Latest
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“Treasure 10-Year Yields Near 17 Month Low”
“The Fed’s purchases today will be its second this week, after it bought $2.551 billion of notes on Aug. 17. The central bank plans to purchase about $18 billion of U.S. debt by the middle of September using the money from principal payments on its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, according to…
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“Foreign Lenders: Friends Indeed to a U.S. Treasury in Need”
“When the U.S. government wishes to spend more money than it receives as tax revenue, it covers the shortfall by borrowing, and foreign lenders have become increasingly important sources of such borrowed funds. Reliance on foreign lenders is as old as the republic. Indeed, loans from the French and the Dutch proved critical in keeping…
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“How to Feed a Recovery”
“To get a sense of the current economic climate, I spoke with John Taylor, Stanford economics professor and George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution. He is well known in economic-policy circles for coining the Taylor rule, a monetary-policy principle that offers guidance on how to tinker with interest rates to…
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“Lots of Regulatory Expansion but Little Reform”
“In the wake of every financial crisis, politicians face the demand that they Do Something. They feel they have to enact something to “make sure this never happens again”—although historically it has always happened again anyway. Moving the boxes on the regulatory organization chart and expanding regulatory powers are always available options, and the financial…
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“How the Market Creates Jobs, and the Government Destroys Them”
“By bringing about the business cycle, Federal Reserve money creation causes unemployment. Inflation not only raises prices, it also misallocates labor. During the boom phase of the trade cycle, businesses hire new workers, many of whom are pulled from other lines of work by the higher wages. The Fed subsidy to these capital industries lasts…
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“Nationalization of the Morgage Market”
“On Sunday, September 7, the United States government took control of more than half the U.S. mortgage market, through its seizure—and that is the word used in mainstream press accounts—of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two colossal government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), hybrid organizations owned by private individuals yet created by the government. The likes of this…
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“Fed May Reemerge as Bigger Buyer With Resumption of Treasury Purchases”
“The Federal Reserve will likely reemerge as the biggest buyer of Treasuries when it resumes purchasing U.S. government securities today to prevent money from draining out of the financial system. JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists estimate the Fed will buy about $284 billion in Treasuries over the next year, or more than the combined purchases…
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The Fed Can’t Solve Our Economic Woes
A policy of low interest rates is a textbook response of monetary authorities to the economic weakness brought on by deficient aggregate demand. The policy is justified by pointing to various ways in which money can promote economic activity—including by stimulating investment, discouraging savings, encouraging consumption spending, and allowing individuals to lower their debt burdens…
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“Treasury Fixing Mortgage-Finance System Juggles Limitless Bailout, Economy”
“The U.S. Treasury Department, hosting a summit tomorrow on how to repair the mortgage-finance system, may get a blunt message from stakeholders in an industry tied to 15 percent of the country’s economy: Don’t screw it up. The system’s size and complexity mean that a wrong move by the Obama administration could restrict credit, drive…
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“In a Sluggish Economic Summer, No Easy Fix Ahead”
“Typically, the Fed can lower interest rates to encourage Americans to borrow money and spend it, invigorating the economy. But the benchmark interest rate controlled by the Fed has been almost zero for more than a year now. The Fed this week took a new step by announcing it would use the proceeds from its…
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