News about Paul Volcker

It cuts the real value of public debt and lets taxation rise by stealth. We are seeing the latter here as tax bands are frozen. That suggests buying real assets, notably property, and the shares of companies with pricing power - those that produce goods and services that customers have to buy. It means not keeping cash in low-interest bank accounts. And it means not holding government debt. Let someone else take the risk.

See the explanation for gold's recent surge as three parts, all related to fear. People are concerned that the current bull market has pushed a bit too far, and that a little diversification could be beneficial. Two, they are worried that this may be their second bout of inflation, just as in the 1980s. And three, it is not yet clear how western societies will fare well in the face of significant social and economic turmoil. I'm secure on this last point, but the gold market insists that many people aren't aware of it.

Governments are seen fiddling with central bank autonomy at their own risk, according to some. However, with the current crisis in financial markets causing turmoil, perhaps it is time for a rethink.

In afternoon trading, the pound fell to just $1.1403 against the dollar, the lowest level since 1985, and the Japanese yen was also crushed, with the greenback bringing the Japanese yen to a 24-year high of nearly 145 yen to the dollar. The changes came as the Federal Reserve maintains its tough rate hike policy in an attempt to push inflation back to its 2% target.

Are the new incumbents on Downing Street as ruthless as Todd Boehly, Chelsea FC's owner, then Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's first moves would have been to dismiss the Bank of England's governor. War or not, after 25 years of steady-as-goal inflation, Andrew Bailey has been at the helm as consumer prices rise by 10.1% year on year.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that interest rates would keep rising'sharply' for a long time as the Fed sought to reindent stubbornly high inflation. Powell said, 'Our job to provide price stability is inexorbitable,' and that restoring price stability would take'some time.' Despite a string of jumbo interest hikes that have raised the Fed's policy rate from near zero to 2.5 percent, inflation has been riding high and remains nearing a 40-year high at 8.5 percent in July. The July unemployment rate was down a marginally from June's peak of 9.1 percent.

It's been described as the Davos of banking. Instead of skiing, the main after-hours activity for the 120 or so central bankers and economists who attend the Jackson Hole Symposium is hiking or fly-fishing. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell (pictured) has been the most aggressive in raising rates since March, taking them up by 225 basis points.