The Federal Reserve’s attempt at shrinking its balance sheet through so-called quantitative tightening, or QT, is “a complete mistake,” according to Mizuho’s chief economist for the U.S. “There is a nontrivial probability that market liquidity will be adversely affected well before the targeted $2 trillion has been rolled off, preventing the Fed from accomplishing its … Read more
A research paper published at Harvard University is advocating that central banks should buy bitcoin BTCUSD, +2.56% as a hedge against sanctions by other countries. The paper, titled “Hedging Sanctions Risk: Cryptocurrency in Central Bank Reserves,” was authored by Ph.D. candidate Matthew Ferranti from Harvard’s economics department, and likens central banks’ gold reserves to potential … Read more
The Federal Reserve on Friday confirmed what many investors were saying for some time: the $24 trillion Treasury market has been experiencing low levels of market liquidity in recent months. The central bank has been rapidly increasing interest rates since March as part of a fight to bring inflation down from a 40-year high. The … Read more
Some investors are on edge that the Federal Reserve may be overtightening monetary policy in its bid to tame hot inflation, as markets look ahead to a reading this coming week from the Fed’s preferred gauge of the cost of living in the U.S. “Fed officials have been scrambling to scare investors almost every … Read more
LONDON—Prime Minister Liz Truss looked to reassure the British public and rattled investors that her plan to cut taxes wouldn’t lead to prolonged financial instability, arguing in a series of interviews on Thursday that the country had been buffeted by global shocks rather than her government’s reforms and that her policies would result in faster … Read more
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller sees a “hard landing” for the U.S. economy by the end of 2023 as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening will result in a recession. “I will be stunned if we don’t have a recession in ‘23. I don’t know the timing but certainly by the end of ‘23. I will … Read more
China’s central bank took another step to shore up the yuan, making it more expensive for traders and institutions to bet against the currency after it weakened rapidly against the dollar. The People’s Bank of China said on Monday that financial institutions selling foreign-exchange forward contracts will be subject to a 20% risk-reserve ratio, up … Read more
The dollar dropped sharply against the Japanese yen on Thursday, in the first intervention to support its currency since 1998, after the Bank of Japan bucked the trend of other central banks by not hiking interest rates. The dollar USDJPY, -0.86% dropped swiftly, trading at 142.20 yen from 144.08 yen on Wednesday, in action timed … Read more
The U.S. dollar is experiencing a once-in-a-generation rally, a surge that threatens to exacerbate a slowdown in growth and amplify inflation headaches for global central banks. The dollar’s role as the primary currency used in global trade and finance means its fluctuations have widespread impacts. The currency’s strength is being felt in the fuel and … Read more
Quantitative monetary easing is credited for juicing stock market returns and boosting other speculative asset values by flooding markets with liquidity as the Federal Reserve snapped up trillions of dollars in bonds during both the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in particular. Investors and policy makers may be underestimating what happens as … Read more