Subject:
central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a banking institution granted the exclusive privilege to lend a government its currency. Like a normal commercial bank, a central bank charges interest on the loans made to borrowers, primarily the government of whichever country the bank exists for, and to other commercial banks, typically as a ‘lender of last resort’. However, a central bank is distinguished from a normal commercial bank because it has a monopoly on creating the currency of that nation, which is loaned to the government in the form of legal tender. It is a bank that can lend money to other banks in times of need. Its primary function is to provide the nation’s money supply, but more active duties include controlling subsidized-loan interest rates, and acting as a lender of last resort to the banking sector during times of financial crisis (private banks often being integral to the national financial system). It may also have supervisory powers, to ensure that banks and other financial institutions do not behave recklessly or fraudulently.
Most richer countries today have an “independent” central bank, that is, one which operates under rules designed to prevent political interference. Examples include the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve System in the United States. Some central banks are publicly owned, and others are privately owned. For example, the United States Federal Reserve is a quasi-public corporation. (Wikipedia Jan 2010)
World Economy
By John Schroy, on February 19th, 2006 | 
It used to be that the term ‘international liquidity’ meant the relative amount of resources available to a nation’s monetary authorities that could be used to settle a balance of payments deficit. In the days of the gold standard, this would mean access to gold that could be used to redeem a nation’s currency held by foreigners.
After Bretton Woods and the advent of the dollar-gold exchange standard, liquidity came to mean access to dollars, either held as reserves or as credit lines, or the SDR system maintained by the International Monetary Fund.
US Trade Deficit
By John Schroy, on March 31st, 2005 | 
Since the 1980s, the US. trade deficit has been a constant force in the American economy, rising more some years than others, while corporate bond yields have been generally falling.
Because rising trade deficits lead to increased demand for fixed income securities, and because issuers have not fully met this demand, the price of bonds has risen for twenty years, while bond yields have fallen.
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