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. …
Federal Reserve
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 …
Fed Keeps Trying to Save Europe’s Banks; Ron Paul Frowns
Last week I noted the spike in ECB drafts on the Fed’s swap lines, which were reopened in May 2010 to help keep dollar liquidity flowing as Europe entered its sovereign debt crisis. This morning the major central banks, including the Fed, ECB, and the Banks of Japan, England, Switzerland and Canada, announced that as of Dec. 5, 2011 …
Newsflash: The Fed Saved the World
Bloomberg has a well-researched story out today based on a massive Freedom of Information Act inspection of the Fed’s lending during the financial crisis from August 2007 through April 2010. The headline-making numbers: In sum, the Fed gave the banks more than $7.7 trillion in loans, and banks may have made $13 billion in part thanks …
Can the Fed Help Save Europe’s Banks?
The U.S. Federal Reserve has been pumping billions of dollars into the European banking system in recent weeks in an attempt to help stabilize the continent’s financial crisis. And while the effort remains small, it is likely …
Rebranding the Federal Reserve’s Printing Presses as Economic Rejuvenators
On Sunday, the Obama Administration’s former top economist, Christina Romer, put to paper an idea she has been bandying about for a while: The Federal Reserve, she argues, should restate its mission and commit to returning the …
Republicans Are Right to Pressure the Fed, Even If What They Want Is Wrong
Monetary policy is dull, so the Republican Party’s bizarre advocacy of job-killing tight-money policies during a jobs crisis hasn’t gotten much attention. But political food fights are exciting, so today’s letter from GOP leaders pressuring Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke not to approve more monetary stimulus is likely to get a lot …
The Fed Is Debating Whether to Give the Economy Another Jolt: Does Obama Care?
The most important news to emerge from the Federal Reserve’s June meeting and Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Wednesday testimony before Congress is that the central bank is open to taking further action to juice the economy if the recovery remains stalled, and that the Federal Open Market Committee is divided on what to do. Another round of …