Measuring QE2 Effectiveness

In announcing QE2 in their November 3 FOMC meeting, the statement contained the following excerpt: “Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. Currently, the unemployment rate is elevated, and measures of underlying inflation are somewhat low, relative to levels that the Committee judges to be consistent, over …

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The Wealth Disparity

In his “60 Minutes” interview of Sunday (which I commented upon in the last post), Ben Bernanke responded to  a question (from Scott Pelley) regarding the wealth disparity: Pelley: The gap between rich and poor in this country has never been greater. In fact, we have the biggest income disparity gap of any industrialized country …

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Ben Bernanke’s December 5 2010 “60 Minutes” Interview – Comments

Ben Bernanke gave his second interview to “60 Minutes” last night. This interview is very notable in many respects.  I could make extensive comments on various aspects of the interview, as I continue to have vast differences of opinion with many of Ben Bernanke’s stated comments and analyses.   For now I will make some …

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3 Critical Unemployment Charts – December 2010

As I have commented previously, as in the October 6, 2009 post, in my opinion the official methodologies used to measure the various job loss and unemployment statistics do not provide an accurate depiction. However, even if one chooses to look at the official statistics, the following charts provide an interesting (and disconcerting) long-term perspective …

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Federal Reserve Longer-Term Economic Projections

Here is a link to the FOMC Minutes of November 2-3, 2010. (pdf) One item of interest is the section titled “Summary Of Economic Projections.”  This section displays and discusses projections and statistics of various measures including GDP, Unemployment Rate, and PCE Inflation.  As stated in the FOMC Minutes: “In conjunction with the November 2–3, …

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