One reason Congress is broken? Negative ads cripple even the winners.

By David B. McLennan – These ads matter — but not in the ways that the candidates and their campaign consultants hope they do. When the negative barrage of ads is over, the winner will likely emerge with an approval rating well under 50 percent.

Majority of winning candidates take office without the majority support of the citizens they represent. They can no longer legitimately cite the “will of the people” in proposing legislation — because they are not in a position of strength when it comes to public support. Elected officials now often have little or no honeymoon period – even with the voters who supported them. more> http://tinyurl.com/l6vox44

Big Banks Face Another Round of U.S. Charges

By Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg – With evidence mounting that a number of foreign and American banks colluded to alter the price of foreign currencies, the largest and least regulated financial market, prosecutors are aiming to file charges against at least one bank by the end of the year.

Yet the breadth of the suspected wrongdoing in the currency inquiry — Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and UBS are among the dozen or so banks under investigation — might distinguish it from the piecemeal nature of the crisis-era investigations. more> http://tinyurl.com/msouwc6

Here Comes the Internet of Money

Bloomberg – Money and payment systems, the underpinnings of all financial activity, are still traditional in one respect: They rely on central third parties — banks — to record and vouch for transactions.

Digital currencies dispense with this. They create a decentralized record — a “distributed ledger” — which allows buyers and sellers to interact directly. more> http://tinyurl.com/mx4unrg

The Rise And Fall And Rise And Fall Of King Dollar, Part 2

BOOK REVIEW

Wealth of Nations, Author: Adam Smith.

Money, Gold, and History, Author: Lewis E. Lehrman.

The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Author: John Maynard Keynes.

By Ralph Benko – The mechanics of the reserve currency system preempt these funds’ ready availability for “the maintenance of industry.”

The mechanics of the dollar as a reserve asset, therefore, finance bigger government while insidiously preempting productivity, jobs, and equitable prosperity.

As Steve Forbes pithily puts it, “You’ve got to get the money right.” 

Time to lift the reserve currency curse. Time to fix the dollar. more> http://tinyurl.com/men5vk7

Related>

• The Rise And Fall And Rise And Fall Of King Dollar
• The Demonization Of American Capitalism, Jonathan Adelman, Forbes

The Wonks Battle for the Fed

By Noah Smith – These days, essentially all of the pre-2008 models have fallen out of favor, replaced by models where finance is the key. Most people would agree that’s a good thing.

But those models are going to have just as hard a time getting conclusive support from the data, because there just isn’t much data.

So again, conclusions about whether the Fed should print money and buy bonds to fight recessions will come down to intuition. As Robert Waldmann says, “The models change but the policy proposals remain the same.” more> http://tinyurl.com/k2vkost