The last couple of days I've posted some thoughts on The Fed and the summer 2011 "audit" by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) here and here. A long time reader and commenter, AZleader, apparently also wrote about The Fed audit. I like his post a lot. In particular, AZleader went beyond the press releases and news … Continue reading More on The Fed Audit, “Secret Loans”, and Conflicts of Interest
The Fed
Is The Fed Corrupt or Captured?
Yesterday I responded to a reader who asked if "The Fed is out of control". In short, I said no, not in the sense that critics have charged them with "out of control printing of money" that could produce inflation. But I left the post with an acknowledgement that the secrecy of The Fed carries … Continue reading Is The Fed Corrupt or Captured?
Is The Fed Corrupt or Out of Control?
The Federal Reserve System is an extremely controversial and largely misunderstood institution. Senators on both the right (Ron Paul) and the left (Bernie Sanders) are highly critical of The Fed. I've shied away from commenting on The Fed because it's a pretty complex subject. Every time I think there's a point to be made, … Continue reading Is The Fed Corrupt or Out of Control?
The Fed’s New “Twist” – Not Likely To Help
Late Wednesday The Federal Reserve announced a new program to try to stimulate the economy so that maybe somebody, somewhere could get a new job, or maybe it's so that critics would shut-up about employment. It's always hard to tell what The Fed's real objectives are. I don't have time to explain now why it's … Continue reading The Fed’s New “Twist” – Not Likely To Help
The Fed Has NOT Been Printing Money
A common refrain among the "cut, cut, cut" chicken littles and the hard-money crowd is that "the Fed has turned the printing presses lose printing money". These folks should really join us in the 21st century. That's not how it works and that's not what The Fed has been doing. Quantitative Easing, as well as … Continue reading The Fed Has NOT Been Printing Money
Money Multiplier has Collapsed
From Yves Smith & Naked Capitalism : Guest Post: The Fed Is Responsible for the Crash in the Money Multiplier … And the Failure of the Economy to Recover Washington’s Blog. Greg Mankiw noted in January 2009: Econ prof Bill Seyfried of Rollins College emails me: Here’s an interesting fact that you may not have … Continue reading Money Multiplier has Collapsed
The Fed is Corrupt
The current structure of The Federal Reserve Bank has outlived it's usefulness. The Fed was born in secrecy among privileged, monied elites. It failed us in the Great Depression. It has failed us in the past two decades as evidenced by the Great Global Financial Meltdown of the past 3 years. I have a lot … Continue reading The Fed is Corrupt
History: Chicago School Didn’t Always Support the Banks
In the previous montrous, global financial meltdown (the Great Depression), the leading economists at University of Chicago sang a very different tune from what they promote today. They actually called for nationalizing the Federal Reserve Banks and giving total control of money creation to government. They argued it was necessary to provide the proper environment … Continue reading History: Chicago School Didn’t Always Support the Banks
Who Owns The Federal Reserve?
Some more detailed background on a common question asked by students in macro classes: Who Owns the Fed? This question and confused answers to it also form the basis of many conspiracy theories and misunderstandings of our monetary system. To set the record straight, I quote from http://www.monetary.org/federalreserveprivate.htm Therefore most Americans would be surprised to … Continue reading Who Owns The Federal Reserve?
TheSpec.com – BreakingNews – New bubble created by U.S. policy
Steven Pearlstein of the The Washington Post explains via this story in the Hamilton Spectator why the run-up in the stock exchange of the last 6 months isn' t necessarily a good thing. Instead of being a predictor of good times to come, the run-up in the stock market is more likely the latest in … Continue reading TheSpec.com – BreakingNews – New bubble created by U.S. policy
EconProph 