Ben Bernanke November 6, 2010 Remarks On QE2

On Saturday (November 6) Ben Bernanke took part in a panel discussion.  This was part of The Federal Reserve conference “A Return to Jekyll Island: The Origins, History, and Future of the Federal Reserve.” I found these comments, pertaining to QE2, to be highly notable: Ben Bernanke: “There is not really, in my mind, as …

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Political Volatility – November 2010

The results of yesterday’s elections further solidify the trend of increasing political volatility.  Survey results indicate that much of this volatility has been driven by widespread dissatisfaction concerning the economic situation. While this volatility has been recognized, many of its implications have lacked recognition. On January 25, 2010 I wrote a post titled “Political Volatility.” …

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Quantitative Easing – Varied Thoughts

There has been an immense amount of material written about additional Quantitative Easing (QE2). Here are some of the works that I have found among the most interesting (although I don’t necessarily agree with what is being said): “Guidelines for Global Economic Policymaking,” (pdf) Gregory Hess, Shadow Open Market Committee, October 12, 2010 Investment Outlook, …

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Additional Quantitative Easing – Comments

Monday’s (August 9) Barron’s had an article titled “Time to Print, Print, Print.” The article provides an overview of the concept of Quantitative Easing (QE) in the context of our current economic situation. I don’t agree with many of its conclusions and insinuations, however.  In particular, the article seems overly positive on the idea of …

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Blinder And Zandi Paper – My Comments

Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi released a paper dated July 27 titled “How The Great Recession Was Brought To An End.” (pdf) From the report, page 1: “In this paper, we use the Moody’s Analytics model of the U.S. economy—adjusted to accommodate some recent financial-market policies—to simulate the macroeconomic effects of the government’s total policy …

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Milton Friedman On Monetary And Fiscal Policy

I found this passage from Milton Friedman in 1958, as seen on John B. Taylor’s blog, to be notable, especially given the immense monetary and fiscal policy actions taken to “improve” our economic situation: “The available evidence…casts grave doubt on the possibility of producing any fine adjustments in economic activity by fine adjustments in monetary …

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Comments On The HIRE Act

On Thursday President Obama signed the HIRE Act, a jobs stimulus.  The summary of the signing can be found here. There is also a transcript of his remarks found here. I could make many comments about this jobs stimulus.  However, as an intervention measure, it has many of the same characteristics of other interventions.  As …

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The Effectiveness Of Stimulus

“One of the biggest economic myths since the Great Depression is that governments can ameliorate or counteract the ebbs and flows of free markets. Government spending has never worked as a trigger for sustained and vibrant economic growth. Ever. Scholarship has demonstrated that the New Deal perpetuated the Depression rather than cured it. On the …

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Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Situation

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal presents a thorough summary of the situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The article is titled, “No Exit in Sight for U.S. As Fannie, Freddie Flail.”  Here is the link to the story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704362004575001042824028862.html?KEYWORDS=no+exit+in+sight+for+us I’ve commented extensively on the U.S. real estate situation, and the national attempts …

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