Americans are worried that a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) could end up compromising essential freedoms, further centralizing monetary policy, and making the country’s currency vulnerable to hacking, according to a recently published Fed survey. In January last year, the Fed published a white paper on what a CBDC could look like. It asked…

Commentary Recent turmoil in the banking sector has focused attention on the role of central banks, both in economies and in bank supervision and control.  This will discuss central banks, like the U.S. Federal Reserve, and some of the tools they use to implement their policies, which can be opaque to the average person. First,…

Commentary With the Federal Reserve (Fed) committed to raising interest rates still further, the future of the housing market remains problematic. The higher mortgage rates rise, the less affordable housing will become for the average American. Buying and building will accordingly fall even farther than they already have. In time, however, a counter-trend will likely…

Commentary Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dismissed the notion that the Federal Reserve should take a hand in making climate policy. “Without explicit congressional legislation, it would be inappropriate for us to use our monetary policy or supervisory tools to promote a greener economy or to achieve other climate-based goals,” he said at a forum…

HSBC, one of the banks in Hong Kong that issues banknotes, raised the Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) prime rate by 0.125 percent on Sept. 23. The raise came after the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced a 0.75 percent rate increase in the federal funds at midnight on Sept. 22. The rate hike signifies Hong Kong has…

Investors are increasingly betting on a 75-basis-point hike by the Federal Reserve at its July meeting, after almost two-thirds had predicted an increase of 100 basis points only a few days prior. During the week starting July 11, the markets briefly anticipated that the central bank would raise interest rates by a full percentage point….

Larry Summers, who served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, has said the Federal Reserve failed to anticipate current inflation levels and that price increases can only be arrested by “dislocation” of the economy. “Frankly, I think in 2021, our central bank lost its way,” Summers said in a July 15 interview with Bloomberg’s “Wall…

Commentary Real estate increasingly will face two contrary forces. On the one hand, buying will suffer as rising mortgage rates render home ownership less affordable. On the other hand, ongoing concerns about inflation will drive buyers into real estate, for history shows that it provides inflation protection for their wealth, especially in the face of…

President Joe Biden is set to meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as American households grapple with the effects of high inflation. The meeting, which will take place on May 31, comes weeks after Powell’s second term as Fed Chair was confirmed by the Senate. Biden will congratulate Powell on the Senate confirmation during…