Bernanke

One of the most fascinating New Economy consequences to emerge from the Eliot Spitzer sex sting is the apparent multi-hundred thousand dollar score bagged by Emperor's Club VIP escort and budding recording artist Ashley Alexandra Dupre. She had a couple of tracks listed on Dragon Slayer upstart and...

As any reader of this space may be able to tell by now, I'm a big fan of bailouts. Some believe that the markets should go through the pain of what they have wrought on themselves in order to come out the other side cleaner, stronger, faster. Not me. If...

I woke up yesterday morning and found myself paralyzed. I lay in bed and couldn't move. I didn't even know what I was worried about, I was so worried. Eventually, I got myself up, shaved with trembling hands, and made my way to the office. I got to my desk...

Bernanke can't deny Greenspan's murder of the U.S. dollar because Bernanke is Greenspan.

Put aside for a moment the Federal Reserve Banking system's impairment of free-market capitalism with its supply/demand override of the price discovery mechanism when it artificially, (and for the most part arbitrarily) sets interest rates at...

Word comes from Megan in Chicago, one of our most valued and assiduous correspondents, that this humble blog has been blocked by the IT police of her company. Megan writes:

I can tell you one thing that is going the wrong way. Bing's Blog page has been...

Is this the real price?
Is this just fantasy?
Financial landslide
No escape from reality

Open your eyes
Look at your buys and see
I'm now a poor boy
High-yielding casualty

Because I bought it high, watched it blow Rating high, value low
...

This Easter week, an interesting way to look at the U.S. financial markets is through the prism of religion -- and, in my case, Catholicism. Easter is the holiest and most dramatically tragic week of the Christian calendar. We begin with the euphoria and adulation of Palm Sunday. From these...

The Fed over the weekend made its intervention. Back on November 8, 2007 clouds were forming that presaged this move. Bank announcements of billion-dollar writeoffs to cover subprime losses were disconnected from analysts, such as one at the Royal Bank of Scotland, saying that the full extent of the...

Just a look at the front page of cnnmoney today is enough to give even the strong of stomach the extreme willies. Next to a headline that says, "Wall Street Braces for Ugly Day," and video featuring a scary dude warning about the dangers of inflation, is a deck of...

The Federal Reserve cut the Federal Funds rate by 50 basis points on Tuesday. I think this was a big mistake and below I will explain why.

First, a big mea culpa. I have defended Bernanke over the last few months. My read of his actions was one of a...

There are many opinions on how best to captain a gigantic national economy across roiled seas. No one can presume to know the best course with real certainty. All must contend with an unknowable future string of consequences from action and inaction. Past history is hard to know with clarity...

If you are like most Americans, you alternate between trying to understand what is going on in financial markets and trying to ignore the fact that they exist. I feel your pain. I think most of us deal with financial market developments and political policy in much the same way....

I've been very critical of Bernanke over the last few weeks, largely because I viewed his cut in the discount rate as the first move in a cut in the Fed Funds rate. My concern here was the Fed engaging in a policy which would encourage more reckless lending behavior....