Financial Markets

Bob Murphy gives some thoughts on the stock market crash and coronavirus, then discusses the jaw-dropping discussion between Brian Williams and a member of the New York Times editorial board.

A relatively new challenge to the Austrian framework comes from the “market monetarists” and their endorsement of a central bank policy of “level targeting” of nominal gross domestic product.

Although consensus building surely is an important and noble pursuit, one would think that it wouldn't really fall within the purview of a central bank president. It’s been clear for a long time that allowing politics to influence monetary policy carries significant and numerous risks.

Today's rate cut of 50 basis points is the largest rate cut since December 2008, in the midst of the aftermath of the financial crisis. But Chairman Powell insists the US economy is "strong."

There are echoes of the 1973 oil shock in the current virus scare and resulting economic seize-up. Central banks are likely to respond similarly: with "stimulus" and inflation.

By being so dovish for so long, the Fed has greatly limited what it can do in case of recession without resorting to untried and radical solutions like negative rates.

During January 2020, year-over-year (YOY) growth in the money supply was at 6.32 percent. That's up from December's rate of 5.53 percent, and up from January 2019's rate of 3.38 percent.

Harry Dent believes that a major crash is coming, which will probably begin this year.

Michael Milken was a threat to the complacent Wall Street cartels established by the New Deal. So ambitious prosecutors like Rudy Giuliani saw an opportunity to get in good with Wall Street by taking him down.

These days, the commercial banking system isn’t where the action is. Instead, it’s the shadow banking system that needs direct feeding to goose inflation—at least inflation in asset prices, and also to keep the debt service on the nation’s debt as low as possible.