Tag Archives: Featured

Drug addicts suffer major withdrawal symptoms when they go cold turkey. In the case of high-tech startups and their banks (like Silicon Valley Bank), the super-low-interest-rate stimulant has been taken away by the drug dealer (the Fed) via interest rate hikes. With cheap credit drying up, firms switched to pulling cash out of SVB, all while the same interest rate increases caused the value of SVB’s assets to fall. SVB’s balance sheet couldn’t handle the fast...

Central banks usually don't admit their guilt in the destruction of money, but the Bank of England unwittingly comes clean. Original Article: "The Bank of England: Money Creation in Their Own Words" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The more powerful a government, the more likely it is to engage in war and conquest. Case in point: US involvement in Ukraine. In 2014 the US led a coup that displaced a “democratically elected” president, Viktor Yanukovych. In November 2013, . . . Yanukovych rejected a major economic deal he had been negotiating with the EU and decided to accept a $15 billion Russian counteroffer instead. That decision gave rise to antigovernment demonstrations that escalated over...

Overview: There did not appear to be any negative surprises over the weekend, and this is helping calm investors' nerves at the start of the new week. Deutsche Bank shares have recovered most of the pre-weekend loss in the German market, and Stoxx bank index is posting a gain for the first time in four sessions. The AT1 ETF is slightly softer. In Japan, the Topix bank index slipped around 0.5%, its fourth decline in the past five sessions. Asia Pacific equities were...

Part I of II The recent turmoil that has roiled the global banking sector has placed central bankers in an impossible position: Cut rates and avert a domino-style disaster in the industry and a possible deep and prolonged recession in the wider economy or stay the hiking course to combat the still untamed inflationary pressures? Arguably the great losers in both cases will be the taxpayers and the average working household.  The recent turmoil in the...

The resulting erosion of collateral will collapse the global credit bubble, a repricing/reset that will bankrupt the global economy and financial system. Scrape away the complexity and every economic crisis and crash boils down to the precarious asymmetry between collateral and the debt secured by that collateral collapsing. It’s really that simple. In eras of easy credit, both creditworthy and marginal borrowers are suddenly able to borrow more. This flood of new...

Most socialists are not misguided about how to have a prosperous economy, for that is not their goal. Original Article: "Socialism Isn't about Creating Economies. It Is about Amassing Political Power" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The latest from the world of social media is the role of "influencers." There is a perfectly good economic explanation for their popularity. Original Article: "Influencers and Subjective Value: They Have Something to Teach Us" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content] Tags:...

With commercial banks exposed by the recent bailouts, Americans question whether “their money” is truly safe despite the promises of FDIC insurance. Jeff and Bob walk through the mechanics of how a full reserve bank could work in a truly free market based on the concepts and taxonomy of Mises’s Theory of Money and Credit. Mises's A Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/TMC Bob's study guide to A Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP388a John Cochran, 'The Safest...

The banking crisis is the newest shock to roil the capital markets. Pragmatic action by central banks, governments, and the private sector has thus far been insufficient to allow investors to be confident that the problem is ring-fenced. Credit Suisse was a pre-existing problem that flared up to the breaking point. The government's offer to take the first CHF9 bln in losses and the controversial triggering of clauses allowing AT1 bondholders to be liquidated before...