Just once, we’d like to post that the economy is growing like pumpkins in September, that personal income is soaring (or at least not falling), that jobs are being created,…
A Way Out for the Fed
The economy grew at a tepid rate of 1.5% during the third quarter. More than 100 million Americans aren’t working. And the inflation rate is near zero. That’s after seven…
Show Us the Money
The bright spot in this limp recovery has been the unemployment rate, which has fallen to 5.1%. But don’t look too closely, or you’ll notice that the spot is not…
How Ben Bernanke Saved the World
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” U.S. major talking about Bến Tre, Vietnam The Wall Street…
Abnormalization and QE4
It seems to be a policy of the Federal Reserve Board to never use a two-syllable word when a four- or five-syllable word is available. So we have “quantitative easing”…
ZIRP Everlasting
Some things never change. Apparently, the interest rate for Federal funds is one of them. To the surprise of no one – except the “experts” and journalists who have been…
Place Your Bets
“What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things … ” Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock …
Yellen’s Soliloquy: To Raise or Not to Raise
To raise, or not to raise – that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The barbs and insults of outraged pundits and journalists Or to…
Maybe the Fed Is Just Lazy
Just last month we reported that the Federal Reserve Board’s policy statement was almost identical to its previous policy statement. Now the Fed has issued another policy statement – and…
Big Board Floored
The Big Board is not so big anymore. A decade ago, it accounted for 80% of stock trades. Today, it accounts for 20%. There are also far fewer publicly traded…