Central Banking
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“U.S. Stocks Flit Between Gains and Losses Ahead of Fed”
“Stocks wavered early Wednesday as investors awaited word from the Federal Reserve on its latest interest-rate decision and the outlook for the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which entered Wednesday’s trading on a two-day losing streak, posted a small gain just after the open but recently retreated to trade 11 points lower at…
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“The Role of Monetary Policy”
“There is wide agreement about the major goals of economic policy: high employment, stable prices, and rapid growth. There is less agree-ment that these goals are mutually compatible or, among those who re-gard them as incompatible, about the terms at which they can and should be substituted for one another. There is least agreement about…
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“Fed Watch: Europe Debt Crisis May Lead to More Cautious FOMC”
“Federal Reserve officials could express more caution about the U.S. economy’s recovery after their meeting this week, giving them additional reason to keep short-term interest rates close to zero for a while. The three meetings of the Fed’s policy-setting body so far this year have all ended with the U.S. central bank giving a gradually…
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“Motionless Fed Likely to Provide No Cheer”
“No news isn’t always good news. When Federal Reserve officials meet this week, almost two months will have passed since their last policy-setting conclave, the longest such stretch of the year. And it has been a pretty woeful period for financial markets. Since the Fed’s last meeting ended April 28, market volatility has surged, the…
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Greenspan Warns of Fiscal Profligacy
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warns of U.S. fiscal profligacy, in part fuelled by the current low borrowing costs of the government: “Despite the surge in federal debt to the public during the past 18 months—to $8.6 trillion from $5.5 trillion—inflation and long-term interest rates, the typical symptoms of…
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A Spanish Banking Crisis in the Making
Spain was hit hard by the financial crisis. Like the U.S. and the UK, Spain experienced high capital inflows and rapidly rising housing prices in the years leading up to the crisis. And like the U.S. and the UK it is now stuck with a struggling banking sector and bloated public finances. Spanish banks have…
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“Monetarism Defiant” – Anna Schwartz on the Fed
“Anna Schwartz must be the oldest active revolutionary on earth. Born in 1915 in New York, she can still be found nearly every day at her office in the National Bureau of Economic Research on Fifth Avenue, where she has been tirelessly gathering data since 1941. And as her experience proves, data can transform the…
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“A Stable Price Level Standard for Federal Reserve Monetary Policy”
“In a recent article in the Cato Journal dealing with the transparency of Federal Reserve monetary policy, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Chairman Ben Bernanke provided an authoritative account of current Federal Reserve strategy (Cato Journal, vol. 28, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 2008, “The Fed’s Road Toward Greater Transparency,” pp. 175-186). Bernanke notes that “inflation-targeting” does…
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“Fed limits card fees to $25”
“Most credit card penalties will be limited to $25 and fees for customers who don’t use their cards will be eliminated under rules released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also ordered a review of all credit card interest rate hikes imposed since January 2009, including most of the record increases that came in…
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“Politicizing the Fed”
“For 97 years the 12 regional banks of the Federal Reserve system have operated relatively free of political interference from Washington. The looming financial reform bill threatens that independence, not least through an effort to impose new presidential appointees at the regional banks. The biggest underreported threat comes from Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the…
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“U.S. Stocks Flit Between Gains and Losses Ahead of Fed”
“Stocks wavered early Wednesday as investors awaited word from the Federal Reserve on its latest interest-rate decision and the outlook for the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which entered Wednesday’s trading on a two-day losing streak, posted a small gain just after the open but recently retreated to trade 11 points lower at…
-
“The Role of Monetary Policy”
“There is wide agreement about the major goals of economic policy: high employment, stable prices, and rapid growth. There is less agree-ment that these goals are mutually compatible or, among those who re-gard them as incompatible, about the terms at which they can and should be substituted for one another. There is least agreement about…
-
“Fed Watch: Europe Debt Crisis May Lead to More Cautious FOMC”
“Federal Reserve officials could express more caution about the U.S. economy’s recovery after their meeting this week, giving them additional reason to keep short-term interest rates close to zero for a while. The three meetings of the Fed’s policy-setting body so far this year have all ended with the U.S. central bank giving a gradually…
-
“Motionless Fed Likely to Provide No Cheer”
“No news isn’t always good news. When Federal Reserve officials meet this week, almost two months will have passed since their last policy-setting conclave, the longest such stretch of the year. And it has been a pretty woeful period for financial markets. Since the Fed’s last meeting ended April 28, market volatility has surged, the…
-
Greenspan Warns of Fiscal Profligacy
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warns of U.S. fiscal profligacy, in part fuelled by the current low borrowing costs of the government: “Despite the surge in federal debt to the public during the past 18 months—to $8.6 trillion from $5.5 trillion—inflation and long-term interest rates, the typical symptoms of…
-
A Spanish Banking Crisis in the Making
Spain was hit hard by the financial crisis. Like the U.S. and the UK, Spain experienced high capital inflows and rapidly rising housing prices in the years leading up to the crisis. And like the U.S. and the UK it is now stuck with a struggling banking sector and bloated public finances. Spanish banks have…
-
“Monetarism Defiant” – Anna Schwartz on the Fed
“Anna Schwartz must be the oldest active revolutionary on earth. Born in 1915 in New York, she can still be found nearly every day at her office in the National Bureau of Economic Research on Fifth Avenue, where she has been tirelessly gathering data since 1941. And as her experience proves, data can transform the…
-
“A Stable Price Level Standard for Federal Reserve Monetary Policy”
“In a recent article in the Cato Journal dealing with the transparency of Federal Reserve monetary policy, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Chairman Ben Bernanke provided an authoritative account of current Federal Reserve strategy (Cato Journal, vol. 28, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 2008, “The Fed’s Road Toward Greater Transparency,” pp. 175-186). Bernanke notes that “inflation-targeting” does…
-
“Fed limits card fees to $25”
“Most credit card penalties will be limited to $25 and fees for customers who don’t use their cards will be eliminated under rules released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also ordered a review of all credit card interest rate hikes imposed since January 2009, including most of the record increases that came in…
-
“Politicizing the Fed”
“For 97 years the 12 regional banks of the Federal Reserve system have operated relatively free of political interference from Washington. The looming financial reform bill threatens that independence, not least through an effort to impose new presidential appointees at the regional banks. The biggest underreported threat comes from Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the…
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