Articles About Federal Reserve

A decade before the financial meltdown, one woman was sounding the alarm that a catastrophe was coming.  That woman is Brooksley Born, who correctly predicted that investments known as over-the-counter derivatives could cause a financial crisis.  As Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during the second Clinton administration, Born would wake up “in […]

Despite the Snowmageddon that crippled Washington, D.C. and much of the East Coast during February, the economy continued to grow at a modest rate.  This is the opinion of the Federal Reserve’s newly issued Beige Book report – officially known as the “Summary of Commentary on Current Economics Conditions by Federal Reserve District” — which […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may get all the headlines, but the retirement of Vice Chairman Donald L. Kohn is giving President Barack Obama the historic opportunity to reshape the nation’s central bank. Kohn is one of seven Fed governors who set U.S. monetary policy and regulate the financial system. The change comes at a […]

The last 30 years have seen a boom for skyscraper construction because the cost of borrowing money had declined significantly. When investors borrow money to purchase assets, they send prices higher.  The problem is that this borrowing makes the markets susceptible to busts when investors sell assets to pay their debts.  The recent financial crisis […]

An independent audit released by the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) has found the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to be effective, so much so that the Department of the Treasury has extended it to October 3, 2010.  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to use the remaining funds to assist families facing foreclosure […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is starting to look at ways to back off from the central bank’s heroic efforts to keep the nation’s economy afloat through the financial crisis of the past 18 months. The trick to raising short-term interest rates, which have been at historic lows for more than a year, is to […]

A Federal Reserve official predicts that 2010 will see a continuing moderate economic recovery with interest rates kept “exceptionally low” to encourage job creation.  Elizabeth Duke, a Fed governor, said “In the current environment, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) continues to anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal […]

Compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg – officially, the Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation – believes that the pay reductions he mandated at seven taxpayer-rescued firms should become the model  for Wall Street and corporate America. “There is entirely too much reliance on cash and there’s got to be a better way to tie corporate […]

Manufacturing is gradually on the upswing, according to the December ISM Manufacturing Index, which rose to 55.9 from November’s 53.6 reading.  A gain to just 54.3 was expected, so the news is encouraging.  In terms of inflation, prices paid climbed to 61.5; an increase to 57.2 was forecast.  This is great news for a sector […]

Gold fever seems to be on the decline as the precious metal fell $90 an ounce in just two days after the commodity reached a high of $1,226 an ounce in early December.  The lion’s share of the blame for the decline was placed on newbie investors, who got skittish in their belief that gold […]