“Monetary policy” on The Daily Caller

Fed head Ben Bernanke and the FOMC dropped a new policy bomb at their meeting this week. Now they say inflation is too low. That’s the real problem. And the solution? Punch up the money supply and punch down the dollar — or what I used to call King Dollar. No more. (more)

TOKYO — Japan moved Wednesday to prop up the U.S. dollar and weaken the yen in a bid to protect its export-led economy, intervening in international currency markets for the first time since 2004. (more)

It’s one of the most hackneyed of movie clichés: The hero is chasing an armed bad guy on foot and they are periodically trading shots. Both the pursuer and the pursued are remarkably bad shots, firing wildly without effect, apart from the occasional upper arm flesh wound. At some point during the pursuit, the villain runs out of bullets, and just in case subtlety is lost on the audience, the now desperate villain throws his gun in the general direction of his pursuer and runs for his life. Mayhem ensues, and the now-unarmed heavy is usually captured alive. (more)

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold. (more)

WASHINGTON—The Aug. 10 meeting of top Federal Reserve officials was among the most contentious in Ben Bernanke’s four-and-a-half year tenure as central bank chairman. (more)

Rising job losses and “unusual uncertainty” within the economy have prompted the Federal Reserve and other major financial institutions to slash growth projections for the rest of 2010, leaving Americans worried about the possibility of a dreaded “double-dip” recession. But it’s another “D” word that currently has investors spooked—deflation. (more)

A few weeks ago, Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting was expected to be a non-event. Now it has become a summer cliffhanger. (more)

A subtle but significant shift appears to be occurring within the Federal Reserve over the course of monetary policy as the economic recovery is weakening. (more)

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said unemployment is “the most important” problem facing the U.S. (more)

Increasingly obvious perils of government debt have given rise to public concern, and even alarm. Though some people argue the alarm is exaggerated, there is a growing segment of the population that is thinking long and hard about the future of our country in ways we have not seen before. In this article, I discuss the principled basis for practical solutions. In particular, I argue the principle of subsidiarity should be central in our deliberations as we forge ahead. (more)

Financial crises can be very difficult events to understand. Even for those who have spent a great deal of time studying such areas as finance and economics, comprehension of these disasters can be elusive. However, analyzing shared elements in the recent American and Greek financial crises can help give even the economic layman insight into their common causes. (more)

Federal Reserve policy makers last month said they were in no rush to sell $1.1 trillion of mortgage-backed securities, with a majority preferring to wait until after the central bank starts raising interest rates. (more)

ATHENS – Athens is no stranger to public protest. On average, there are more than two rallies — of varying size — a day in the city center. This was the case even before the economic crisis took hold of the country, when many Greeks would find anything they could to complain about. (more)

President Obama has appointed three new doves to the Federal Reserve Board, thereby taking command of the nation’s central bank. But there’s a split developing inside the Federal Reserve System: The Reserve Bank presidents, appointed by their own district boards of directors, are increasingly likely to wage a battle royale against the central-bank headquarters in Washington and its free-money, ultra-easy policies. (more)

BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with a Chinese vice premier on Thursday and discussed economic ties in a sign the two sides might be trying to cool their rhetoric in a dispute over China’s currency controls. (more)

The sovereign debt crisis has crossed a threshold. It’s no longer about economics. It’s about math and a complex system whose dynamics tell us there is little time to avoid catastrophe and almost no exit. Going forward, elections and policies will matter less as the debt plague takes hold and dictates hard outcomes. (more)

1. Introduction (more)

Crude futures traded higher Monday as the euro continued to gain against the dollar amid positive sentiment generated by last week’s announcement that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund had agreed to provide a safety net for Greece. (more)

WASHINGTON — Donald L. Kohn, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, who helped coordinate the central bank’s response to the fiscal crisis in 2008, told the White House on Monday that he would retire when his four-year term expires on June 23. (more)

Amidst all of the excitement about the Vancouver Olympics and consternation over the still-lingering jobless recovery, there was a flickering, glimmering light that sparked in the ashes of this nasty recession about a week ago and hardly anyone noticed.
The Fed announced a teeny-tiny rate hike on the money they loan the largest banks. (more)