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Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
Thomas Edison Categories
Tag Archives: Federal Reserve
Key moves for surviving low interest rates
Interest rates aren’t budging anytime soon. That means it’s time to rethink your financial strategy. The Federal Reserve said last week that it would keep its benchmark rate at record lows for at least another three years. Read More
What’s A Central Bank To Do?
As the economy continues to soften and fiscal stimulus morphs into fiscal austerity, the Federal Reserve must decide whether the US economy can stand on its own, or whether the central bank must, once again, intervene actively to prop up the economy. Read More
Heard Off The Street: Whither Rates?
This article was prepared by Contango Capital Advisor’s Investment Strategy Group. Contango Capital Advisors is an affiliate of Zions Direct. When will the Federal Reserve start raising interest rates? What do you think about inflation? These are the two most … Read More
Pondering the Fate of Inflation
For some time, we have forecast that inflation would return to relatively normal levels in 2011. In fact, we expect core inflation (inflation excluding food and energy) to rise from its near-zero year-over-year rate to closer to 2%. Read More
Defusing the Debt Trap
Burdened by an IOU totaling more than $14 trillion, the US economy is stumbling toward a debt trap – with no easy escape in sight. Read More
Once bullish, contrarian Jim Grant likes cash now
Jim Grant quotes obscure dead economists at length. He pines for an earlier time of gas lights and top hats when the dollar was convertible to gold. He wears bowties. Read More
FDIC proposes exemption for mortgage securities
Federal regulators are proposing to exempt certain mortgages from new rules aimed at getting banks to take on more risk when package and sell mortgage investments.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday, March 29, and the Federal Reserve a day earlier voted to advance the exemption from rules required under the new financial regulatory law. Under the rules, banks must hold at least 5 percent of the mortgage securities on their books. Read More
GOP economists criticize Fed’s bond-purchase plan
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s plan to rejuvenate the economy by having the Fed buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds is coming under renewed attack — this time from fellow Republican economists.
They argue that pumping many more dollars into the economy could eventually trigger inflation and weaken the dollar too much. The economists are making their case in a letter to Bernanke and in ads to run this week in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The Treasury bond purchases “risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment,” the economists wrote…read more Read More
Why Fed bond-buying plan is raising trade tensions
The Federal Reserve’s plan to buy more Treasury bonds has incited critics at home to complain of inevitable high inflation and financial turmoil.
It turns out many foreigners are pretty angry, too. They say the Fed’s $600 billion program is a scheme to give U.S. exporters an unfair edge — one that endangers the global economy.
Is it? Or is the Fed’s plan a credible way to help end a desperate jobs crisis and revitalize a still-tepid economy?
In either case, few dispute that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is taking a gamble…read more Read More
The Fed’s big gamble: Here’s what could go wrong
The Federal Reserve is about to take a huge risk in hopes of getting the economy steaming along again. Nobody is sure it will work, and it may actually do damage.
The Fed is expected to announce today that it will buy $500 billion to $1 trillion in government debt, and drive already low long-term interest rates even lower. The central bank would buy the debt in chunks of $100 billion a month . . . read more Read More
Gold continues record-setting pace
Gold continued its record-setting pace as investors sought a haven until they learn what the Federal Reserve plans to do about the economy . . . read more Read More
Overdraft Protection: How You May Be Affected
The phrases “Electronic Funds Transfer Act” and “Regulation E” may at first blush sound like complicated banking speak, but they are actually simple to understand and important to make note of, as both could affect your current overdraft protection choices.
In November 2009, the Federal Reserve issued final rules amending the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, also known as Regulation E. The new rules limit a financial institution’s ability to charge overdraft fees on ATM and one-time debit transactions that overdraw a consumer’s account, unless they have obtained the consumer’s affirmative consent, or “opt-in.” The new rule applies . . . read more Read More
Americans struggle to regain their shrunken wealth
Americans’ long journey to regain the wealth they lost in the recession is stalled.
Households failed even to run in place during the April-June quarter as sinking stock prices eroded wealth. Stocks have since recovered about two-thirds of those losses. But based on last quarter’s data, household net worth would have to surge 23 percent . . . read more Read More
