interest rates

The U.S. Federal Reserve is tasked with watching inflation while keeping the economy growing. This dual mandate is a juggling act no mortal could manage successfully for long. The result has been a Fed which has largely erred on the side…

This morning in an e-mail exchange with Marshall Auerback, I questioned why the U.S. Dollar was rising so precipitously. I do understand much of this has to do with a need to refinance dollar-denominated borrowing by international…

The Federal Reserve and its fellow central banks are pulling out all the stops to make sure the panic phase of this crisis is well and truly over. These kinds of moves are already having results as Libor and Euribor (the rate at whch banks…

I caught a story in the Wall Street Journal today about Paul Volcker's impact on the Obama campaign that bears passing on (hat tip Barry Ritholtz). One reason people have become more comfortable with Obama over time is because his economic…

The United States had been living beyond its means for a very long time before the credit crisis finally hit. The truth of the matter is that U.S. monetary and fiscal policy rewarded risk-taking and leverage at the expense of prudence and…

Inflation was unchanged from the previous month in September, bringing the annual rate of inflation down to 4.9%. While the inflation rate is still elevated, the drop in oil and commodity prices combined with lower consumer spending is…

Marshall Auerback here: I am somewhat simplistic about this, but if the issue is one of a drive for dollar liquidity, the Fed should be able to address that problem. Before the week ending September 17th, the Fed was not, in fact,…

Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan have been the worst monetary stewards in U.S. Federal Reserve history. A former Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin Jr. once said it was the Fed's job "to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets…

Artificially low interest rates are what got us into this mess. Why should we think that they will help us get out? That's the question I ask myself and Marc Faber, otherwise known as Dr. Doom, answers that they won't.They certainly…

In July, I made my ten predictions for the markets and global economy for the rest of the year. Some of my predictions were pretty pedestrians, and some were fairly bold. Let's take a look and see how I'm doing.Here's what I originally…