Should the Fed try to push long-term interest rates even lower?
Posted in News, economy, what on August 7th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
If the economy were careening into another recession, Federal Reserve policymakers would know exactly what to do: Rent out the Air Force, print money and rain it all over America.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
They’d also know what to do if the recovery began to accelerate, pushing up the inflation rate. That’s in the first chapter of the Central Banking 101 textbook: You start tightening credit by raising short-term interest rates.
The current state of affairs, however, is much more of a challenge for the Fed. If the economy is just going to muddle through for an extended period, what’s appropriate central bank policy?
Germans bask in a sunny streak
Posted in Celeb, Entertainment, Health, News, Politics, economy, what on July 26th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffGermans are in a really good mood this summer.
An extraordinary run of luck has given them an uncharacteristically optimistic outlook for a change and replaced the usual angst-ridden gloom and doom.
A stylish performance by their team at the World Cup soccer tournament, a rare win at the popular Eurovision song contest, better-than-expected economic growth and lower-than-expected unemployment are fuelling a remarkable “era of good feeling.”
Bernanke says economic outlook is ‘unusually uncertain’
Posted in Education, News, Politics, economy on July 22nd, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
Saying the economic outlook was “unusually uncertain,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke predicted that unemployment was likely to remain stubbornly high for several years, straining families and endangering the nation’s economic stability and competitiveness.
“Long-term unemployment not only imposes exceptional near-term hardships on workers and their families; it also erodes skills and may have long-lasting effects on workers’ employment and earnings prospects,” he said Wednesday in his semiannual testimony to Congress.
