International currency and the power to inflate
FreedomWorks
by Joseph Onorati
04/11/09
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) holds an imaginary currency called Special Drawing Rights (SDR) that acts as a currency reserve for other countries. A reserve currency is held by foreign countries to purchase or sell their national currency in order to manipulate its value. Recently, the dollar and Euro fill the role of reserve currency for 90 percent of global reserves. The SDRs currently represent the value of the Euro, pound, dollar, and yen. The basket of currencies is intended, in the rhetoric anyway, to stabilize the value of the reserve currency rather than putting control in the hands of a single government or central bank. Russia and China are now pursuing the expansion of the program to include their currency and to increase the amount of SDRs available...
http://tinyurl.com/c3akjp
Bad regulation drives out good
Foundation for Economic Education
by Sheldon Richman
04/10/09
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified an important flaw in much public policy analysis, the ‘Nirvana Fallacy.’ We would do well to keep it in mind as we think about solutions to the current economic problems. Demsetz described the fallacy thus: ‘The view that now pervades much public policy economics implicitly presents the relevant choice as between an ideal norm and an existing ‘imperfect’ institutional arrangement. This nirvana approach differs considerably from a comparative institution approach in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements’...
http://fee.org/articles/goal-freedom-badregulation/
Government’s mistakes have deepened this recession
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Fred L. Smith, Jr.
04/09/09
Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith suggest one unexplored aspect of our financial crisis: the role of egalitarian policies. To see this, note their distinction between the impacts of the $10 trillion loss in the 2000 stock market collapse and the $3 trillion loss of the recent housing collapse. A driving force behind all this has been radical egalitarianism — the idea that something that can be afforded by some should be made available to everyone. Our universal housing-ownership passion transformed the housing market...
http://tinyurl.com/c32a73
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=IMF
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joseph+Onorati
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sheldon+Richman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fred+L.+Smith
by Joseph Onorati
04/11/09
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) holds an imaginary currency called Special Drawing Rights (SDR) that acts as a currency reserve for other countries. A reserve currency is held by foreign countries to purchase or sell their national currency in order to manipulate its value. Recently, the dollar and Euro fill the role of reserve currency for 90 percent of global reserves. The SDRs currently represent the value of the Euro, pound, dollar, and yen. The basket of currencies is intended, in the rhetoric anyway, to stabilize the value of the reserve currency rather than putting control in the hands of a single government or central bank. Russia and China are now pursuing the expansion of the program to include their currency and to increase the amount of SDRs available...
http://tinyurl.com/c3akjp
Bad regulation drives out good
Foundation for Economic Education
by Sheldon Richman
04/10/09
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified an important flaw in much public policy analysis, the ‘Nirvana Fallacy.’ We would do well to keep it in mind as we think about solutions to the current economic problems. Demsetz described the fallacy thus: ‘The view that now pervades much public policy economics implicitly presents the relevant choice as between an ideal norm and an existing ‘imperfect’ institutional arrangement. This nirvana approach differs considerably from a comparative institution approach in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements’...
http://fee.org/articles/goal-freedom-badregulation/
Government’s mistakes have deepened this recession
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Fred L. Smith, Jr.
04/09/09
Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith suggest one unexplored aspect of our financial crisis: the role of egalitarian policies. To see this, note their distinction between the impacts of the $10 trillion loss in the 2000 stock market collapse and the $3 trillion loss of the recent housing collapse. A driving force behind all this has been radical egalitarianism — the idea that something that can be afforded by some should be made available to everyone. Our universal housing-ownership passion transformed the housing market...
http://tinyurl.com/c32a73
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=IMF
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joseph+Onorati
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sheldon+Richman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fred+L.+Smith
rudkla - 13. Apr, 09:45
