In remarks in London today, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke let the world know how he views the risks and benefits of the recent dramatic changes in the assets and liabilities of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Category Archives: Federal Reserve
Signs of a thaw
Yes, I saw the discouraging headlines. But I also see signs of hope in last week’s economic news.
Federal Reserve balance sheet
Here I survey how we got here, where things currently stand, and what it all means.
Quantitative easing
Today’s announcement from the Federal Reserve marks the end of the road for Plan A (fighting the recession by lowering interest rates), and the beginning of … what?
John Taylor on the Federal Reserve
Stanford economics professor John Taylor has a new paper in which he takes aim at recent economic policy, and fires with both barrels, concluding that “government actions and interventions caused, prolonged, and worsened the financial crisis.”
Podcast on the Federal Reserve
I did a long interview today with Tom Keene of Bloomberg Radio on the current recession and Federal Reserve policy. You can listen to it by clicking here.
The more the merrier
How many economic-advice-giving organizations does it take to run a White House?
Time for a change at the Fed
Plan A didn’t work. Plan B didn’t work. I suggest the Fed get going on Plan C.
The anomalous fed funds market
Some further thoughts on the bizarre behavior of the interest rate that used to be the core instrument of U.S. monetary policy.
Update on FDIC guarantee fees
On Saturday I noted that details of the FDIC guarantees of fed funds implemented on October 14 could introduce a substantial wedge between the fed funds target and the effective fed funds rate. Rebecca Wilder argues that this could not be affecting the current effective fed funds rate due to details of the “opt out” provision. Here I provide some further discussion of this point.