Did the Federal Reserve cause the Arab Spring?

Adam Almqvist — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:13:34 +0000

No, it is not a conspiracy theory. The Fed did not collaborate with the Pentagon and CIA to topple Arab dictators. But this article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8492078/How-the-Fed-triggered-the-Arab-Spring-uprisings-in-two-easy-graphs.html) in the Daily Telegraph (not usually reliable for nuanced analyses) makes the case that the Fed's policy of Quantitative Easing – a policy whereby the fed buys back Treasury Bills in order to increase money supply and excess reserves among retail banks – drove international commodity prices to rise substantially. These price hikes, in turn, severely affected bread prices in the Arab World to which many commentators attribute the particular timing of the outbreak of the revolts. The author of the article, the economist Andrew Lilico, also presents historical data that demonstrates how revolutions usually converges with high bread prices.

Blog & what it is for

Focus Editor — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:04:49 +0000

This is the blog section where we can write more personal entries, like how our internships are going, or the search for them,