Tag Archives: Janet Yellen

Trump Is (Sort Of) Right About Yellen

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Donald Trump this week said that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Janet Yellen won't raise rates because President Obama told her not to. Why he's (sort of) right. [Credit: CNBC]

Don­ald Trump this week said that Fed­er­al Reserve Board Chair­man Janet Yellen won’t raise rates because Pres­i­dent Oba­ma told her not to. Why he’s (sort of) right. [Cred­it: CNBC]

The media just can’t keep up with The Donald.

Cor­po­rate news-gath­er­ing out­lets do their best to repeat and ampli­fy his every off­beat utter­ance.  His accu­sa­tion that Mar­co Rubio is a “dis­as­ter with his cred­it cards” has rip­pled through the press and forced Rubio to respond.  Dit­to for Trump’s mock­ery of Jeb’s ener­gy, Carson’s reli­gion, Carly’s face, Kasich’s poll num­bers, Hillary’s mar­i­tal rela­tions  (“If Hillary Clin­ton can’t sat­is­fy her hus­band what makes her think she can sat­is­fy Amer­i­ca?”), Bernie’s men­tal health and the men­stru­al cycles of debate moderators.

But as they were buzzing about his sched­uled appear­ance on Sat­ur­day Night Live, the media large­ly over­looked what was per­haps Trump’s most hereti­cal accu­sa­tion of all. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Fed On The Road To Nowhere

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Economic policymakers may have us, as the Talking Heads put it in their 1985 hit, on the road to nowhere. [Credit: qednet.biz]

Eco­nom­ic pol­i­cy­mak­ers may have us, as the Talk­ing Heads put it in their 1985 hit, on the road to nowhere. [Cred­it: qednet.biz]

For­mer Fed­er­al Reserve Chair­man Ben Bernanke has been called the man who saved the world.  His extra­or­di­nary inter­ven­tions in the fall of 2008 have almost uni­ver­sal­ly been rec­og­nized as hav­ing pre­vent­ed a sec­ond Great Depression.

But a new study by the Swiss-based Bank for Inter­na­tion­al Set­tle­ments (BIS) sug­gests that Bernanke saved the world from a cri­sis that was at least part­ly of his own mak­ing.  Worse, it argues that the course he set and that his suc­ces­sor Janet Yellen and oth­er cen­tral banks are fol­low­ing will pro­duce anoth­er and per­haps graver crisis.

Gov­ern­ment mon­e­tary and fis­cal pol­i­cy­mak­ers have lost their way, the BIS argues.  So bad­ly that they don’t just need a new direc­tion.  They need a new compass.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Fed Up: Judge Strikes Down Federal Reserve on Swipe Fees

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The Fed holds all the cards when it sets a policy. Nobody bothered telling that to a federal judge, who last week struck down a Fed regulation on debit card swipe fees.

The Fed holds all the cards when it sets pol­i­cy. Nobody both­ered telling that to a fed­er­al judge, who last week struck down a Fed reg­u­la­tion on deb­it card swipe fees.

When it comes to bailouts, mon­e­tary pol­i­cy, and bank­ing reg­u­la­tion, the Fed­er­al Reserve has the last word. No one – not the Pres­i­dent, not Con­gress, not any­one – stops the Fed from doing what it has deter­mined to do. Until last week. Con­tin­ue read­ing →