Has Economic theory failed Bernanke? (Jim Young/REUTERS)
Now that I know the answer to what Juan Williams meant by “Muslim garb,” I can focus on the other question that has been bugging me recently: Why haven’t low-interest rates boosted the economy?
Economists have long believed that lowering interest rates is one of the most …
More bad paperwork (Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS)
Michael and Pamela Negrea, of Cleveland suburb Eastlake, Ohio, have never missed a mortgage payment. Yet their mortgage company, GMAC, has tried to foreclose on their house, not once, but three times. And GMAC is still trying to haul the couple out of their house.
It’s one of the incredible …
Foreclosure-gate is getting uglier by the day (Carlos Barria/REUTERS)
More and more, Foreclosure-gate is looking like the housing bust’s Enron.
One of the amazing developments of the unraveling of the financial crisis has been the fact that there have been so few people we can actually point to and say without a doubt that guy or gal …
Bernanke critics are on the attack (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
What is the most likely cause of civil unrest today? Immigration. Gay marriage. Abortion. The results of Election Day. The mosque at Ground Zero. Nope.
Try the Federal Reserve. Nov. 3 is when the Federal Reserve’s next policy committee meeting ends, and if you thought this …
Protests of banks’ foreclosure practices are getting new attention (Shannon Stapleton/REUTERS)
The banks’ tab from the housing bust is set to get a lot bigger.
In the past few weeks, state attorneys general and lawyers representing borrowers in danger of losing their homes have uncovered a number of certainly dubious, potentially …
Bernanke is tilting toward boosting inflation (Jason Reed/REUTERS)
Ever since the 1970s, one of the key jobs of the US Federal Reserve has been to fight inflation. Now, it seems the Fed is embarking on a path to resurrect its old foe.
On Friday morning, at a conference on Fed policy in Boston, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made the case …
Former Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg is among the people who have tried to rein in Wall Street pay (Jason Reed/REUTERS)
When it comes to bonuses, Wall Street is stuck in the hot tub time machine.
Apparently, it takes more than the fall of two storied investment firms, a financial crisis, a bailout, Andrew Cuomo, a pay czar, the Great …
Peter Diamond, co-winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economics, is congratulated by colleagues. (Brian Snyder/REUTERS)
Why doesn’t the unemployment rate ever reach zero? Economists, who generally believe that supply tends to meet demand, long pondered this question. Even in good times, i.e. not now, there are people who can’t find …
Clyde Silva walks out of a job fair in Los Angeles (Lucy Nicholson / Reuters)
Ever since the haze of summer lifted, there have been more and more signs that the economy was improving. In early September, the number of people looking for work rose, showing optimism about the economy from job seekers. Corporate mergers are on the rise, …
Smash and grab ATM theft is this recession’s hip crime (Getty images)
Call it the total ATM withdrawal. In the past year, as the economic slump has dragged on, robbers around the country are increasingly trying a new method to get their hands on cash. They’re no longer swiping stolen cards in automated teller machines. More and more …
Low rates in Japan and US have yet to boost economies (Toru Hanai/REUTERS)
If you can count on any central bank to cut interest rates at the drop of a hat, it’s the Bank of Japan. On Tuesday morning, Bank of Japan surprised the world by cutting it’s already low-interest rates to effectively zero. The Japanese central bank is trying …
Blockbuster Was Relying on a Drink Island to Revive Stores
Back in April, months or years after lots of other people, I got the idea that there was no way video chain Blockbuster could avoid bankruptcy. So I went to talk to a few people about how the company got into its sorry situation and what it planned to do to get out. One of the …
