Topic: Central Banking

The Signals of the Fed

– February 19, 2010

The Fed made what it claims is a minimal change in strategy today, as it raised the emergency loan rate today from 0.5%. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The Fed said the move wasn’t meant to affect monetary policy…” Yet in a realm as dependent u …

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Will Bernanke’s Exit Strategy Work?

– February 19, 2010

“On Wednesday, February 10, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was expected to appear before the House Committee on Financial Services to testify on the Fed’s extraordinary measures taken during the financial crisis, and how the Fed is planning to u …

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“Stagflation Comes to the U.K.”

– February 17, 2010

“Inflation in the U.K. hit 3.5% annually in January, a level that required central banker Mervyn King to write a letter of explanation to the Treasury. Mr. King lays the blame for the price uptick largely at the feet of idiosyncratic factors. These inc …

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“Financial Crises and the Federal Reserve’s Punch Bowl”

– February 15, 2010

“Why did the U.S. financial system nearly collapse last year? People blame Wall Street’s excessive greed and risk-taking. But without easy money, the massive risk-taking could not have happened. To be sure, financial firms leveraged up—that is, they di …

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The Yo-Yo Tactic: Stop and Go Economics

– February 12, 2010

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke commented on his “exit strategy”. There is a large amount of money floating around in the economy, and the Fed is finally starting to worry about it. Thus far, banks have held back the …

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It’s October 1931

– February 5, 2010

“We are now more than two years into the Great Recession, which began in December 2007. In the Great Depression, this was the point where the Fed decided to raise interest rates to keep the dollar from depreciating (after Britain left the gold standard …

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“Shughart: Bernanke agonistes”

– February 2, 2010

“Mr. Bernanke has become something of a lightning rod for critics on the left, who think his response to the financial crisis that triggered the recession has been too timid, and for those on the right, who charge that the Fed has been overly aggressiv …

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“The Fed’s Anti-Inflation Exit Strategy Will Fail”

– January 28, 2010

“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has explained his exit strategy to prevent future inflation. The Fed recently began to pay interest to banks on the reserves they hold in their vaults. Using this new tool, it claims the ability to get banks to ke …

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A History of the Federal Reserve: 1913-1951

– January 27, 2010

“A history of the Federal Reserve is a history of the decisions made and the ideas that prompted them. The chapters that follow allow the participants to explain their action and the reasons for them, in their own words. These decisions produced very d …

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Interview With George Selgin

– January 20, 2010

“I use the term to mean laissez-faire banking — banking without any special government regulations or restrictions. Like free trade, it’s an ideal concept. It doesn’t refer to any specific or actual banking system, although some, like Scotland’s in the …

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Bernanke is Time’s Person of the Year

– December 16, 2009

Bernanke is Time’s Person of the Year Steve Horwitz The Austrian Economists

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The Rationale of Central Banking and the Free Banking Alternative

– December 9, 2009

“In the present century centralised banking systems have come to be regarded as the usual concomitant, if not one of the conditions of the attainment of an advanced stage of economic development. The belief in the desirability of central bank organisat …

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