monetary policy

Here’s a conspiracy theory for you.  As I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, I ill keep this one pretty simple. Here’s the chain of events. Back in late September when the world was falling apart, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and Hank…

Just last week, we saw a parade of banks exiting the dreaded TARP program set up last year by the U.S. government and used to temporarily recapitalize the U.S. banking system.  The banks were able to do so in no small measure because…

The drama at Bank of America continues with Ken Lewis testifying before Congress today.  Most of the events surround claims by Lewis that he was coerced into doing the Merrill deal by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke.   I…

It seems a Q3 recovery is the new consensus of professional economists.  First, we hear Paul Krugman saying this, now Richard Berner and David Greenlaw are singing the same tune. The deepest post-war recession likely will end by…

Basically, Faber believes a rising tide of quantitative easing is going to buoy stock markets globally and the global economy (at least for the medium-term). However, later in that same interview, Faber makes his most quotable statement…

I received a high-quality note from Marc Chandler, Chief Currency Strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, which I think worthy of posting.  He makes several points which are game changers regarding fiscal and monetary policy.  They…

Marshall Auerback here with a few thoughts about the monetary policy end game. Bernanke has to continue to make hawkish comments about inflation so as to avoid a complete blow out in bond yields, but the the dirty little secret is…

The ECB went aggressive today and a big way.  They were the last holdout in the move to quantitative easing (a.ka. printing money).  They have lowered rates to a record low 1.00% and issued a statement that the European Central…

While the Chinese were adding to their gold stock over the last several years, Europeans were selling – with disastrous results.  Back in 1999, Gold prices were depressed after an almost two-decade bear market.  For some strange…

I am watching Bernanke at the congressional hearing.  You can see his prepared testimony at CR here.  But, the general take on what he is saying is that the economy has reached its worst rate of decline and should improve steadily until it…