Federal Reserve

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Palin to Bernanke: Cease and Desist!

Alaskan slams 'quantitative easing' policy

(Newser) - Chinese and German finance chiefs enraged by Fed chief Ben Bernanke's plans to inject $600 billion into the economy by buying Treasury bonds have found a somewhat unlikely ally: Sarah Palin. The Alaskan slammed the "quantitative easing" policy in a speech to a trade group yesterday, using terminology foreign...

Obama Enters G20 Currency Fray

Germany blasts US currency policy ahead of summit

(Newser) - Days ahead of a G20 summit, President Obama has weighed in on an international debate over currency, as the US seeks to cull huge German and Chinese trade surpluses, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a New Delhi press conference, Obama seemed supportive of the Fed’s decision to buy...

Bernanke's Rationale Looks Too Rosy

Felix Salmon isn't thrilled with Fed chief's op-ed

(Newser) - The Fed's controversial plan to buy $600 billion worth of Treasuries to stimulate growth has brought the phrase "quantitative easing" out from the obscurity of financial blogs. Will it work? Two columns today on the subject from Ben Bernanke himself in the Washington Post and Felix Salmon at Reuters...

Fed Will Pump $600B Into Economy
Fed Will Pump $600B
Into Economy
Nov 3, 2010 2:09 PM CDT

Fed Will Pump $600B Into Economy

Hopes to drive down rates, stimulate hiring

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve is making a bold effort to invigorate the economy by announcing it will buy hundreds of billions more in Treasury bonds. The Fed says it will buy $600 billion of long-term government bonds by the middle of 2011 to further drive down rates on mortgages and other...

Time for Big Business to Squash Tea Party

Corporate America must battle extremism

(Newser) - Big business may see the Tea Party as harmless, or perhaps even helpful, but it's time to “take a closer look:" the movement’s aspirations aren’t in its interests, writes Robert Reich in the Christian Science Monitor . Some 60% of Tea Partiers want, for example, to dump...

China: Feeble Dollar Is Hurting Our Economy

'Out of control' printing of dollars is triggering inflation, says minister

(Newser) - China has countered American anger over its artificially low currency with a complaint of its own. America is printing dollars at an "out of control" rate, sending up commodity prices around the world and saddling China with "imported inflation," the country's commerce minister grouses. Inflation in China—...

Bernanke: Fed Probing Foreclosure Scandal

Will examine debacle's effect on real-estate market

(Newser) - Federal banking regulators are examining whether mortgage companies cut corners on their own procedures when they moved to foreclose on people's homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today. "We are looking intensively at the firms' policies, procedures, and internal controls," Bernanke said. "We take violations of...

Bernanke: Fed Prepared to Take Action

Says inflation, employment both too low

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke signaled today that the Federal Reserve intends to take unconventional steps to further stimulate the economy. Bernanke said that given the low rate of inflation—it’s running below the Fed’s 2% target—and high unemployment rate, “there would appear—all else being equal—to be...

Obama Fed Nominee Wins Nobel in Economics

Shares award for work on unemployment

(Newser) - Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and British-Cypriot citizen Christopher Pissarides won the 2010 Nobel economics prize today for developing theories that help explain how economic policies can affect unemployment. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says the trio won the prestigious award "for their analysis of markets with...

Flush With Cash, US Companies Buy Own Stock

Instead of, for example, hiring

(Newser) - American companies are sitting on record piles of cash right now, but instead of spending it to hire more workers or increase productivity, most are choosing to buy back huge quantities of their own stock, the Washington Post reports. This year firms have announced $273 billion in buybacks, more than...

Fed: We Could Help Economy...
 Fed: We Could 
 Help Economy... 
Sep 22, 2010 11:05 AM CDT

Fed: We Could Help Economy...

...But we won't just yet

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve yesterday reassured the public that it was “prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed” to support the recovery, but that it didn’t think it was needed just yet. But merely suggesting the possibility was enough to send markets in the right direction, with interest on...

Greenspan: Forget Stimulus, Let Markets Take Over

Government spending is less effective than we hoped

(Newser) - Alan Greenspan says stimulus spending isn't perking up the economy as much as hoped—and that at this point, it's better to let businesses and the markets handle the recovery, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We’d probably be better off doing less than more” because “you’d...

Bernanke: Fed Still Has Tricks Up Its Sleeves

... but it's not going to use them unless things get even worse

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke admitted that economic growth was “less vigorous than expected,” in his speech at Jackson Hole today, but said the Federal Reserve wasn’t going to act just yet. The Fed Funds Rate is near zero, but Bernanke said the central bank still had some “unconventional...

Krugman: We're Not Bouncing Back

'Policy-makers are in denial'

(Newser) - You know that recovery officials promise is underway? It's not happening, scoffs Paul Krugman, and he blames federal officials' reluctance to take responsibility. "This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy-makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact," he writes in...

Bernanke, Please Heed Your Own Advice
Bernanke, Please Heed
Your Own Advice
paul krugman
Aug 13, 2010 1:02 PM CDT

Bernanke, Please Heed Your Own Advice

Your dithering is keeping Americans unemployed

(Newser) - If only Ben Bernanke would listen to himself—or at least the self that blasted Japan's government in the '90s for passively allowing the economy to wither, writes Paul Krugman. Back then, he urged Japan to "abandon its excessive caution" and accused economic officials of using flimsy technical excuses...

Fed to Meet as Economy Sputters

Central bank expected to tackle deflation danger

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve meets today to decide what medicine the wheezing American economy needs, and world markets will be keenly watching for the outcome. With no new stimulus spending from Congress likely, the central bank is the only body poised to react to signs that the recovery is running out...

Shut Up, Alan Greenspan
 Shut Up, Alan Greenspan 
OPINION
Aug 3, 2010 1:37 PM CDT

Shut Up, Alan Greenspan

Ex-Fed chairman can't get anything right

(Newser) - Former fed chairman Alan Greenspan warned this weekend that the US is headed for a double-dip recession, which might be frightening news, if we didn’t have a conflicting opinion—from former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan! Just 4 months ago, Greenspan said odds of a double-dip recession had fallen drastically....

Bernanke: Unemployment Will Be High for Years

Financial picture is 'unusually uncertain'

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke isn't exactly spreading good tidings in his semiannual report to Congress. Two of the lowlights, from the New York Times :
  • Unemployment: Expect it to remain high, as in well above 7%, through the end of President Obama's first term. Bernanke said it will take "a significant amount
...

Gutless Fed Ignores Deflation
 Gutless Fed Ignores Deflation 
Paul Krugman
Jul 12, 2010 11:26 AM CDT

Gutless Fed Ignores Deflation

Bernanke should, and does, know better

(Newser) - Back in 2002, academic and then-lowly Fed official Ben Bernanke gave a speech explaining that we needn’t worry about falling into a deflation trap like the one that has long gripped Japan, because the Fed had all the tools to stop it. Well, now Bernanke runs the Fed, and...

US Economy Needs Less Caution, More Spending
US Economy Needs Less Caution, More Spending
Paul Krugman
May 21, 2010 11:34 AM CDT

US Economy Needs Less Caution, More Spending

Forget deficit; fret over threat of 'lost decade'

(Newser) - No matter what you've heard panicked commentators say, the US is not the next Greece, and the government is not trying to do or spend too much in the face of the slumping economy. In reality, Washington isn't doing or spending enough, and as a result, the US could be...

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