• Norway makes three 28 Oct 2009
• After the FOMC, Norway and the UK 9 Aug 2011
• Byron Wien: Ten Surprises for 2010 4 Jan 2010

• Norway makes three 28 Oct 2009
• FOMC considered offering unlimited quantitative easing to target long-term interest rates 24 Nov 2010
• Market Sentiment Remains Poor Ahead Of FOMC 9 Aug 2011

• Reserve Bank of Australia lifts rates again 2 Nov 2009
• China raises reserve requirements, more to come 18 Mar 2011
• Is the Fed going to raise rates? 13 Jun 2008

The financial climate has changed radically from when Norway’s Oil Fund was established in 1990. Norway has built up its savings since then by selling enormous quantities of oil and gas, and employing many thousands of workers. By coincidence, an even larger sum of $600 billion recently has been created overnight – electronically on computer keyboards, by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board as part of Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing policy (QE2). This money has been provided to spur bank liquidity, in hope that they can earn their way out of the losses they suffer from their bad mortgage loans and other gambles.

The aim of these banks is the same as that of Norway’s Oil Fund: to make money. As the financial press has noticed, nearly the entire $600 billion has been sent abroad – to the BRIC countries and raw materials exporters in strong balance-of-payments positions, whose economies are not as “loaned up” as those of the United States and Europe, where Norway invests most of its money. So while Norway is putting its money into these countries, their financial managers are jumping ship – sending electronic dollars and euros to the economies that use their own sovereign wealth funds in the opposite way from what Norway is doing.

• Going Off on Rogoff – There is No Hard Debt Constraint for Fiat Currency 2 Mar 2010
• Is Gold Just Another Fiat Currency? 31 May 2010
• The Age of the Fiat Currency: A 38-year experiment in inflation 27 Apr 2009

• ECB credit easing by buying debt from Greece and Spain analogous to Fed buying California and Illinois munis 5 Jul 2010
• Norway makes three 28 Oct 2009
• Buffett is buying utilities, should you? 11 Nov 2008

• BBH CurrencyView: Dollar Bid on Poor European Sentiment, EM Lower Too 16 Apr 2010
• US Dollar Tone Improves as Market Awaits Results from EU Fin Min, FOMC Tomorrow 15 Mar 2010
• Dollar Lower On Market Adjustments 26 Mar 2010

• The Swedish banking crisis response – a model for the future? 13 Aug 2008
• A few thoughts about the banking crisis response in the United States 17 Mar 2009
• The Swedish roots of the UK bailout plan 8 Oct 2008

• China wants all of Repsol’s Latin American oil assets 6 Jul 2009
• Is Mexico imploding? 17 Mar 2009
• Barclays gets “core Lehman” assets 16 Sep 2008

• BoE makes a dramatic 1 1/2 point cut 6 Nov 2008
• Paul Krugman: Liquidity trap makes future ‘more or less speculation’ 13 Jun 2009