Greece forced to tap emergency fund

Greece has been forced to activate an obscure emergency fund for its banks because they are running short of collateral that is acceptable to the European Central Bank (ECB).

Professor Mundell, euro, and 'pessimal currency areas'

“We’re in very serious danger. The world is in a depression in the Big Three of America, Europe and Japan, a mini-depression that we have not seen since the 1930s,” he said, speaking at the Lindau conference, where half the world’s Nobel economist are gathered on one tiny island with cobbled streets looking across Lake Constance to the Alps.

Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers

A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.

The Next Banking Crisis Starts Here

Fears of a banking crisis and rolling contagion are making global stock and bond markets extraordinarily volatile - and with good reason. Another financial meltdown, on par with what we saw in 2008, is looming large on the horizon. One of two potential triggers could ignite a new banking crisis, a rapid contagion, and a second financial meltdown: One or more of the troubled European countries could default outright. Or a major money center bank could be turned away from the interbank borrowing market by its peers. The panic resulting from either catalyst could start at any time.

How to invest in the age of stagnation

Economists (specifically the US National Bureau of Economic Research) claim that the US Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in July 2009. But as far as I'm concerned, the Great Recession is still rumbling on. I'm far from alone. Nearly a third of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll in April reckoned the economy was in a depression. Small wonder Americans feel that way. 14 million of them are out of work. More than one in four homeowners are in negative equity, according to research firm Zillow. US house prices have fallen by nearly 50% in numerous states, including Florida, California and Nevada. Britain's hardly any better off. The International Monetary Fund has cast doubt on the chancellor's deficit reduction plan, and manufacturing growth has all but ground to a halt. Cutting the deficit might well be the right thing to do – we can't keep spending wildly – but the process will not be comfortable. In short, the challenges are immense. So what's an investor to do?

Nobel gurus warn Britain on fiscal overkill and Fed on monetary overkill

A leading Nobel economist has backed Labour's warnings that the UK is slashing spending too fast and risks tipping a fragile economy into another downward leg.

Gold and Economic Freedom - By Alan Greenspan

Editor's note - It may surprise more than a few gold devotees to learn they have an ideological friend in none other than Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan. Starting in the 1950s, in fact, Greenspan was a stalwart member of Ayn Rand's intellectual inner circle. A self-designated "objectivist", Rand preached a strongly libertarian view, applying it to politics and economics, as well as to religion and popular culture. Under her influence, Greenspan wrote for the first issue of what was to become the widely-circulated Objectivist Newsletter. When Gerald Ford appointed him to the Council of Economic Advisors, Greenspan invited Rand to his swearing-in ceremony. He even attended her funeral in 1982. In 1967, Rand published her non-fiction book, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal. In it, she included Gold and Economic Freedom, the essay by Alan Greenspan which appears below. Drawing heavily from Murray Rothbard's much longer The Mystery of Banking, Greenspan argues persuasively in favor of a gold standard and against the concept of a central bank. Can this be the same Alan Greenspan who today chairs the most important central bank of them all? Again, you might be surprised. R.W. Bradford writes in Liberty magazine that, as Fed chairman, "Greenspan (once) recommended to a Senate committee that all economic regulations should have fixed lifespans. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) accused him of 'playing with fire, or indeed throwing gasoline on the fire,' and asked him whether he favored a similar provision in the Fed's authorization. Greenspan coolly answered that he did. Do you actually mean, demanded the senator, that the Fed 'should cease to function unless affirmatively continued?' 'That is correct, sir,' Greenspan responded." Bradford continues, "The Senator could scarcely believe his ears. 'Now my next question is, is it your intention that the report of this hearing should be that Greenspan recommends a return to the gold standard? Greenspan responded, 'I've been recommending that for years, there's nothing new about that. It would probably mean there is only one vote in the Federal Open Market Committee for that, but it is mine.'"