Article By Reuven Brenner
Now, as during World War II and up to 1951, the US Federal Reserve practiced what is now called quantitative easing (QE). Then, as now, nominal interest rates were low and the real ones negative: The Fed’s policy did not so much induce investments as it allowed the government to accumulate debts, and prevent default.
... Reuven Brenner holds the Repap Chair at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. The article draws on his Force of Finance (2002).
Demography is not destiny, but it sheds light on the events leading to these two referenda, the Quebec one taking place in 1995, and the Scottish one last week, and has also implications concerning the changing voting ages around the world. In most countries the voting age is 18. However, the Scottish National Party's voted unanimously in October 2007 to lower it to 16, which subsequently became law. Argentina's Cristina Kirchner's party did the same in 2012, in preparation for the 2013 elections.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, stick to their firm belief that a two-state solution is the only way to end the long-running Middle East conflict involving Israel and Palestine They are mistaken.
