Tag Archives: Central Bank

The big news in gold is two-fold right now; gold hit new all-time highs in several currencies and central bank demand for physical gold remains strong hitting a year-to date record in Q3 this year.  Gold at $2,000?  So whilst the headlines were all about dollar-denominated gold showing us that it’s still destined for levels north of $2,000 the real news is about other currencies and gold. Ahead of yesterday’s FOMC announcement the price of the yellow metal hit...

Niall Ferguson, Martin Kornejew, Paul Schmelzing and Moritz Schularick in CEPR dp 17858: From the introduction: … time and again, central banks deployed their power to create liquidity in a bid to insulate economies from disasters. … first began to be linked to geopolitical tail events during the 17th and 18th centuries – occurring with increasing regularity during wars and revolutions –, … the context of central bank liquidity support gradually but consistently shifted...

CEPR Discussion Paper 18291 and SNB Working Paper 3/2023, July 2023. HTML, PDF (local copy CEPR, local copy SNB). We analyze the effect of structural change in the payment sector and of monetary policy on prices. Means of payment are obtained through portfolio choices and commodity sales and “liquified” through velocity choices. Interest rates, intermediation margins, and costs of payment instrument use affect portfolios, velocities, liquidity, relative prices, and the aggregate price...

Anyone who has decided to buy gold, or follows the gold price will be aware of how powerful the US Federal Reserve is. This year the Federal Reserve will turn 110 years old, only in recent years is dollar hegemony appearing to falter. Below we look at the central bank’s origins and three lessons we can learn from the history of the world’s most powerful bank, in order to help our investment decisions in 2023.  Is the FED’s institutional history about to repeat...

UniBe Discussion Paper 22-12, October 2022. PDF. We analyze retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a two-tier monetary system with bank deposit market power and externalities from liquidity transformation. Resource costs of liquidity provision determine the optimal monetary architecture and modified Friedman (1969) rules the optimal monetary policy. Optimal interest rates on reserves and CBDC differ. A calibration for the U.S. suggests a weak case for CBDC in the baseline but a...

PDF. Contents The SNB’s mandate Monetary policy strategy Implementation of monetary policy Ensuring the supply and distribution of cash The SNB’s role in the cashless payment system Asset management The SNB’s contribution to financial stability International monetary cooperation Independence, accountability and relationship with the Confederation The SNB as a company Legal basis Appendix Publications and other resources SNB balance sheet Addresses

So Ben Bernanke has won a Nobel Prize for kicking a can down the road! Many will have heard the saying ‘those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it’. It is often attributed to Churchill, but he was in fact quoting George Santanya. We prefer the Stephen Hawking quote, ‘“We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity.” as this feels more apt in this day and age. Below we outline the Nobel-prize...

Our guest this week is Ed Steer, expert gold and market analyst and author of the Gold & Silver Digest. We invited Ed onto GoldCore TV to get his take on what is concerning him most in financial markets, movements in SLV and sanctions against Russia. He also draws our attention to central bank purchases of gold. Ed’s interview serves as a reminder that those who currently do own gold and silver are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the number of people...

One of the reasons people choose to invest in gold bullion or to buy silver coins is because they are simple and they are finite; basically the opposite of fiat currency. The complexity of fiat-driven markets and infinite possibilities to create money works to the advantage of central banks. . And they particularly like to take advantage when asked by the general public a very obvious question… Central banks are on the defensive over printing too much money during...

It would be easy for those who have decided to buy gold and silver bullion to lose heart over the precious metals, had they seen how prices reacted to Chairman Powell’s comments, last week. However, to do this would be very short-sighted. Whilst Powell may well have signaled that the Fed will stay on this path of tightening this does not mean that they have resolved the issue. Rather, it likely means that the Fed is reacting a little too hard, a little too late and...