tagged w/ European Central Bank
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Ty Danco’s ludicrously improbable but riveting tale definitely belongs in the history books, alongside AirBnB‘s legendary ‘survive by literally eating your own marketing material’ yarnTy Danco’s ludicrously improbable but riveting tale definitely belongs in the... more
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The grand symphony of currency manipulation seems more finely orchestrated than ever before. However, it's not necessarily the fundamentals that are moving currencies so much as global perception. In the battle between the Fed's quantitative weakening of the dollar versus the eurozone debt crisis, the dollar is winning this round of who sucks less.
On October 1st, I posed the question, will the dollar rebound before being dissolved into a global currency? At that time, no one was predicting the dollar to gain strength with the Federal Reserve planning more quantitative easing. The windbag media promoted QE2 as a stock market stabilizer and a boost to U.S. exports, yet most experts openly called it a backdoor bailout, or monetizing debt, or plain old money printing. Nearly everyone agreed it would ultimately erode the value of the dollar even further and cause measurable inflation.
Indeed, it was a well-justified gloom-and-doom 6 months for the dollar by Fed critics. After all the media build-up, the Fed's announcement of the $600B easing plancame strategically on the day after mid-term elections, when most of the media was focused on feeding the false left-right frenzy by digesting the election results. In other words, QE2 got some mention, but the timing was clearly a tactic to keep a lid on the talking-head backlash. Then, Obama rushed out of the country for the G20 economic summit taking the remaining media distraction with him. Between stories of Michelle's shopping trips, it was revealed that China and other foreign economic players were not very happy about the Fed's move. Yet, the dollar started to rally.
Recent commentary by Chuck Butler in the Daily Reckoning questions the commodity sell-off and dollar rally:
But does it all make sense, given what I mentioned above that the FOMC is looking for inflation to inject into our economy? No… But since when, going back to the financial meltdown, does anything the markets do make sense?
Nothing makes sense if we still believe fundamentals actually matter. Sure the dollar is nearly dead, fundamentally, but it seems that perception now trumps concrete analysis. As I reported in October:
The fundamentals suggest that it (the dollar) should be finished, but just as the world is about to declare it dead, miraculously a global storyline seems to emerge just when needed and foreign investors rush back in for "safety." A clear example was the steady drumbeat of a sovereign-foreign-debt war that resulted in reports of whether the Euro would even survive, while the dollar enjoyed a triumphant ride up victory mountain.
Now, here we go again. As soon as the Fed announcement was made, the media shifted its focus once again to the eurozone debt "crisis." Story after story, day after day, about the developing crisis in Ireland -- and now Portugal. News agencies often salivate to repost these headlines, because crisis sells. And it sells because doom and gloomers, otherwise known as fundamental analysts, are waiting for reality to catch up to the numbers -- not just in the eurozone, but globally. The debt-infected PIIGS is a legitimate story, but it is clearly being heavily pushed to make the dollar look less pitiful.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/eurozone-debt-crisis-20-dollar-sucks.htmlThe grand symphony of currency manipulation seems more finely orchestrated than ever... more
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St. Louis, Missouri – Friday is finally here… The end of what has been an exhausting week here on the trade desk. The dollar continued to get beat down through most of the trading day but started to rally back a bit in the afternoon. Overnight the dollar actually gained with the highflying Nordic currencies falling almost 1% versus the greenback. The euro (EUR) and commodity-based currencies also sold off a bit, and the sharp rally in both gold and silver stalled. A break in all of the price action was to be expected, but it may not last long as we will get the October US jobs report later this morning.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/piigs-return-to-slaughter.htmlSt. Louis, Missouri – Friday is finally here… The end of what has been an... more
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5/10/2010 Ron Paul on the global financial bailout of Greece and the American taxpayer.
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Mafia money launderers, terrorists and tax dodgers may be accumulating 500-euro bills because they’re easy to hide and transport, the Bank of Italy said in a report.
“The wide diffusion of the 500-euro bill is a motive of possible concern in terms of fighting both money laundering and terrorism financing,” the June 2009 report prepared by the central bank’s financial intelligence unit said. “Cash is the ideal tool for illegal payment and movement of funds” and “the high-value banknote simplifies the logistical management of large sums of money,” according to the study.Mafia money launderers, terrorists and tax dodgers may be accumulating 500-euro bills... more
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The European Central Bank has made a cut on interest rates in the eurozone to a record low of 1%, down from 1.25%.
The bank also agreeded to take alternative measures to boost growth in the all countries that use the euro. It is the seventh time the ECB has lowered its key rate since October 2008, when it stood at 4.25%.The European Central Bank has made a cut on interest rates in the eurozone to a record... more
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The Federal Reserve and a consortium of European central banks today announced a half a point cut in a key interest rate, a coordinated effort to stave off an economic slump even as they continue struggling to tackle a crisis in global financial markets.
The announcement reversed sharp losses in European stock markets and buoyed U.S. market futures that were pointing towards another troubled day on Wall Street.
The rate cuts, hinted at by Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday then approved by the central bank overnight, reduces the target federal funds rate to 1.5 percent from 2 percent.
Joining the rate cut were central banks in Canada, England, Sweden, Switzerland and the European Central Bank.
With commodity prices falling and concerns about an economic slowdown taking root around the globe, the Fed in a statement said that it was now time to shift the focus from fighting inflation to bolstering growth. Lower interest rates make it cheaper for companies to borrow to invest in plant and equipment, and bring down the cost of a variety of consumer credit options such as bank credit cards and auto loans.
The Federal Reserve and a consortium of European central banks today announced a half... more
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major central banks banded together on Thursday to inject as much as $180 billion into money markets in a bid to stave off the growing global financial crisis.
The Federal Reserve joined with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank to pump more short-term dollar liquidity into the financial system.
major central banks banded together on Thursday to inject as much as $180 billion into... more
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