Category Archives: Federal Reserve

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.

Continue reading

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?

Continue reading