By Robert Romano — “If a monetary deal’s going to work, the central bank has to have unlimited powers to intervene to support economies, and indeed banks, to prevent collapse.” That was how the UK’s Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat, put it on the BBC, speaking on the European Central Bank (ECB).  He was basically complaining that Article [...]

By Bill Wilson — According to legend, in Czarist Russia, Grigory Potemkin constructed fake villages to make Catherine the Great believe that the countryside was tranquil and prosperous, when in fact it was chaotic and stricken with poverty. Such it is with government economic statistics, as evidenced by the latest release of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showing a 2.5 [...]

By Robert Romano — Ever since the U.S. gold standard was weakened in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve system, then again during the Great Depression, when the domestic supply of gold was confiscated in 1933, and finally eliminated all together by Richard Nixon in 1971, when international convertibility was suspended, debate has raged over whether we are [...]

By Bill Wilson — On Sept. 21, the Federal Reserve announced its latest plan to “[t]o support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the dual mandate”. Dubbed Operation Twist after the famous 1960’s dance, this time the Fed plans to sell $400 billion of short-term U.S. treasuries of up [...]

By Robert Romano — On Aug. 26, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed his decision to keep the Federal Funds Rate — the interest rate at which the Fed and banks lend to one another — at near-zero levels. He said, “[I]n what the Committee judges to be the most likely scenarios for resource utilization and inflation in the medium [...]

By Bill Wilson – As America celebrates its 235th birthday this July, citizens are increasingly becoming aware of a new danger to the nation’s independence and sovereignty. It was identified as the number one threat to our national security by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. It is the skyrocketing $14.3 trillion national debt. It is [...]

By Robert Romano – Is the Federal Reserve a so-called “bad bank?” According to Euro Pacific Capital Chief Economist Michael Pento, the Fed has just $52.5 billion of capital to back its $2.7 trillion balance sheet, an equity cushion of just 2 percent. Over $917 billion of that balance sheet is in mortgage-backed securities (MBS), the same assets whose depreciation [...]

By Bill Wilson – The New York Times has launched its trial balloon for the Federal Reserve to begin yet another round of so-called “quantitative easing” to, it thinks,  help the economy.  In its May 30 editorial, “The Numbers Are Grim,” the Times calls for the Fed to, among other things, “be prepared to continue measures to bolster the economy [...]

By Robert Romano – The Federal Reserve is the world’s central bank. There is simply no question now. In 2008, while the financial crisis was at its peak, the Fed was lending at lightning speed to financial institutions all over the world. “The biggest borrowers from the 97-year-old discount window as the program reached its crisis-era peak were foreign banks, [...]

By Robert Romano – “If we continue down on the path on which the fiscal authorities put us, we will become insolvent, the question is when,” said Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher after a recent speech at the University of Frankfurt. That is an alarming proclamation coming from a prominent central bank official. Not only because of the [...]