French Quarter

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  • Douglas French

The Fed: Bully with No Stick Feb 16, 2015

This article first appeared in the Winter 2015 edition of The Journal of Prices & Markets   Central bankers believe they can push people around are like pieces on a chessboard. Armed with theories, graphs, and equations, the monetary mandarins believe the world revolves in the palm of their hands.  It hasn’t worked out that way. On Milton Friedman’s 90th birthday, when he was simply Governor Ben S. Bernanke, the man who would become Fed chair and create more (supposedly) high-powered money than any head of the Fed in history famously told the audience and Friedman himself in closing, Let...

By Douglas French Vote7 2

Central Bankers as Undertakers Feb 16, 2015

This review first appeared in The Journal of Prices & Markets James Rickards, The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System (New York: Portfolio Hardcover, 2014) The men and women working at the Eccles Building in Washington D.C. have sliced, diced and, with quantitative easing (QE) pureed the dollar, but it it keeps on ticking as the world’s reserve currency.  America’s central bankers have bravely thrown themselves in front of the deflation train by quadrupling their balance sheet.  Paul Krugman believes the Fed has been less than heroic, and instead, downright timid. He taunts Austrian economists,...

By Douglas French Vote5 0

Fifty Shades of Contract Feb 13, 2015

What a country. Montana lawmaker, State Representative David Moore, a Republican from Missoula, believes his state’s indecent exposure laws are too, well, skimpy. So, he proposed a bill that according to Yahoo would ban all public exposure of nipples, both male and female, the bill would also outlaw any piece of clothing that “gives the appearance or simulates” the pelvic area, buttocks, genitals or female nipple, the Associated Press reported — meaning tight-fitting pants could be included. “Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway,” the Associated Press reported Moore saying. “I want Montana to be known as a decent...

By Douglas French Vote10 7

It’s the Envy, Stupid Feb 3, 2015

Early in the 2016 presidential race, Republican candidates have adopted the income inequality canard as their primary talking point. Ted Cruz, taking a swipe at Mitt Romney, said “Republicans are and should be the party of the 47 percent.…we should be fighting for the little guy" Meanwhile, HuPo writes, “[Marco] Rubio argued that income inequality was simply a symptom of a larger problem: ‘opportunity inequality.’ He said that creating jobs is the best way to lift people out of poverty.” Jeb Bush said that “while the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners, they’ve been a...

By Douglas French Vote6 2

Why Hyperinflation-phobia? Feb 2, 2015

The New York Times can be forgiven for blaming the empty shelves in Caracas to the plunge in oil. However,  a raging hyperinflation cleared the cupboards before the price of oil was cut in half.  William Neuman’s front page story illustrates what the NYT does best, making economic tragedies personal. Laboratory assistant Mary Noriega must stand in line for hours with 1,500 others just to buy food, “as soldiers with side arms checked identification cards to make sure no one tried to buy basic items more than once or twice a week.” Ms. Noriega has had to barter with neighbors...

By Douglas French Vote6 1

Loose Fed, Scared Bank Directors Jan 28, 2015

The Fed’s balance sheet now foots to nearly $4.5 trillion, a great leap from early July 2008, when its total assets were less than $900 billion.  Interest rates have been held just above zero since then as well, all in an attempt to jumpstart the economy. But while monetary policy has been beyond promiscuous, bank regulation has been, and continues to be, in Jim Grant’s word, “asphyxiating.”  Dick Bove, who analyzes banks for Rafferty Capital Markets and seems terminally bullish on the industry, says banks have been essentially nationalized in the U.S. Bove says the government now tells banks how...

By Douglas French Vote3 0

PhD-Standard Monetary Crack Up Jan 24, 2015

The hills are alive with the panic of central bankers. First there was the fallout from the Swiss National Bank’s decision to unshackle the Franc from the Euro. Then, how much Q Mario Draghi put with his E. It turns out his €60 billion per month program was seen as a “positive surprise." In the meantime Bloomberg reported Canada’s central bank “is trying to make sure [Canada] survives an oil price crash,” by cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point. Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is trying to stop the bleeding in Calgary where existing...

By Douglas French Vote1 1

Bitcoin: Market Money’s Last Stand Jan 23, 2015

“Without Drugs, What’s the Point of Bitcoin?” wonders the Atlantic. I answer author of the piece, Matt Schiavenza, with two words: central banks. It’s no coincidence “Satoshi Nakamoto” created Bitcoin in 2009 as the financial world dangled on a precipice of the central bankers’ making. On February 11, 2009, Satoshi wrote: The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and...

By Douglas French Vote10 3

Book Review: The Testament of James Jan 22, 2015

Christians have great faith in belief. According to a Pew poll in 2010 a full 41 percent of Americans and 58 percent of white evangelical Christians not only believe in Jesus Christ, but think Christ will return to earth by 2050. The question, “what’s keeping him (or her)?” evidently wasn’t asked. Pretty much everything that’s gone wrong in the world, whether it was the sinking of the Titanic or 9/11, Christians say is God’s punishment for our wicked ways. We could just snicker except politicians of all stripes embrace this evangelical apocalypticism to ramp up the size of government. Even...

By Douglas French Vote9 2

Marriage: What’s Love Got to Do with it Jan 19, 2015

Pew Research predicts more people under 35 will be single forever. The number who have never taken the plunge (and never will) is at an all-time high. “When today’s young adults reach their mid-40s to mid-50s, a record high share (roughly 25%) is likely to have never been married,” write the report’s authors Wendy Wang and Kim Parker. “This is not to say that adults in their mid-40s to mid-50s who still haven’t married will never marry, but our analysis suggests that the chance of getting married for the first time after age 54 is relatively small.” People are remaining...

By Douglas French Vote1 2

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