Category Archives: News/ Lessons

Re: Abe grapples with mystery of missing J-curve Dear Sirs: Perhaps I can shed some light on Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s missing J-curve; i.e., why Japan’s trade deficit seems to be increasing rather than decreasing after massive monetary intervention to … Continue reading →

From today’s Open Europe news summary: The WSJ reports that the ECB earned €1.4bn in net profit last year, well below that of the US Fed and the Bank of England. Open Europe’s Raoul Ruparel is quoted noting that the … Continue reading →

From today’s Open Europe news summary: The European Parliament’s economic affairs committee yesterday voted in favour of a proposal to limit credit card payment fees charged to retailers by banks at 0.3% of the transaction value, reports EUobserver. Negotiations with … Continue reading →

Re: Obama Orders New Efficiency for Big Trucks Dear Sirs: President Obama needs a lesson in Econ 101.  Requiring that business meet a new fuel economy standard in order to achieve some environmental goal, no matter how discredited the theory, … Continue reading →

Re:  Fed Closes a Loophole for Banks Overseas Re: Lending Where Banks Can’t: Blackstone Thrives in Ireland Dear Sirs: These two articles appeared on the front page of your Business Day section on Wednesday, February 19, 2014.  Nothing could more completely … Continue reading →

Re: A Picture of Detroit in Ruin Dear Sirs: Detroit does not need another worthless plan in order to deal with its problems. To what end will a “blight plan” be put? This is the question that should have been … Continue reading →

Re: China Digs Itself Deeper into Dollar Trap This short Bloomberg article is written from a Chinese point of view; i.e., that China finds itself in a trap having sold over a trillion dollars in goods in exchange for what … Continue reading →

Re: David Beckworth’s review of Money, Gold, and History by Lewis E. Lehrman Dear Sirs: Austrian School economists recommend monetary freedom, not any specific state-supported money. End legal tender laws and the most marketable commodities will be chosen as mediums … Continue reading →

Re: Wells returns to sub prime lending The author blames the banks, as if for some unknown reason bankers simply choose to expand lending to sub prime borrowers. But the real source is the Fed’s artificial lowering of the interest … Continue reading →

From today’s Open Europe news summary: According to a leaked document, seen by Reuters, the European Commission is probing ways to unlock the investment potential of EU citizens’ savings to boost the economy. The Commission will also ask the European … Continue reading →