The New York Times – Bernanke’s Reluctance to Speak Out Rankles Some The Federal Reserve is all but certain next week to begin a multibillion-dollar effort to coax the recovery along, but privately, Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman, worries that more is needed to turn the sluggish economy around and revive employment. He believes that… Continue reading Bernanke
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The New York Times – PETER ORSZAG: Sailing the Wrong Way with QE2? In other words, by perpetuating an artificially low 10-year government bond rate, the Fed may be delaying (even if very modestly, given the modest impact of the action on long rates) the very fiscal policy action that the nation most needs,… Continue reading More Criticism of QE2
Bloomberg.com – Fed Asks Dealers to Estimate Size, Impact of Debt Purchases The Federal Reserve asked bond dealers and investors for projections of central bank asset purchases over the next six months, along with the likely effect on yields, as it seeks to gauge the possible impact of new efforts to spur growth. The New… Continue reading Is The Federal Reserve Asking The Dealers To Set Policy?
Comment The charts below shows the latest election odds according to InTrade betting (updated in the right-hand column). Since late June, InTrade has expected the Republicans to retake control of the House of Representatives while the Democrats are narrowly expected to retain control of the Senate. Since we view InTrade as a good summation of… Continue reading 2010 Mid-Term Election Update
The New York Times – Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Demand Recourse As lenders have reviewed tens of thousands of mortgages for errors in recent weeks, more and more homeowners are stepping forward to say that they were victims of bank mistakes — and in many cases, demanding legal recourse. Some homeowners say the banks tried to… Continue reading The Mortgage Mess
The Wall Street Journal – Charles W. Kadlec: Gold vs. the Fed: The Record Is Clear There were no world-wide financial crises of major magnitude during the Bretton Woods era from 1947 to 1971. When it meets next week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is widely expected to signal its desire to increase the… Continue reading Gold
The Wall Street Journal – Matthew Winkler: Time for Bailout Transparency Big banks don’t want you to know which of them went to the Fed for emergency help. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is suing under the Freedom of Information Act to force the Fed to name names. Bloomberg’s case prevailed in federal… Continue reading Suing The Federal Reserve
Bloomberg.com – Michael Lewis: Wall Street Proprietary Trading Under Cover A few weeks ago we asked a simple question: Why are the same Wall Street banks that lobbied so hard to dilute the passages in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill banning proprietary trading now jettisoning their proprietary trading groups, without so much as a whimper?… Continue reading Prop Trading
<Click on chart for larger image> The New York Times – Greece Said to Fall Short of Its Goal on Deficit The mathematics of austerity are getting harder. With economic conditions weaker than expected, tax revenue is coming up short of projections in parts of Europe. As a result, countries struggling with high deficits are… Continue reading Europe’s Troubles Continue
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – The Cast of ‘Too Big to Fail’. The filming of the HBO version of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” is underway. William Hurt, who plays former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, was spotted recently running up the steps of the Treasury building — repeatedly — as cameras filmed. … Continue reading What Hollywood Thinks Of Wall Street
<Click on graphic for larger image> h/t The Big Picture <Click on graphic for larger image> h/t The Big Picture