The Radford Free Press – Page 375 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / banking, consumption, deficits, deflation, Federal Reserve Board, fiscal policy, GDP, inflation, jobs, Keynes, monetary policy, recession, stimulus /

The Slowdown Is For Real; Is Deflation Next?

July 30, 2010

What can we say about today’s GDP report? Not much that hasn’t already ben said: the economy is slowing down quite quickly. Growth in the second quarter fell to 2.4%, compared with 5.0% in the last quarter of 2009, and 3.7% in the first quarter 2010. That’s fairly dramatic and a much more rapid slow […]

Economics / consumer confidence, consumption, deficits, fiscal policy, home prices, jobs, real estate, recovery, unemployment /

Consumer Confidence and Home Prices

July 27, 2010

Just a quick note on today’s news: Consumer confidence continues to drop. The Conference Board report today has confidence at 50.4 in July, down from 54.3 in June and the lowest level since February. The standard explanation for this steady erosion is that unemployment weighs heavily on the minds of everyone. I put a slightly […]

Economics / Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board, monetary policy /

When Will The Fed Act?

July 22, 2010

I see from today’s testimony before Congress, that Ben Bernanke promises the Fed ‘will act’ if the economy underperforms. Ummm. The economy is already underperforming. So: when will the Fed act?