Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Central Banks' Efforts to Cheapen US$ Swaps

Today's move by central banks around the world to increase the liquidity of the US$, by reducing the transactions costs of currency swaps, effectively lowers the 'price' of the US$ to European banks that are now under pressure to serve as lenders of last resort to the public purse.  It is not quite a debasement of the US$, but the move can potentially wiped out billions of dollar denominated public debt.  It's akin to printing a lot of money to pay the bills.  It does not address any of the structural problems caused by runaway government spending.  But it is a clever move with the potential long term consequence of domestic U.S. price inflation. It's payback for the European worker's funding of the U.S. consumer's spending habit.  Merry Christmas!

1 comment: