By Steven Waechter. Posted Monday, Feb 6, 2012 at 10:27 am Filed Under: Capitalism, Economy, Featured, Fiscal Policy, History, Markets
If you look at the weekly price chart for either gold or silver for the week ending January 27, 2012, you can make out a distinct “J†shape in prices of both metals. Tuesday the prices were suppressed, and then on Wednesday they spiked upward. You can actually pinpoint on the charts the moment the Federal Reserve announced its intent to keep the Federal Funds Rate at nearly zero percent until late 2014.
Low interest rates are supposed to spur economic growth, or at least that is what the textbook for my International Political Economy course said, so what could possibly be wrong with low interest rates?
Of course, low interest rates provide an incentive to borrow money. However, they also form a powerful incentive …
About ten years ago, my savings account basically stopped paying interest. The rate of about two percent fell to something like one-tenth of one percent in 2002. Over the last ten years, people just seemed to forget the way things used to work – banks are supposed to pay you for placing your money into a bank account.
Well, as you may have known, Bank of America has raised an uproar by announcing their intent to charge a $5.00 per month fee for their customers who use debit cards to make purchases. Other banks are expected to follow suit. This uproar has taken the tone of anti-corporate class warfare: the “Bigs†vs. the Common Man; Banks vs. The People – whatever. The furor is missing …
By Art Smith. Posted Tuesday, Mar 25, 2008 at 11:15 pm Filed Under: Democratic Party, Economy, Markets
Well, Hillary appears to be attempting to make EVERYONE happy.
More government money to rescue folks who simply bought more house than they could afford. According to a Wall Street Journal story Tuesday, Hillary proposes:
- Freezing Forclosures for 90 days
- Freezing Interest-rate Resets on Sub-primes for 5 years
- Establish a $30 billion fund so states and cities can buy foreclosed properties
- Expand the Mortgage Revenue Bond Program (provides below market interest rates for first-time home buyers) by $10 billion
Thanks so much. I’ve heard a number of people call this, appropriately, “cost-shifting”. That means one group of people (those of us who are careful to buy what we can afford) are going to take
Capitalism and open market disciplines cannot support a class of people |
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