monetary policy

At 9:00 PM EDT, the Federal Reserve posted a statement on its website that it has decided to offer AIG an $85 billion line of credit at a penalty rate in return for all of AIG as collateral. In addition, the Federal Reserve will receive an…

The Fed has not cut interest rates and is still worried about inflation as much as economic growth. I certainly felt the Fed was going to cut and was going to have a more dovish comment than it has. The investor reaction was to send…

The inflation rate fell to 5.4% in August in the US, paving the way for a cut in interest rates later today by the Federal Reserve.With oil prices droping by one-third over the past few months, it was a question as to whether the data would…

Update: 800PM EDT: DealBook is now reporting that Lehman is expected to file bankruptcy as soon as tonight. (See post). Merrill, fearing for its continued existence, is now in takeover talks with BofA (see…

The finance and investing website Money Morning has a very provocative piece om Jim Rogers today. Rogers, who has been railing against the bailout of Fannie and Freddie for some time, thinks the Treasury and Federal Reserve will fail in…

ECB governing council member and Dutch National Bank head Nout Wellink said two weeks ago that the ECB was going to stop lenders abusing ECB's credit crisis policy of accepting lower credit quality. The ECB is going to make good on…

The last place in the world you wold expect to hear support of Ben Bernanke is hear. The Bernanke Fed has been as reckless in its attempts to reflate the economy as the Greenspan Fed - probably more so. Nevertheless, when Willem Buiter, a…

Yesterday and overnight, there was a ton of news in Europe, in banking and in geopolitics. So, I am going to alter the format of the round-up slightly and give you a rundown with links mixed in.The long and short is that the banking sector…

A year into the crisis, it's time to let banks start to fend for themselves -- or at least let their shareholders do the heavy lifting. That's what the President of the Dutch Central Bank Nout Wellink had to say earlier today. Below is my…

The minutes of the Bank of England's most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting demonstrate that Britain's monetary policy makers are all over the shop. Most committee members voted to keep rates at 5%, but there was also a vote…