Syriza par­ty leader Alex­is Tsipras hopes to pre­vail in today’s Greek elec­tions, which could pro­voke a show­down between Euro­pean lead­ers and Greece, which strug­gles under a crush­ing load of debt. Mean­while, U.S. gov­ern­ment deficits are improv­ing. Sort of. [Cred­it: BBC]

The announce­ment will trig­ger an orgy of self-con­grat­u­la­tion in Wash­ing­ton.  The Admin­is­tra­tion will claim that its poli­cies have been vin­di­cat­ed.  Repub­li­cans also will take a bow, tout­ing spend­ing con­straints they’ve imposed since win­ning the House majority.

But you’ll hear noth­ing from the Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who most deserve cred­it for reduced deficits: the Fed­er­al Reserve Board of Gov­er­nors.  By hold­ing inter­est rates near zero and lend­ing tril­lions in free mon­ey to the Trea­sury, the Fed has allowed the gov­ern­ment to reduce deficits even as it gorged on debt. Con­tin­ue read­ing →