One of the Trump Administration’s most highly-awaited proposals is the one for tax reform. As with any reform proposal, the devil is in the details, but some of the first proposals sound good on their face. As anyone who has ever had to file taxes understands, the tax code is in serious need of reform. And while previous proposals...
Most Americans with an opinion on the subject think the free market should set interest rates, not the US Federal Reserve, according to a recent survey from the Cato Institute. “Unsurprisingly, a plurality (44 percent) of Americans have not thought much about whether Federal Reserve officials or the free-market system should primarily determine interest rates,” the report stated. “However,...
News reports recently have been full of tales of cyber attacks against financial institutions. From credit reporting bureau Equifax to the Securities and Exchange Commission, to accounting giant Deloitte, no institution seems to be safe from hackers. With a society that does an increasing amount of business online, that potential vulnerability could wreak havoc on savers and investors. More and...
Most sane investors have an inkling that financial markets are in a bubble. But just having a general sense that things aren’t right sometimes isn’t enough. Looking at actual statistics can put into perspective just how large some of these bubbles have grown. Housing Bubbles The Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index has moved past its pre-crisis levels and has increased...
Stephen Williamson, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, joined critics of the US central bank last week by conceding there is no proof that massive intervention in the credit markets such as the Fed’s quantitative easing program has worked. “There appears to be no evidence that QE works either to increase inflation, if we look at...
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced this week that the electronic system it uses for storing filings from public companies was accessed by hackers. The...
In an unsurprising development, the Federal Reserve decided at this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that it would begin implementing the program of drawing down its balance sheet that it had begun to develop earlier this year. But while ending aggressively expansive monetary policy is a good thing, actively tightening monetary policy does bring up some cause...
The Chinese government just recently announced plans to issue $2 billion in dollar-denominated debt, its first dollar-denominated debt issuance since 2004. With countries such as Iran, Russia, and Venezuela turning to the yuan both for political reasons as well as for oil sales, and with the yuan’s recent inclusion in the IMF’s basket of currencies that make up Special...
A group of Congressmen in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies recently held a forum to propose the monetization of the Mexican Silver Libertad one ounce silver coin. The monetization of silver in Mexico has been a favorite project of Mexican businessman Hugo Salinas Price for years, and the idea continues to enjoy support among some members of Mexico’s political class. Supporters...
After the massive Equifax data breach, you might want to take proactive measures to check your credit history and prevent your identity from being stolen. Equifax’s measures to protect consumers in the aftermath of the breach have rightly been criticized, from setting up a site that asked for even more sensitive personal information, to sending consumers to an erroneous...