C. Dudley said. While interest-rate policy may not be the appropriate tool for popping bubbles, Fed officials have “other instruments in their toolbox,” Dudley... Read more...

Israel Cabinet Approves Law to Reform Central Bank

Israel’s cabinet approved a draft of a law on Sunday that would overhaul monetary policy and other decision-making by the Bank of Israel, the finance ministry said. The law was submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz. It has been in the works since Netanyahu was prime minister the first time, in the 1990s,... Read more...

Sri Lanka’s Need for IMF Wanes: Central Bank

Sri Lanka’s central bank chief said Saturday that the island could live without a major IMF bailout that had been delayed by the final stages of the government’s fight with Tamil Tiger rebels. The government had requested the 1.9-billion-dollar loan in March to help stave off its first balance of payments deficit in four years after foreign... Read more...

Yuan Use to Increase

THE PHILIPPINES may be next in a growing number of countries that have lessened their use of the US dollar, which has lost its luster as the world’s most reliable currency, the central bank said. While it may not replace the US dollar, the Chinese yuan may soon share prominence on the global stage as more countries diversify their currency holdings... Read more...

Putin Orders Banks to Boost Lending, Sees Deficits

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told state-run banks to expedite loans to companies to help stem a financial crisis that will force the government to run deficits for at least three years. Putin called on banks such as OAO Sberbank and VTB Group to boost lending by as much as 500 billion rubles ($16 billion) by October. The government will guarantee... Read more...

UAE Banks Have ‘Significant’ Exposure to Troubled Saudi Banks

UAE banks have ‘significant’ exposure to Saudi Arabia’s troubled Saad Group and Algosaibi conglomerates, the UAE central bank governor was quoted as saying today by Reuters. Read more…  Read More →

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