Mr. Dooley told us that the Supreme Court watches the election returns. So also must the Chair of the Federal Reserve.
Category Archives: Federal Reserve
Autos continue to tank
The worst October for U.S. auto sales in the last 13 years, it was.
Ben Bernanke: new Fed chair
Let me add my enthusiastic endorsement of the choice of Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan for chair of the Federal Reserve Board to the positive support earlier expressed at Marginal Revolution, the Big Picture, New Economist, Economist’s View, and Angry Bear.
Ford joins the club
Having commented on a number of occasions about General Motors’ woes, and striving to be an Equal Opportunity PunditTM, it’s only fair to give credit where credit is due. Ford this week showed that it can compete with the best of them in terms of losing money,
posting a loss on its North American operations of $1.2 billion for the third quarter and $2.4 billion over the last 15 months. I’m not sure what advice to give Ford. But here’s what I think we might expect from U.S. policy makers.
Inflation’s back?
Does today’s CPI release indicate that inflation has returned?
Stagflation
Do recent energy shocks mean we might see a replay of the 1970’s stagflation? I believe not, and here’s why.
But you said that more saving was a good thing
After many of us have been arguing for some time that an increase in the U.S. personal saving rate was key for promoting long-run growth and reducing the trade deficit, the American consumer finally obliged with a 0.5% drop in consumption spending in August. But analysts such as Angry Bear and Macroblog see this as an ominous development. So which is right– is more saving a good thing or a bad thing for the economy?
Responding to supply shocks
It seems pretty clear to me that a monetary contraction isn’t the appropriate policy response to a supply shock. Apparently there are those within the Federal Reserve who see things differently.
Consumer confidence plunges
Yet another key leading indicator turns gloomy. How much can the stock market and the Fed shrug off?
Who cares about core inflation?
This is another one of those months when you could report pretty much any number you like to summarize the current inflation rate, and, as William Polley noted, newspapers did. At times like these, the concept of “core inflation” can be very helpful.