Tag: US dollar
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US Banks Hit By Swiss Franc Fallout
In the tightly knit world of global finance, what happens halfway around the world can have devastating effects at home. Case in point: the fallout from the recent Swiss bank decision to drop its cap on the franc, which is hitting even US banks and the sturdy dollar. The Swiss National Bank’s move to let…
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Who’s Winning the Currency Wars?
It sounds like the plot of a bad science fiction movie. A mysterious, invisible war is going on behind the scenes of the world’s major banks, with cutthroat brinkmanship and dirty strategies to get the upper hand in the global currency markets. It’s not the plot of a grade B flick, but by many accounts,…
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Bond Rates Plunge – But Where’s the Crisis?
Ever since the financial collapse and recession of a few years ago, financial experts have been watching the sky or signs of falling. They’ve scrutinized the behavior o US assets at home and on the world stage for sings of another collapse and recession. Currently topping the list of assets to worry about: the plunging…
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The Bitcoin Bounces Back
After a rough couple of years, the Bitcoin is surging back with a vengeance. Just a year after its fall from grace in the Silk Road drug site scandal, the digital currency’s market value has even beaten gold in the world’s markets. Whether hailed as a welcome alternative to government-controlled currencies or despised as a…
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The Dollar: The World’s Go-To Currency
When your country’s facing economic turmoil, who you gonna call? For worried consumers around the globe, the obvious answer is the trusty US dollar. Just ask the Russians. As Russia slides deeper into economic crisis, dollars are in high demand, followed by the euro. That leaves the country’s own currency, the ruble, far behind. As…
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Looking Ahead: Another Financial Crisis?
As the US economy regains its feet after the massive financial collapse of 2008, economists are turning their gaze to the future: what will trigger the next major economic crisis – not just for the US, but also for the global economy as a whole? And a bigger question: can it be prevented? To answer…
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Is the Fed Finally Ending the Stimulus?
Is it curtains for QE3? The Federal Reserve has announced that Quantitative Easing, round three, better known as QE3, is coming to an end – although key interest rates won’t rise until mid-2015. The end of the stimulus also marks the end of a massive experiment in government intervention that sparked debate both at home…
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US Dollar Rides High in World Markets
After the roller coaster ride of recent recession years, the US dollar is on top again – at least for now. And its strong showing against other world currencies may be due to the Federal Reserve’s much-maligned Quantitative Easing plan. According to a recent Business Insider article on the performance of the dollar and other…
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The Fed’s Stimulus Strategy: Silencing Skeptics?
In the end, did hard easing work? That contradictory term for Qualitative Easing version 3, the Federal Reserve’s controversial and much disputed stimulus plan, has been in the news and on the minds of economists and financial advisers since it was conceived in 2012 as the latest attempt to boost the nation’s economic recovery. From…
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International Conflict Hits Americans In the Wallet
It’s a small, small world, as the old song goes. And that’s increasingly obvious as events across the globe have the power to hit Americans hard at home. In a world that’s ever more connected, global conflicts can quickly become local ones, with consequences for the US dollar, energy reserves and consumer goods, and the…