Ryland Taniguchi's (ryland007) Blog

Under the Bretton Woods system, interest rates were determined by the demand and supply for money.   If a government ran deficits, government borrowing would push up interest rates and crowd out the private sector. After the Bretton Woods system collapsed, governments could print money at will.  ...

After studying two Economics classes in undergraduate school and one in MBA school, I thought at the time that it was a bunch of nonsense.   As a major in philosophy (minor in existentialism) and an investor with years of experience losing money in the markets, I personally doubt that we can ever...

In 1985 during Reagan’s presidency, the average home price hit $100,800 and a dozen eggs cost a whooping $.80.  Those were the good ‘ole days when gas prices were $1.20 a gallon.    How did gas prices jump up to $3.85 a gallon?  Lets analyze why gas prices rise and assess whether they’ll continue...

The Federal Funds Rate has historically been a lead indicator for the trend of interest rates.  Federal law requires that banks maintain a specific reserve of money at all times.  Because it can be difficult to meet these requirements, banks commonly loan money to banks who need money to meet Fed...

The US current account deficit for two decades played a central role in fueling economic, corporate and monetary growth in export-driven countries around the world.  If the US could continue to expand its current account deficits and imports, the global economy would continue to grow and prosper....

When long-term low rates cause the global economy to overheat and over-invest, the world produces more than it consumes and inevitably prices will dramatically decline.  Falling prices create a vicious cycle of lower consumption, lower corporate profitability, bank failures caused by non-performi...

History shows that powerful nations manipulate global currencies for their own domestic advancements.  In light of this propensity, nations have resorted to gold standards as a self-correcting mechanism for leveling out global trade imbalances.   A Gold Standard creates an interdependency of curr...

The 2007 real estate bubble was caused by global trade imbalances.  When the US runs a trade deficit with China, the following options become available to China: 1) Convert the dollars into their own currency which weakens the dollar and thereby makes Chinese exports less competitive in the US ma...

Global trade imbalances over the last two decades created an overvaluation of asset values in both the US stock and real estate markets.  We’ll explore how trade imbalances exploded the process of credit expansion and created bubbles that eventually burst. Recent history has been strongly influen...

WHY ARE INTEREST RATES SO LOW NOW? Based on recent trends in the Japanese bond market, I am predicting that interest rates in the USA will go lower before they start going higher.   In June 2010, Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan says that Japan is at “the risk of collapse” similar to the Greek so...