Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

October 1, 2016 was an important day for international money (monies) and an important day in the history of the People's Republic of China. The International Monetary Fund added the Chinese yuan to a basket of currencies that it uses for its loans, known as the Special Drawing Rights currencies. The SDR list also includes the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the British pound, and the euro. That's it. Full stop. With the addition of the yuan there are bow as many SFR currencies as there are veto power countries in the UN Security Council. One confusing fact about the yuan is semantic: it seems to be used as a synonym with "renminbi." Actually, the yuan is the base unit, the renminbi is the currency, in much the same way that the "pound" is the base unit of the British "sterling." But over the last few decades, "pound" has become the most customary term in any context, and "sterling" is finding itself moving into the linguisti...

I received an annual report from a money market fund recently. It includes a Q-and-A with two portfolio managers: Joanne M. Driscoll and Jonathan M. Topper. I'll pass along a bit of their wisdom here. The first question is, "Please describe the market environment for the 12-month reporting period ended September 30, 2015?" They respond in part thus: "The steep decline in commodity prices was especially noteworthy as low oil prices have eased inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy -- keeping inflation well below the Fed's 2% target for price stability. ... the central bank left its benchmark rate unchanged at its main policy making committee meeting in July, but added that it expected to begin raising short-term rates before the end of 2015. At their September meeting, Fed policymakers delayed raising the key short-term interest rate, citing weaker macroeconomic conditions abroad and the heightened market volatility brought on by the People's Ban...