Republican presidential candidates want his head. Inflation hawks on the Federal Reserve board think his policies go too far, and advocates for the unemployed think they stop too short. Fed chair Ben Bernanke seems to be ticking off economy-watchers at every turn. But while some of Bernanke’s policies have certainly been …
The good news about President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan? A lot of analysts think it would boost growth. The bad news? The bump would likely be temporary. But before we go on ranting about the perils of an ineffectual Washington and the doom facing this economy, let’s just consider how catastrophic an only temporary boost would be. …
Get ready for monetary easing 3.0. That was the takeaway from Fed chair Ben Bernanke’s speech in Minneapolis today. Bernanke didn’t indicate what form easing might take. But any of the options on offer are bound to tick off countries like Brazil and Switzerland, which are struggling to hold down the values of their currencies against the …
Europeans back from summer vacation this week may be wishing they’d stayed on the beach. Stock markets in Germany, Italy, and France all dropped about 5% Monday, after the so-called “troika” of European institutions (the …
Europeans back from summer vacation this week may be wishing they’d stayed on the beach. Stock markets in Germany, Italy, and France all dropped about 5% Monday, after the so-called “troika” of European institutions (the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the European Central Bank) butted heads with the Greek government …
Greek tragedy strikes again. European and Greek leaders are at each other’s throats about Greece being on the dole. Again. And that’s got investors all in a tizzy about holding onto Greek debt. Again. So where does this leave the ominous eurozone crisis, which appears to have no end?
Here’s the gist of the problem. The “troika” in …
In a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, 25 of the 100 highest paid CEOs earned more last year than their companies paid in taxes. Not surprisingly, the report has gotten a lot of traction in the media; the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Reuters snatched it up. But more interestingly, Felix Salmon declared the …
Steve Jobs’ decision to step down as head of the Apple empire caused a lot of commotion. Analysts scurried to quantify the impact of Jobs’ departure on Apple’s stock price, the psychological effect on the stock market, and which tech competitors stand to gain. But the bigger question, and perhaps the most important, is what Jobs’ …
At this point, most economists agree that the best way to save the economic recovery is to get moving on jobs. The question is how to do that. After months of dithering, it looks like we may be getting an answer from a down-trodden President Obama. His administration is coming out with a jobs plan next month. And today, the White House …
The message out of Ben Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech: Nothing to see here. Time to move on.
The markets had been clamoring for another round of quantitative easing to give stocks a lift. But Fed chair Bernanke didn’t discuss it, or any of the other blunt tools the central bank has on offer. The Fed “will continue to assess the …
Texas has created almost as many jobs during Rick Perry’s career as governor as the rest of the country has lost. So what’s the secret behind the “Texas Miracle”? Rising GOP presidential candidate Perry says it’s about putting job creation in the private sector’s hands. “We know dollars do far more to create jobs and prosperity in the …
The economic recovery is in a bad way. To get it back on track, the housing market will need revival. And yet, three years after the economic crisis (and after bailouts, multiple rounds of stimulus, and much toiling over the national debt) housing numbers are getting worse. That saps consumer demand and drags down economic growth. …
