Hypothetical Scenario - The Day the Dollar Died

The Day the Dollar Died

Keynesian Economics Is Wrong: Economic Growth Causes Consumer Spending, Not the Other Way

Politicians and journalists who fixate on consumer spending are putting the cart before the horse. Consumer spending generally is a consequence of growth, not the cause of growth. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video helps explain how to achieve more prosperity by looking at the differences between gross domestic product and gross domestic income.

Keynesian Economics Is Wrong: Economic Growth Causes Consumer Spending, Not the Other Way

SECOND WAVE PROTEST - Against Ireland Austerity and Bailout

"What hurts me the most is why is the taxpayer paying for the IMF. Why are we bailing out the banks. These are the people who took the risk, let them take the hurt, let them feel the hurt." That is the common refrain of the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets today in Dublin, protesting against the government's rescue of various European banks (and Goldman Sachs) investment losses. More from RTE: "Gardaí said that around 10,000 people started the march, however the crowd swelled to around 50,000 people as it moved down the quays. Speakers at the march had estimated that the crowd was between 100,000 and 150,000. A small group of around 400 protestors are currently at the front gates of Leinster House. Some 60 gardaí are lining the footpath in front of the building, with crash barriers erected in front of them."

Continue reading - 50,000 Turn Out To Protest Against Government Handling Of Irish Bailout

BBC NEWS - Dublin protesters march against cuts as bail-out looms

MV - Spirit of the Times

This is a live performance by Jeff Uzzel at the Ventura Chapter meeting of the Zeitgeist Movement as seen through Ryan's lens. ZMVC.org. Pretty inspiring.

Spirit of the Times - Zeitgeist Movement

MUST WATCH! Nigel Farage: 'Who the Hell do You Think You Are: The Euro Game Is Up!

Nigel Farage: 'Who the Hell do You Think You Are: The Euro Game Is Up!

SECOND WAVE REVOLT - British Students Leave Classes Over Cuts

LONDON — Thousands of students in cities across Britain walked out of classes on Wednesday and marched to protest the government’s plans to cut education spending and steeply increase university tuition. It was the second such protest this month.

The demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but here in London at least eight people, including two police officers, were injured in pockets of violence, and three protesters were arrested on suspicion of committing violent acts and stealing. Some protesters surrounded and vandalized an empty police van, breaking its windows, scrawling graffiti on it and trying to tip it over.

And a group of demonstrators repeatedly tried to break through a police cordon in front of Whitehall, which houses many government buildings, throwing placards, smoke bombs and other projectiles even as officers held them back with night sticks.

In other cities, including Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Warwick, university students — in some cases joined by students from secondary schools who also walked out of class — marched through town centers or tried to occupy university buildings.

Several dozen students occupied part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, and there were reports of occupations at other universities.

The demonstrators were angry at government proposals to help reduce the country’s budget deficit by giving less money in direct grants to universities, and allowing the universities in turn to charge tuition of up to $14,400 a year, from the current cap of $5,624.

Continue reading - NY Times - British Students Leave Classes Over Cuts

Disorder Breaks Out As Students Protest Against Rise In Fees


Students protest in 'day of action'


British students protest against higher fees


Raw Video: British Students Protest Tuition Hike

Tom Woods on the Coming Collapse

Gary Franchi sits down with New York Times best selling author, Tom Woods, to discuss the current state of the economy, the recent statements from the World Bank President... and just how long we have before total economic collapse.

Tom Woods on the Coming Collapse

IMF Bailout Protests Break Out In Ireland

Gardai push protesters, including Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh (right), back after they pushed through the gates of Government Buildings in Dublin this afternoon.

A group of demonstrators protesting against the Government's handling of the economic crisis forced its way into a security area at Government Buildings in Dublin today.

Some 50 people including Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, protested outside Government Buildings on Merrion Street at lunchtime, shouting: "Cowen, Cowen, Cowen. Out, out, out!"

BBC News footage showed the Dublin South Central TD caught up in scuffles between the demonstrators and gardaí. Video showed gardaí attempting to push back a crowd of shouting protesters carrying banners during the protest organised by Sinn Féin.

Earlier, the Sinn Féin lunchtime protest, comprising some 150 people, had made its way around from Kildare Street to Merrion Street.

Speaking during the protest, Mr Ó Snodaigh, the party's social protection spokesman, said the Government had no mandate to implement its planned cuts to social welfare payments and should call a general election immediately.

On one side of the entrance, a woman held a sign reading "FF traitors out now", while at the other, a man brandished a placard that carried a warning the world would end for all and the IMF.

Continue reading - IMF Bailout Protests Break Out In Ireland

Sinn Féin protest outside government buildings - IMF cuts


Protest at Department of Finance at IMF visit


MUST WATCH - Most Unparliamentary Language

"We are screwed as a country because of the wrongdoing of others."

Eric Cantona's call for Bank Runs on 7th December

Former Man United footballer Eric Cantona is calling on protesters against cutbacks and pension reforms in France to start a real revolution by mass bank withdrawals.

As students and public sector workers across Europe prepare for a winter of protests, they have been offered advice from the archetypal football rebel Eric Cantona.

The 44-year-old former footballer recommended a run on the cash reserves of the world's banks during a newspaper interview that was also filmed. The interview has become a YouTube hit and has spawned a new political movement.

Cantona, wearing a bright red jumper, dismissed protesters who take to the streets with placards and banners as passé. Instead, he said, they should create a social and economic revolution by taking their money out of their bank.

He said: "I don't think we can be entirely happy seeing such misery around us. Unless you live in a pod. But then there is a chance... there is something to do. Nowadays what does it mean to be on the streets? To demonstrate? You swindle yourself. Anyway, that's not the way any more."

"We don't pick up weapons to kill people to start the revolution. The revolution is really easy to do these days. What's the system? The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks."

"This means that the three million people with their placards on the streets, they go to the bank and they withdraw their money and the banks collapse. Three million, 10 million people, and the banks collapse and there is no real threat. A real revolution."

"We must go to the bank. In this case there would be a real revolution. It's not complicated; instead of going on the streets and driving kilometres by car you simply go to the bank in your country and withdraw your money, and if there are a lot of people withdrawing their money the system collapses. No weapons, no blood, or anything like that."

He concludes: "It's not complicated and in this case they will listen to us in a different way. Trade unions? Sometimes we should propose ideas to them."

Cantona's call appeared to touch a popular chord and generated an instant response. Nearly 40,000 people have clicked on the YouTube clip, and a French-based movement – StopBanque – has taken up the campaign for a massive coordinated withdrawal of money from banks on 7 December. It is claimed that more than 14,000 people are already committed to removing deposits. The movement is also gaining increasing attention in Britain.

The trio of French Facebook users now leading the campaign have appealed to people across Europe to provoke a bank crash. "It is we who control the banks, not vice versa," they write.

Continue reading - Eric Cantona's call for Bank Runs on 7th December

The era of fractional reserve banking is coming to an end. Game Over.


French-based European movement is gaining considerable strength that calls for massive, coordinated bank withdrawals across the continent on December 7. It's an attempt at a modern, crowd-sourced bank run. Stop Banque!

Open Letter to Ben Bernanke

The following is the text of an open letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signed by several economists, along with investors and political strategists, most of them close to Republicans:

We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.

We subscribe to your statement in the Washington Post on November 4 that “the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy’s problems on its own.” In this case, we think improvements in tax, spending and regulatory policies must take precedence in a national growth program, not further monetary stimulus.

We disagree with the view that inflation needs to be pushed higher, and worry that another round of asset purchases, with interest rates still near zero over a year into the recovery, will distort financial markets and greatly complicate future Fed efforts to normalize monetary policy.

The Fed’s purchase program has also met broad opposition from other central banks and we share their concerns that quantitative easing by the Fed is neither warranted nor helpful in addressing either U.S. or global economic problems.

Michael J. Boskin
Stanford University
Former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors (George H.W. Bush Administration)

Jim Chanos
Kynikos Associates

John F. Cogan
Stanford University
Former Associate Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget (Reagan Administration)

Niall Ferguson
Harvard University
Author, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

James Grant
Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

Kevin A. Hassett
American Enterprise Institute
Former Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Former Director, Congressional Budget Office

David Malpass
GroPac
Former Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary (Reagan Administration)

John B. Taylor
Stanford University
Former Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs (George W. Bush Administration)

Peter J. Wallison
American Enterprise Institute
Former Treasury and White House Counsel (Reagan Administration)

A spokeswoman for the Fed responded:

“As the Chairman has said, the Federal Reserve has Congressionally-mandated objectives to help promote both increased employment and price stability. In light of persistently weak job creation and declining inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee’s recent actions reflect those mandates. The Federal Reserve will regularly review its program in light of incoming information and is prepared to make adjustments as necessary. The Federal Reserve is committed to both parts of its dual mandate and will take all measures to keep inflation low and stable as well as promote growth in employment. In particular, the Fed has made all necessary preparations and is confident that it has the tools to unwind these policies at the appropriate time. The Chairman has also noted that the Federal Reserve does not believe it can solve the economy’s problems on its own. That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators, and the private sector.”

Continue reading - Open Letter to Ben Bernanke

Europe Fears That Debt Crisis Is Ready to Spread

LONDON — European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.

Any such plan would have to be preceded by a formal request for assistance from each country before it would be put in place. And for months now, Ireland has insisted that it has enough funds to keep it going until spring. Portugal says it, too, needs no help and emphasizes that it is in a stronger position than Ireland.

While some important details are different, the current situation feels eerily similar to what happened months ago in Greece, where the cost of borrowing rose precipitously.

European authorities stepped in with a rescue package, expecting an economic recovery and the creation of new European rescue funds to fend off future panics by bond investors whose money is needed by countries to refinance their debt.

But with economic conditions weakening, markets are once again in turmoil. Rescuing Ireland may no longer be enough.

Stronger countries and weaker countries using the common currency of the euro are being pulled in different directions.

“If things are getting worse in Ireland, for instance, that will have a contagion impact on the other euro zone economies and particularly on those that are under closer scrutiny of markets, like Portugal,” he said. Asked if Ireland should accept a bailout to stem the contagion, Mr. Teixeira dos Santos said, “It’s not up to me to make that assessment.”

The bureaucratic machinations in Brussels highlight one of the main concerns that grew out of the establishment earlier this year of a rescue fund of 500 billion euros (about $680 billion at today’s exchange rate) by the European Union after the Greek budget crisis: What happens if, in the next crisis, multiple countries need aid at the same time?

Continue reading - NY Times - Europe Fears That Debt Crisis Is Ready to Spread

Austrian vs. Keynesian Economists on 2008 Economic Crisis

Ron Paul and Peter Schiff take Bernanke and Krugman to the woodshed. Enjoy!

Austrian vs. Keynesian Economists on 2008 Economic Crisis

How to Make the Dollar Sound Again

BY disclosing a plan to conjure $600 billion to support the sagging economy, the Federal Reserve affirmed the interesting fact that dollars can be conjured. In the digital age, you don’t even need a printing press.

This was on Nov. 3. A general uproar ensued, with the dollar exchange rate weakening and the price of gold surging. And when, last Monday, the president of the World Bank suggested, almost diffidently, that there might be a place for gold in today’s international monetary arrangements, you could hear a pin drop.

Let the economists gasp: The classical gold standard, the one that was in place from 1880 to 1914, is what the world needs now. In its utility, economy and elegance, there has never been a monetary system like it.

It was simplicity itself. National currencies were backed by gold. If you didn’t like the currency you could exchange it for shiny coins (money was “sound” if it rang when dropped on a counter). Borders were open and money was footloose. It went where it was treated well. In gold-standard countries, government budgets were mainly balanced. Central banks had the single public function of exchanging gold for paper or paper for gold. The public decided which it wanted.

“You can’t go back,” today’s central bankers are wont to protest, before adding, “And you shouldn’t, anyway.” They seem to forget that we are forever going back (and forth, too), because nothing about money is really new. “Quantitative easing,” a k a money-printing, is as old as the hills. Draftsmen of the United States Constitution, well recalling the overproduction of the Continental paper dollar, defined money as “coin.” “To coin money” and “regulate the value thereof” was a Congressional power they joined in the same constitutional phrase with that of fixing “the standard of weights and measures.” For most of the next 200 years, the dollar was, in fact, defined as a weight of metal. The pure paper era did not begin until 1971.

Continue reading - NY Times - How to Make the Dollar Sound Again

G20 UPDATES - Mass Protests Against G20 in Nov 11, 12

Let's Rap!

Economic Raps. Enjoy.

US-Sino Currency Rap Battle


"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

Ron Paul: The Revolution Continues....

Messages of Liberty.

Congressman Ron Paul: The Revolution Continues....

New Monetary System Must Be Based On Gold, Says Mahathir

A new monetary system must be devised based on something of real value such as gold, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday.

He said that despite everyone knowing that the abuses of the banking system which had caused the present economic crisis, no one was seriously thinking of changing the system.

"The US dollar has no backing whatsoever. Other currencies, including the Malaysian ringgit, are backed by gold or other so-called hard currencies held in reserve," he said at the World Congress of Accountants 2010 during his session on "Transitioning to a Sustainable Global Financial System: Lessons from Global Financial and Economic Crisis".

As to whether the Malaysian ringgit should be internationally traded in the market again, Dr Mahathir said: "During the Asian financial crisis, to prevent currency traders from selling our currency and devaluing our currency, we decided that our currency could not be transferred between buyers and sellers and so the currency trading stopped and the government decided to fix the exchange rate that stabilised the market."

"Malaysian currency has became very stable and the economy grew. Now the ringgit can be traded to a limited range and people are thinking of allowing for the currency to be traded in the international financial market. However, many countries are talking about fixing their currency exchange rates," he said.

"When money is printed by private banks and there is no backing for the money thus created, how can anyone accept these pieces of coloured paper as money?"

According to Dr Mahathir, the present financial and economic crisis is due to greedy people abusing the system.

"Accountants examining the accounts of the banks involved in the sub-prime lending must have noticed that the bank people were not adhering to prudent banking practices and they were lending far too much money to borrowers who they must know would be unable to pay," he said.

"But because the banking system regards the loans that they give as assets, the urge to lend far more than what was proper overcame prudence."

Dr Mahathir said to secure the bad loans, the bankers bundled and insured them with insurance companies and mortgage companies.

"They could still have avoided disaster but so greedy were they that the sub-prime loans became so big that when they failed as they must, neither the banks nor the insurance companies nor the mortgage companies could cover the bad loans any more and so the banks, the insurance companies and the mortgage companies collapsed," he said.

Dr Mahathir urged accountants to blow the whistle hard and long and alert any abuses in the system.

"Accountants can play a positive role. The accounting profession must be willing to tell the rich that they must no longer abuse the system, that in fact they must devise a new monetary system and that they must return to gold." he said.

Continue reading - New Monetary System Must Be Based On Gold, Says Mahathir

UK Students Riot Against Tuition Fees Rise

Britain's seeing its biggest protest yet against the deep cuts the country faces to tackle its massive debts. Tens of thousands of students are protesting against a planned hike in tuition fees which could see them treble to 9-thousand pounds a year. Violence flared briefly during the overwhelmingly peaceful protest as a handful of people smashed windows in a high-rise building that houses the headquarters of the Conservative Party, part of the governing coalition.

BBC - Violence at Tory HQ overshadows student fees protest

Video of UK students smashing windows, starting fire in London protest


London Riot: Tory HQ smashed by British students


50,000 on streets as UK students fury descends in fire & smashed glass


At the heart of the student riots in Millbank, London

Mass Protests Against G-20 Summit in Seoul

Tens of thousands of anti-globalization activists have rallied in Seoul to protest a summit of the Group of 20 major economies later in the week.

South Korean labor rights campaigners and other protesters gathered in a large plaza near Seoul's City Hall Sunday, chanting slogans and singing songs denouncing the G-20.

The activists accuse the world's biggest economies of violating workers' rights and threatening social welfare programs by cutting public spending. South Korean police estimated the size of the rally at 20,000, while organizers said it drew 40,000 people.

Thousands of police surrounded the rally, which was largely peaceful. Some demonstrators tried to march away from the designated protest zone and scuffled with police, who forced them back with pepper spray.

South Korea's government has deployed 50,000 police around Seoul and placed the military on high alert ahead of the two-day summit that begins Thursday. U.S. President Barack Obama is due to be among the world leaders in attendance.

South Korea is concerned that anti-globalization protesters, terrorist groups and North Korea will try to sabotage the event.

The activists who rallied Sunday also oppose a proposed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea. Mr. Obama has said he wants to finalize that deal before the summit.

Continue reading - Tens of Thousands Protest G-20 Summit in Seoul

BE ALERT - Another Wave of Mass Protests Coming in Nov 11 and 12.

20,000 South Koreans Protest G-20 Summit


Seoul, 20.000 G20-Protesters Hit the Streets [ITNnews]


South Koreans protest against G20 policies

World Bank head calls for debate on New Gold Standard

Robert Zoellick argues more co-operative monetary system would increase investor confidence and stimulate growth.

The head of the World Bank has reignited the debate over the future of the global monetary system by urging world leaders to consider reintroducing a gold standard to guide currency movements.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, said today that the world's largest economies should build a more co-operative monetary system. This would increase investor confidence and stimulate future economic growth, he argued.

"This new system is likely to need to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and a renminbi [yuan] that moves towards internationalisation," said Zoellick in an article published in the Financial Times. "The system should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."

Zoellick's comments came just three days before world leaders gather in Korea for the G20 summit, where the US Federal Reserve's decision to embark on a fresh $600bn (£370m) fiscal stimulus is expected to be widely criticised.

It is nearly 40 years since President Nixon abruptly terminated the link between the dollar and gold. This decision ended the Bretton Woods system, under which leading economies agreed to keep their currencies pegged to the dollar at fixed, but adjustable, rates. Zoellick acknowledged that returning to a gold standard might seem anachronistic, but argued that it was already being used as an "alternative monetary asset" today.

The US Federal Reserve has come under growing pressure since announcing a fresh $600bn quantitative easing programme last week. Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, attacked the move today, saying it would destabilise the global economy. He argues that the US is using "QE2" to temporarily devalue the dollar.

"I seriously doubt that it makes sense to pump unlimited amounts of money into the markets. There is no lack of liquidity in the US economy, which is why I don't recognise the economic argument behind this measure," Schäuble told the German magazine Der Spiegel.

"It's inconsistent for the Americans to accuse the Chinese of manipulating exchange rates and then to artificially depress the dollar exchange rate by printing money," Schäuble added.

Continue reading - World Bank head calls for debate on New Gold Standard

Ron Paul: "Dangerous times ahead"

Ron Paul: "Dangerous times ahead"

ECB Rejects Request for Greek Swap Files, Citing `Acute' Risks

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet wrote, “The information contained in the two documents would undermine the public confidence as regards the effective conduct of economic policy.”

The European Central Bank refused to disclose internal documents showing how Greece used derivatives to hide its government debt because of the “acute” risk of roiling markets, President Jean-Claude Trichet said.

The ECB turned down a request and an appeal by Bloomberg News to release two briefing documents officials drafted for the central bank’s six-member Executive Board in Frankfurt this year. The notes outline how Greece used the swaps to hide its borrowings, according to a March 3 note attached to the papers and obtained by Bloomberg News.

“The information contained in the two documents would undermine the public confidence as regards the effective conduct of economic policy,” Trichet wrote in an Oct. 21 letter in which he rejected the appeal. Disclosure “bears, in the current very vulnerable market environment, the substantial and acute risk of adding to volatility and instability.”

The ECB is withholding the information six months after the European Union and International Monetary Fund led a 110 billion-euro bailout ($154 billion) for Greece. The government didn’t originally disclose the swaps, which were designed to help it comply with the deficit and debt rules it agreed to meet when it joined the euro in 2001. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, is still trying to work out how Greece hid the deficit.

The Greek swaps fueled a financial crisis that threatened the breakup of the region’s currency. The government now says the swaps, some of which were arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., may have caused “long-term damage” for taxpayers.

“There’s only one solution to resolving the current uncertainty: full disclosure,” said Gustavo Piga, author of “Derivatives and Public Debt Management,” and a professor at Tor Vergata University in Rome. “The ECB, the European Commission and Eurostat need to show that they are aware of all the transactions and that they have no issue in disclosing them. The market has been left to think the worst.”

Continue reading - Bloomberg - ECB Rejects Request for Greek Swap Files, Citing `Acute' Risks

Ron Paul vows renewed Fed audit push next year

Republican Representative Ron Paul on Thursday said he will push to examine the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions if he takes control of the congressional subcommittee that oversees the central bank as expected in January.

"I think they're way too independent. They just shouldn't have this power," Paul, a longtime Fed critic, said in an interview with Reuters. "Up until recently it has been modest but now it's totally out of control."

Paul is currently the top Republican on the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees domestic monetary policy, and is likely to head the panel when Republicans take control of the chamber in January.

That could create a giant headache for the Fed, which earlier this year fended off an effort headed by Paul to open up its internal deliberations on interest rates and monetary easing to congressional scrutiny.

Paul, who has written a book called "End the Fed," has been a fierce critic of the central bank's efforts to boost the economy through monetary policy.

"It's an outrage, what is happening, and the Congress more or less has not said much about it," he said.

Paul said his subcommittee would also push to examine the country's gold reserves and highlight the views of economists who believe that economic downturns are caused by bad monetary policy, not the vagaries of the free market.

Global organizations like the International Monetary Fund also will come under scrutiny, he said.

"Eventually we're going to have monetary reform. I do not believe the dollar can be the reserve standard of the world," said Paul, who has called for returning the United States to a currency backed by gold or silver.

Many economists say that the Fed's decisive actions during the 2008 financial crisis prevented the deep recession that followed from turning into a depression. But grassroots outrage over the bank bailouts and other Fed actions helped propel many Republican candidates to victory in Tuesday's congressional elections -- including Paul's son, Rand Paul, who will represent Kentucky in the Senate.

"With a lot of new members coming and the problems getting worse rather better, there's going to be a lot more people who are going to be looking for answers," Paul said.

Continue reading - Reuters - Ron Paul vows renewed Fed audit push next year

Dr. Ron Paul says Rand and I will introduce legislation to End the Fed! First day!

On Wednesday, Congressman Ron Paul appeared on Fox Business' America's Nightly Scoreboard to discuss the elections, the Fed's quantitative easing announcement, and the future of the sound money fight.

Congressman Paul discusses the Fed and the future with David Asman

FED to MONETIZE $600,000,000,000 Government Debt

For immediate release

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow. Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising, though less rapidly than earlier in the year, while investment in nonresidential structures continues to be weak. Employers remain reluctant to add to payrolls. Housing starts continue to be depressed. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, but measures of underlying inflation have trended lower in recent quarters.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. Currently, the unemployment rate is elevated, and measures of underlying inflation are somewhat low, relative to levels that the Committee judges to be consistent, over the longer run, with its dual mandate. Although the Committee anticipates a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization in a context of price stability, progress toward its objectives has been disappointingly slow.

To promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to expand its holdings of securities. The Committee will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings. In addition, the Committee intends to purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, a pace of about $75 billion per month. The Committee will regularly review the pace of its securities purchases and the overall size of the asset-purchase program in light of incoming information and will adjust the program as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability.

The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period.

The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and will employ its policy tools as necessary to support the economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; James Bullard; Elizabeth A. Duke; Sandra Pianalto; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Eric S. Rosengren; Daniel K. Tarullo; Kevin M. Warsh; and Janet L. Yellen.

Voting against the policy was Thomas M. Hoenig. Mr. Hoenig believed the risks of additional securities purchases outweighed the benefits. Mr. Hoenig also was concerned that this continued high level of monetary accommodation increased the risks of future financial imbalances and, over time, would cause an increase in long-term inflation expectations that could destabilize the economy.

Press Release - Federal Reserve FOMC Statement - November 3, 2010

Ireland Protests

Contrary to convention wisdom, while Irish bond yields were surging to all time highs, the local population was not merrily drinking itself into oblivion, but was taking matters into its own hands. So far every bankrupt European government has at least managed to get its population on the streets, to protest something, and in the case of Greece, caused Waddell and Reed to sell a few SPOOS leading to the biggest crash in capital markets history. Only the most bankrupt nation of all, the United States, continues to see its 300+ million cowering at home, watching sitcom reruns.

Pay special attention to part 4, in which the ministry of finance gets besieged.

Part 1 - Irish Students Protest - Dublin 3/11/10


Part 2 - Irish Students Protest - Dublin 3/11/10


Part 3 - Irish Students Protest - Dublin 3/11/10


Part 4 - Irish Students Protest - Dublin 3/11/10


Part 5 - Irish Students Protest - Dublin 3/11/10

Ron Paul: The Case for Liberty

Ron Paul: The Case for Liberty, hosted by Young Americans for Liberty at Indiana University Bloomington

Ron Paul: The Case for Liberty