Category Archives: Federal Reserve

Economy Re-Accelerates in Q2. Our Drunken Sailors Splurge on Durable Goods, Investment Jumps, Federal Gov Undoes Blip

The US economy looks a bit perky. Party on! But will the Fed continue to apply the interest rate brakes?

US Fed-Induced World Stagnation Deepens Debt Distress

US and Fed bad cooking has led to weak growth the world, and by urging poor countries to borrow at once-low rates, debt distress.

The Fed’s “Chicken Run”: Why Sticking with High Rates Will Crash the Economy

How the Fed is acting like James Dean in the famous “chicken run” auto race in Rebel Without a Cause.

Private Equity Becomes Roach Motel as Public Pension Funds and Other Investors Borrow As Funds Remain Tied Up

Oopsie! Private equity firms are hanging on to investor money for an unseemly amount of time! What to do?

Global South Suffering Due to Powerful Nations’ Elite-Serving Policies

The World Bank projects the worst slowdown in over four decades in 2024. This is mainly due to Western powers’ contractionary policies

Status of Banks’ Unrealized Losses in Q1: Worsened After Brief Rate-Cut-Mania Relief

US banks are still sitting on losses, with Fed relief nowhere in sight.

Private Equity Seeks to Foist Companies It Can’t Sell on Employees

Oh noes! Private equity is finding it hard to find buyers for all those deals it bought when interest rates were low!

Remember Headlines 2 Weeks Ago, Labor Market “Suddenly” Weakens as Unemployment Claims “Spike”: It Just Got Unwound

A wee unpacking of unemployment data to show how Fed rate cut cheerleaders are still ahead of themselves

Trump Versus Biden: The Substantial Fall in Real Wages for Most Workers Under Biden

An important new paper contradicts Democratic pundits, showing that most workers lost in real wage terms under Biden

Elections and Devaluations

Quelle surprise! Regimes facing elections often goose their economies, leading to currency appreciation pre-vote and devaluations afterwards.

Oh Deary, Where Did My Rate Cuts Go? Fed’s Wait-and-See Now Entrenched? And Suddenly Lots of Talk About “Rate Hikes”

What Fed chair Powell said about rate hikes, no rate cuts, rate cuts, and the QT slowdown while getting rid of MBS entirely

Tilting at Windmills: Bernanke and Blanchard’s Obsession with the Wage-Price Spiral

The obsession of big-name economists with defending a bad model has consequences, here, a policy aim of whacking wages.

Global South Stagnating Under Heavier Debt Burden

Much higher interest rates – due to Western central banks – damage developing nations via prolonged debt distress and stagnation.

There’s a “New Upside Risk” in Town: “Pent-up Exuberance” – Fed’s Bostic

Some at the Fed worry that the central bank can’t get the inflation genie back in the bottle.

Inflation and Power

Why the Fed’s approach to inflation has the main effect of reducing labor bargaining power, which is seldom the real problem.