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By Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar
$ 19.77
By Robert Wright
$17.15
$18
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Medill DC (CC BY 2.0)
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In spite of May’s weak jobs report, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke still sees no reason for the central bank to expand its efforts to boost the American economy. The Fed is assessing whether the economy would continue to grow fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate without further intervention, he said.
Posted on Jun 7, 2012
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rosebennet (CC-BY)
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The Federal Reserve lent weight to economists’ warnings of a long and slow recovery on Wednesday when it announced plans to keep short-term interest rates near zero for at least the next three years. The idea is that low rates will encourage borrowing and investment in American businesses, helping resurrect the economy.
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John Cole, Cagle Cartoons, The Scranton Times-Tribune —
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Pat Bagley, Cagle Cartoons, Salt Lake Tribune —
Posted on Sep 22, 2011
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Flickr / SS&SS
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In his first essay for New York Magazine since quitting The New York Times last spring, Frank Rich thoughtfully details Barack Obama’s failure to push back against the financial wheeler-dealers who drove the country to the brink of ruin ... (more)
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Flickr / Thomas Hawk
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In a revelation that should surprise no one, lending records of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released by a March court order show that the Fed made cut-rate emergency loans of up to $30 billion each to major banks in 2008 without informing Congress, shareholders or the American public. (more)
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Economists across a broad range are frowning on the Federal Reserve’s most recent attempt to spur the economy, saying that the strategy of buying federal debt has helped the stock market but has had little positive effect on the general population.
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How’s that touchy-feely thing working for you, TSA? It apparently doesn’t work for some Americans. Other headlines making their way onto this week’s edition of “Left, Right & Center” include GM’s IPO, tax break shenanigans and Afghanistan withdrawal confusion.
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Mortgages take center stage yet again on “Left, Right & Center” as the gang discusses Ben Bernanke and the possibility of Fed intervention. Also the final arguments around the midterm elections: Have Democrats made the case, and are Republicans being forced into positions even they don’t want to hold?
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AP / Wong Maye-E
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In a spare-no-one, off-the-cuff critique, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker delivered a blistering analysis of the nation’s financial system Thursday, criticizing banks, regulators, business schools, the Fed and money-market funds in a “plea for structural changes in markets and market regulation.”
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AP / Reed Saxon
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Is the recession over? Will there be another? Much like the famous groundhog from Punxsutawney, Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke showed up to offer an eagerly awaited sign—in this case to economists gathered Friday at Jackson Hole, Wyo., and to the world at large ... (continued)
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AP / Harry Hamburg
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By Robert Scheer — How convenient that seemingly everyone in the liberal blogosphere, and even at many points to the right, got to use Jim Bunning as a scapegoat. The venom of the attacks suggests that the maverick Republican senator from Kentucky provided a welcome alternative to the real villains: bankers much closer to the centers of power.
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Flickr / eflon
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Those financial institutions that viewed last year’s bailout as an object lesson that they can carry on as they wish so long as they’re “too big to fail” may have to adopt another approach. At least, that was the message Monday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, if he makes good on words of warning to big banks.
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Flickr / freemarketmyass
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Fed Chair Ben Bernanke declared Tuesday that the recession is “very likely over at this point,” but don’t get too excited. The non-investment bankers among us still have a lot to worry about: “[I]t is still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time as many people still find their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was.”
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke presented a report Tuesday about the U.S. economy’s health. On the “bright side,” the economy appears to be declining at a slower rate than before, but home prices are still falling, credit is still very tight and, oh yeah, job losses are still rising. As a result of all the good news, the Fed intends to maintain “exceptionally low” interest rates for a while longer.
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Flickr / chakote
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The Dow had a big day on Tuesday, leaping 379 points after Citibank reported two months of profits and Fed chief Ben Bernanke indicated the banks could have some wiggle room in the accounting of their junk assets. The day may have ended with high-fives on Wall Street, but there’s good reason to stay gloomy.
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senate.gov
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Fed chief Ben Bernanke may be able to dole out trillions in the blink of an eye, but on Tuesday he ran headlong into Congress’ only independent democratic socialist. Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded to know where all the Fed’s money was going. Bernanke said “no.” Sanders fired back by introducing a bill that would require such information to be posted to the Fed’s Web site.
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Flickr / respres
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After pumping hundreds of billions into the banking system with not much to show for it, Fed chief Ben Bernanke says he will try to reduce the number of foreclosures. As he put it to Rep. Barney Frank: “The goal of the policy is to avoid preventable foreclosures on residential mortgage assets that are held, owned or controlled by a Federal Reserve Bank.”
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By David Sirota — If you’re like me, you sometimes find yourself speechless when confronted with abject insanity, such as conservatives’ newest talking point—the one designed to stop Congress from passing an economic stimulus package.
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Federal Reserve
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Ben Bernanke and his squad of rate setters are expected to cut interest by as much as three-quarters of a point on Tuesday. With rates already at 1 percent, we mortals are left wondering what the Fed chief plans to do when he runs out of rates to cut. Update
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whatpricejusticeblog.com
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While it’s great that it has finally been acknowledged, the National Bureau of Economic Research’s announcement on Monday that the U.S. is officially in a recession is old news—even by the bureau’s own estimation. Updated
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Flickr / LoopZilla
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What’s a hundred billion dollars between capitalists? The Fed and the Treasury are once again throwing good cash after bad business. This time the culprit is Citigroup, which could get bailed out—courtesy of you—to the tune of $100 billion. And with that, we’d like to announce that Truthdig is officially too big to fail. Update: Done deal.
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Federal Reserve
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Ben Bernanke doesn’t really care if you call it a recession or, in his words, “a very serious slowdown in the economy.” Whatever it is, the chairman of the Federal Reserve thinks a new stimulus package is needed to get those terrified Americans dipping into their mattresses and buying things again.
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AP photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta
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There will hopefully come a day when the news from Wall Street is actually good (at the moment, anything better than utterly terrifying news would be nice), but Tuesday was not that day, despite Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s intimations that help could soon be on the way.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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To help all those still reeling from sudden onset econo-tastrophe syndrome, the BBC has put together a handy timeline, which connects the dots between events over the last couple years but doesn’t quite take the long view, thus leaving out a few key moments and players from, say, the 1990s (paging Phil Gramm).
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White House / Joyce N. Boghosian
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How’s this for not mincing words? “I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, that our credit rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way.” So sayeth Ben Bernanke on Tuesday, in a dire warning to Congress.
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Financial columnist Paul Krugman, trying to make sense of the Lehman Brothers debacle, warns that “the defenses set up to prevent a return of those bank runs, mainly deposit insurance and access to credit lines with the Federal Reserve, only protect the guys in the marble buildings, who aren’t at the heart of the current crisis. That creates the real possibility that 2008 could be 1931 revisited.”
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Flickr / wwarby
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expects America’s economic struggles to continue well into next year and has asked Congress to expand his regulatory powers. Lawmakers are unlikely to fulfill his request any time soon. Bernanke also suggested that the Fed could continue to bail out investment banks.
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broadcatching.wordpress.com
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Seems like everything is a crisis these days, what with the subprime mortgage crisis, the oil crisis and, perhaps most troubling of all, the climate change crisis. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan acknowledged the complexity and interconnectedness of these unsettling trends Tuesday, stopping short of declaring that a major recession is on the way but without ruling out a recession of lesser magnitude.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — That idiotic “what, me worry?” look just never leaves the man’s visage. Once again there was our president, presiding over disasters in part of his making and totally on his watch, grinning with an aplomb that suggested a serious disconnect between his worldview and existing reality.
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By Andy Borowitz — The satirist tells us that Bush, feeling low as he contemplates his public approval rating, has turned to a man who knows a thing or two about numbers.
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New York City’s Summers May Heat Up
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