Bailout and Financial Crisis News

One year ago, on 60 Minutes, Ben Bernanke uttered that now famous phrase. Watch CBS Videos Online

Earlier we mentioned the possibility that the combination of higher capacity utilization and still-high unemployment would put Ben Bernanke into an uncomfortable position of having, possibly to raise rates before he was ready. But it’s become evident that the real problem is the way the lack of employment has pushed folks in the US to push [...]

This will be a busy week with two key housing reports released on Monday and Tuesday: Builder confidence and Housing starts. On Monday, the Fed will release the February Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report at 9:15 AM ET. Expectations are for no increase in industrial production, and a slight decrease in capacity utilization (snow [...]

The Federal Reserve’s latest flow of funds report offers a clue for those trying to understand why banks often don’t want to lend to businesses: By some measures, businesses’ finances are still deteriorating. In the fourth quarter of 2009, nonfinancial corporate businesses’ net worth — what they have minus what they [...]

In recent weeks, policy makers from President Barack Obama to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have been taking extraordinary measures to remove what they see as a serious impediment to the recovery: A dearth of credit for the small businesses that many economists say must play a leading role in creating new jobs. David Altig, head [...]

One dimension along which the Obama administration has really fallen down on the job is in its failure to even nominate people to fill Federal Reserve Board vacancies. By summertime three of the seven slots on the Board will be open. David Wessel rounds up the usual suspects: In Search of an Economist for Fed Board: Prestige, [...]

February 26, 2010 By John Mauldin Where Is All that Greek Gold? The Greeks Write Back The Euro and a Conspiracy of Hedge Funds So Where’s the Inflation? No Help for Homebuilders The Singularity, San Antonio, Home, and Addictions The economy grew in the fourth quarter by 5.9%, the most in years. The adjusted monetary base is exploding. Bank reserves are literally through [...]

The economy grew in the fourth quarter by 5.9%, the most in years. The adjusted monetary base is exploding. Bank reserves are literally through the roof. The Fed is flooding money into the system in an effort to get banks to lend. An historically normal response by banks (to increase lending) would have been massively inflationary, [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said imbalances created from China’s large holdings of U.S. assets could pose a risk to the financial system. “It would be a healthier situation if China saved less and we saved more, and as a result they were not accumulating dollar assets so quickly and we had a more balanced financial [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke referred to mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a “platypus,” saying they were “neither fish nor fowl.” He suggested strongly that the companies should be privatized during his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Bernanke didn’t specifically direct Congress to privatize the government-sponsored firms, but did go as [...]

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