Remember when the announced goal of quantitative easing (QE) was to reduce the unemployment rate to 6.5%? It’s now 6.6% and heading down. So can we expect QE to finally…
The Neverending Story
Why change? It’s been more than five years since The Federal Reserve Board began its quantitative easing program. We’ve had QE, QE 2, Operation Twist and the never-ending QE 3. …
Bully for 2013 … But What About 2014?
2013 markets were full of bull. The economy continued to sputter along, growing at about 2%, unemployment remained high and corporate profits were mediocre. Yet the S&P 500 index rose…
Century Old Fed Has Inflationary History
With the Federal Reserve Board celebrating its 100th birthday, it’s a good time to look back on the past century to see how The Fed has fared. We’ve been critical…
Paper Taper
So the taper begins in January. Big deal. That was the market’s initial reaction anyway. In fact, the market viewed this week’s announcement as a positive, setting yet another record. …
When Common Sense Is Senseless
What was I thinking? Over the past couple of years, I’ve preached caution. Corporate profits were down and unemployment was up. The economy wasn’t growing, but the federal debt was. …
The Economy Is Booming – Unless You’re A Consumer
At least it sounds like good news. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that the economy grew at a rate of 2.84% during the third quarter. That’s up significantly…
The Beat Goes On
From a future article in The New York Times: Janet Yellen, retiring chair of the Federal Reserve Board, announced that The Fed’s quantitative easing program, aka QE12, is close to…
The Off-On-Off Economy
The economy recently has been full of stops and starts, ups and downs, good news and bad news. Optimists will say that progress is being made, as we’ve moved beyond…