From the category archives:

Federal Reserve

GDP Actually 5.9% – Very Small Considering the Stimulus

February 27, 2010

Turns out the U.S. GDP grew 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the  initial 2.7%. However, the actual sales to consumers was lower than originally reported while inventory replenishment was larger.
Nearly two thirds of the growth in GDP in the fourth quarter was accounted for by changes in inventories, not by final [...]

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Nobel Prize Winner Calls for Reform

February 19, 2010

An interesting segment at Tech Ticker with Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize Winning economist, where he calls for banking reform now…or face another crisis in the future.

Stiglitz is a Keynesian economist. He may be more Keynesian then Keynes himself, but I, along with most Austrian economists, agree with him. To date, nothing has been done [...]

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A Bubble In Search of a Pin

February 6, 2010

Here is a Letter from John Mauldin. As usual, a thoughtful piece that focuses on the headwinds the economy faces. I agree with John, and those he quotes, in many respects about how Greenspan, Bernanke, and the powers that be missed the bubble. However, we are naive to think that the Fed would ever prick [...]

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Ratigan Nails It

February 3, 2010

Not sure if you have had a chance to watch Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see his show as much as I would like due to its 4pm air time. He is one of the few talking heads that seems to understand the big picture as it relates to how Wall [...]

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Shame on You, Geithner

January 25, 2010

In typical politician fashion, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner fearmongers by implying that if Bernanke doesn’t get reappointed then the stock markets will tank. Geithner may be right that the market will gyrate if Bernanke is not reappointed as the market dislikes uncertainty. However, this statement is nothing more than politics as usual and lacks any [...]

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Real Reason We Should Hate the Bank Bonuses

January 17, 2010

Unless you live in a cave, you have probably heard about the massive bonuses being received by the big banks this year. To date, the estimate for the top 38 firms is $145 Billion.
This comes at the heels of the biggest handout in history. The U.S. government provided $700 billion to the banks in the [...]

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Big Win for the Common American

November 20, 2009

I was convinced that Congressman Watt’s amendment to HR 1207 would be enacted as it gutted the bill of any real reform and kept the Fed’s actions hidden from the light of day. Of course, Watt, who represents a district in Charlotte, NC (think Bank of America, Regions, and Wachovia before the Wells Fargo deal), [...]

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U-G-L-Y You Ain’t Got No Alibi

May 18, 2009

The Federal Reserve reported today that delinquencies increased substantially in the first quarter of 2009. You will notice a substantial rise in residential real estate, commercial real estate, and credit cards. The only one of the three that isn’t at an all time high is residential real estate, which is still below the S&L crisis [...]

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Greenspan Calls End of Housing Decline

May 12, 2009

Alan Greenspan caused the market to reverse its downward trend today when he was speaking to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) when he said that housing was stabilizing.
Oh joy, the man who caused the bubble and didn’t see a bubble forming is calling for a bottom. During the speech, he reiterated that he did [...]

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What’s Another Trillion Among Friends

April 4, 2009

With all the news of the bailouts, the Fed printing money, and the current budget process, the news released by the Social Security Trustees must have been overshadowed. For the past few years, the trustees have made it known that the future, unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security were $67,000,000,000,000. As an aside, I [...]

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