Federal Reserve and Politics

A very good talk about the independence of the Federal Reserve. In short, making the Fed accountable to short term political objectives at the expense of long term economic problems is a mistake (most economists probably would agree). So too does Tim Geithner.

Cutting Our Debt

We talk about what is happening in Europe and say the we are going down that path. We decide we need to get our deficit under control, and begin cutting our debt. We agree that we need to cut government spending and raise taxes to do this. But WHAT exactly do we cut, and WHICH taxes do we increase? This article gives us a good idea. It is worth the time to figure out.

Many people believe we will have to do this, the only question is if we do it before or after our nation get to the point that our European friends are in.

The Gold Standard

I thought the debate among economists over the Gold Standard was over right after the Great Depression. Apparently the actions of the Fed have brought them back again.

Journalist Majors

For my journalism majors you may like this. For those interested in doing their final paper on this industry this may be a good start.

The State of Monetary Policy

The Federal Reserve has exhausted their ability to conduct traditional expansionary monetary policy. This outlines it nicely. The money quote:

“There’s no silver bullet right now,” and central bankers have “very few options left in terms of lowering interest rates,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But that does not mean they are content to leave the economy alone as the article outlines.