Archive for August 2009
Ben Bernanke’s reappointment: The very model of a modern central banker
The original article is linked here.
GREG IP
From The Economist print edition
An academic background stood the chairman of the Federal Reserve in good stead during his first term. Political skills may be more important in his second
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AS THE financial crisis gathered force in August 2007, Jim Cramer, a hyperbolic market commentator on cable television, hurled the worst epithet he could muster at the chairman of the Federal Reserve: “Bernanke is being an academic. It is no time to be an academic!” By August 25th this year, when Barack Obama nominated Ben Bernanke to a second, four-year term, what had once been an epithet had become a source of strength. Read the rest of this entry »
Assessing quantitative easing: Muzzled
The original article is linked here.
By Greg Ip
From The Economist print edition
Politics stops the Fed from expanding an asset-purchase scheme
BACK IN 2002, before he became chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke claimed that if short-term interest rates fell to zero, a central bank still had the ultimate weapon: printing money by purchasing government bonds. Having now actually tried quantitative easing himself, Mr Bernanke is discovering its limits. Read the rest of this entry »
Signs of economic cheer: The sun also rises
The original article is linked here.
GREG IP plus another Economist correspondent
From The Economist print edition
The economy may be pulling out of recession but unemployment is still surprisingly high. Celebrations should be delayed
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WHEN Barack Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana, in early February, a few weeks after his inauguration, it was a sombre affair. In the previous 12 months the area’s unemployment rate had more than tripled to 18.3 %. The president pleaded for the passage of a massive fiscal stimulus, insisting that “doing nothing is not an option.” By the time he returned to Elkhart on August 5th he was quite a bit sunnier. Local factories are “coming back to life”, he proclaimed. A few days earlier he had declared the economy to have done “measurably better” than expected.
Mr Obama’s good spirits are well grounded: America’s recession appears to be coming to an end. Read the rest of this entry »
