After three years of doing a wonderful job of maintaining stable prices while doing a terrible job of maximizing employment, …
Federal Reserve
At Long Last, Bernanke Acts
Finally! For too long, Ben Bernanke and the Fed have been talking and acting as if our greatest risk were inflation, as if the dollar were a delicate flower and America were in danger of becoming Zimbabwe. With new monetary stimulus and bold rhetoric to accompany it, the Fed has made it clear that our greatest risk is stagnation, that …
It’s Ben Bernanke’s Economy Now
Here’s why you should care about the Federal Reserve’s latest round of bond-buying, announced Thursday by the central bank: One man has assumed the task of getting the flagging U.S. economy back on track. He says he’ll work for …
Mitt Romney’s Monetary Policy Mystery Continues
A while back I wrote about the opacity of Romney’s views on monetary policy, so it’s worth circling back around given that he touched on the issue briefly in his interview on Meet the Press. Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript:
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before: Ben Bernanke Stays the Course
Is the Fed to Blame for JPMorgan’s $2 Billion Blow-Up?
The JPMorgan $2-billion-trading-loss story is nearly a week old, and the news has predictably gone through the various spin cycles of the political right and left. Initially, progressives pounced on the loss as reason to strengthen the yet-to-be-fully-implemented Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Conservatives then pushed back on that …
Two More Fed Nominees Blocked: A Missed Chance for Obama
Two years ago, in April of 2010, President Obama nominated economist Peter Diamond to the board of the Federal Reserve. Four months later, after Republicans in the Senate blocked his appointment, Obama nominated him again. After almost a full year of waiting, Diamond gave up and withdrew his name from consideration last summer. …
Chairman Eeyore: Bernanke’s Dour Outlook Explained
Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve have been taking some big leaps in recent months: policy prescriptions tied to explicit dates, dire warnings to Congress, open press conferences, college lectures and even a Twitter feed. So while it’s still natural to expect characteristic caution from the Fed chairman, it’s not impossible to imagine …
Ben Bernanke Warns Congress in Its Own Language
There’s “a massive fiscal cliff” in our future, Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. To anyone accustomed to breathless congressional debate, this metaphorical escarpment must sound familiar. …
The Federal Reserve’s Rule-Making Secrecy
The Wall Street Journal has a thoroughly reported story today on the rise in regulatory secrecy at the Federal Reserve. On 45 of 47 of the draft or final regulatory measures voted on by members since the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in July 2010, the Fed’s five voting members have e-mailed their votes in, rather than …
Is the Fed Undermining the Recovery?
Ben Bernanke is playing chicken with the real economy. By most measures the economy in the past few months seems to be improving. The unemployment rate has been falling. Manufacturing appears to be perking up. U.S. car companies are back in business. And home sales even rose in December. Yet, on Wednesday, the U.S. central bank said that …
Obama (Finally) Looks to Fill Empty Fed Seats
Way back in April 2010, Obama nominated three economists to fill out empty seats on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. Two sailed through, but one, Peter Diamond, was snared in the net of the Senate, where Republican Richard Shelby was unconvinced of the Nobel-winner’s monetary bona fides. After a long back-and-forth, Diamond …
Ben Bernanke Bites Back
First let me apologize to all the supporters of Ron Paul who believe that the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke didn’t save the world in 2008 but rather just delayed the inevitable day of reckoning when our walls will be papered with worthless greenbacks and we’ll retreat to our bunkers to fight it out frontier-style. (I’ve never …
