Blockchain technology could reduce role of banks, says BIS … Blockchain technology could reduce the role of intermediaries such as banks and settlement houses, the Bank for International Settlements – or "the central bankers' central bank" – said in a report on Monday. Blockchain technology – or distributed ledger technology, as many financiers prefer to call...Read More
Sell gold because of Draghi? Bank President Mario Draghi has been promising to pursue inflation with a vengeance. He recently vowed to "do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible." Draghi's efforts, which have driven down the euro, have somehow been taken by Wall Street as a great opportunity to sell gold. That's ridiculous. – CNBCDominant Social Theme: Whate...Read More
Remembering Woodrow Wilson's racism isn't enough. It's much easier to condemn one man's racism than to confront the institutional and cultural racism that haunts our nation. – USA Today OpinionDominant Social Theme: Racism needs to be opposed in all its forms. If people want to clump together, they should be forcibly separated.Free-Market Analysis: What is racism? USA Today i...Read More
Sell gold because of Draghi? Bank President Mario Draghi has been promising to pursue inflation with a vengeance. He recently vowed to "do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible." Draghi's efforts, which have driven down the euro, have somehow been taken by Wall Street as a great opportunity to sell gold. That's ridiculous. – CNBCDominant Social Theme: Whate...Read More
Remembering Woodrow Wilson's racism isn't enough. It's much easier to condemn one man's racism than to confront the institutional and cultural racism that haunts our nation. – USA Today OpinionDominant Social Theme: Racism needs to be opposed in all its forms. If people want to clump together, they should be forcibly separated.Free-Market Analysis: What is racism? USA Today i...Read More
The Fed is About to Make Life Harder For Big Banks … It's considering changes to its annual stress test. The Federal Reserve administers stress tests to the largest U.S. banks each year to see how they would fare in a hypothetically turbulent economy. The regulator is expected to make those tests more difficult to pass. No changes have officially been proposed but, as the New York Times...Read More
NATO urges calm after Turkey downs Russian jet … NATO and UN urge a de-escalation in tensions between Ankara and Moscow after Turkish planes shot down Russian jet. … NATO has called on Turkey and Russia to show restraint as tensions rise in the wake of the downing of a Russian jet near the Turkey-Syria border. The Russian warplane was shot down for violating Turkish airspace on Tuesday...Read More
The Fed is About to Make Life Harder For Big Banks … It's considering changes to its annual stress test. The Federal Reserve administers stress tests to the largest U.S. banks each year to see how they would fare in a hypothetically turbulent economy. The regulator is expected to make those tests more difficult to pass. No changes have officially been proposed but, as the New York Times...Read More
NATO urges calm after Turkey downs Russian jet … NATO and UN urge a de-escalation in tensions between Ankara and Moscow after Turkish planes shot down Russian jet. … NATO has called on Turkey and Russia to show restraint as tensions rise in the wake of the downing of a Russian jet near the Turkey-Syria border. The Russian warplane was shot down for violating Turkish airspace on Tuesday...Read More
Fed to hike at every meeting in 2017 … RBC chief economist Tom Porcelli forecasts … Markets are indicating about a 75 per cent chance of a US rate increase next month, the first in almost a decade. An interest rate increase by the United States Federal Reserve on December 16 is almost a "foregone conclusion" and the central bank looks set to lift rates at every second meeting...Read More
More than 30 "White Student Union" pages created on Facebook in last week … The creation of an "Illini White Student Union" Facebook page that surfaced Nov. 18 in response to a "Black Student Solidarity Rally" at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained national attention, but apparently it's just the tip of the iceberg. Over the last week, at l...Read More
Fed to hike at every meeting in 2017 … RBC chief economist Tom Porcelli forecasts … Markets are indicating about a 75 per cent chance of a US rate increase next month, the first in almost a decade. An interest rate increase by the United States Federal Reserve on December 16 is almost a "foregone conclusion" and the central bank looks set to lift rates at every second meeting...Read More
More than 30 "White Student Union" pages created on Facebook in last week … The creation of an "Illini White Student Union" Facebook page that surfaced Nov. 18 in response to a "Black Student Solidarity Rally" at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained national attention, but apparently it's just the tip of the iceberg. Over the last week, at l...Read More
The United States Has To Lead … Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta thinks the United States has not provided strong enough leadership in the battle to defeat ISIS. "I think the U.S. has to lead in this effort because what we've learned a long time ago is that if the United States does not lead, nobody else will," Panetta told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press.&...Read More
Syrian refugees are not a threat to U.S. … The fact that one of the Paris terrorists was posing as a Syrian refugee has caused some to ask whether one of the lessons of the Paris attacks is either to end or to "pause" accepting Syrian refugees into the States. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Thursday to pause the relatively small number of Syrian refu...Read More
The United States Has To Lead … Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta thinks the United States has not provided strong enough leadership in the battle to defeat ISIS. "I think the U.S. has to lead in this effort because what we've learned a long time ago is that if the United States does not lead, nobody else will," Panetta told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press.&...Read More
Syrian refugees are not a threat to U.S. … The fact that one of the Paris terrorists was posing as a Syrian refugee has caused some to ask whether one of the lessons of the Paris attacks is either to end or to "pause" accepting Syrian refugees into the States. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Thursday to pause the relatively small number of Syrian refu...Read More
Gold has traditionally had a "safe haven" role as a store of value during periods of market volatility, including those spurred by global events. But this role has been surpassed in the past year as investors focus, almost solely, on the timing of an interest rate rise by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Because gold doesn't pay interest and costs money to hold, it becomes less competitive...Read More
'Spider in web' mastermind of Paris attacks killed in raid … The suspected Islamic State mastermind of the Paris attacks was among those killed in a police raid north of the capital, France confirmed on Thursday, bringing an end to the hunt for Europe's most wanted man. Authorities said they had identified the mangled corpse of Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud from fingerprint...Read More
Gold has traditionally had a "safe haven" role as a store of value during periods of market volatility, including those spurred by global events. But this role has been surpassed in the past year as investors focus, almost solely, on the timing of an interest rate rise by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Because gold doesn't pay interest and costs money to hold, it becomes less competitive...Read More