If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
This report takes a closer look at monetary policy, what the FOMC is trying to accomplish, where voting members are in the process and ultimately, how far we have traveled from "home."
Professor Krugman keeps fighting a straw-man argument. The real issue isn't a choice between stimulus and austerity. After all, we've had nearly five years of quite remarkable monetary and fiscal policy stimulus.
The banks aren't creating anything real, just imaginary financial instruments. But ensuring that more people have access to a college education will only improve society in the long run. So why are we bleeding poor students dry while giving big banks preferential treatment?
It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. Here's why.
The Independent Foreclosure Review process has been an utter disappointment. More than four million families have been waiting for answers since the IFR was instituted in April 2011.
To do their job properly, financial regulators -- the people in charge of securing our economic future -- must understand how their policies affect these communities. And that's why we desperately need people of color in these positions.
Each turn of the cycle brings tighter global connectivity and integration, everything riding on hair trigger algorithmic trading seeking to squeeze out the last drops of advantage. Many believe this interdependency has reduced the risk of catastrophic failure.
Expect next week's policy meetings to signal that central bank stand ready to step in, once again, to maintain the disconnect between buoyant equity markets and sluggish economic conditions -- not as an end in itself but, given Congressional dysfunction, as virtually the only way today to support economic activity (and it is rather imperfect as the expected benefits come with growing costs and risks). Look for the Federal Reserve to alter the thrust of its policy narrative. Rather than advance its prior emphasis on tapering its monthly $85 billion purchases of market securities, it will seek to reassure markets by iterating its willingness to do more if needed. Across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank will face increasing pressure to cut its interest rate (currently at 0.75%) and liberalize the collateral requirements it imposes -- both meant to loosen monetary conditions.
When multinational corporations' leaders reach this higher level of personal maturity, they will end their rush to the bottom of low wages and poor community and environmental behavior and lead the planet in our rise from the bottom in these areas.
The drop in gold is puzzling considering gold's status as a safe-haven asset. Some attribute the drop in gold to the fact Cyprus may have to sell its gold reserves. But last Monday's drop was just a continuation of a long slide in the price of gold over the past several months.
Let's face it. The biggest bank regulator in the U.S. is an abject failure. Worse, it's costing us oodles of money, and not just from bounced checks.
All the evidence suggests that the Fed has turned into an entity which is too big to fail/jail/bail or prosecute, manages the financial system on behalf of Wall Street and is accountable to no one.
There are rising asset prices and stretching valuations. But not because there's a bubble so much as because there is a Bernanke.
When former Reagan OMB Director David Stockman charged Ben Bernanke with "exploding the Fed balance sheet" in his recent New York Times op-ed piece a...
As we have suggested many times over the past several months and years, stocks are increasingly viewed as a more attractive investment versus bonds. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is not necessarily an indicator of continued strength either.
Most Popular The Fed Stories
