The Radford Free Press – Page 493 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / B. of A., banking, Citibank, loan losses /

Bank Capital Problems

April 28, 2009

Lost amid the ruckus over Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democrats is the continuing negotiation between the administration and those big banks deemed to have failed the recent stress tests. That’s inflammatory language on my part: apparently no one officially ‘failed’, but some seem to have passed ‘less well’. In particular Citibank and Bank of […]

Economics / B. of A., bailouts, banking, Citibank, deficits, GDP, nationalization, Obama, stimulus, TARP /

Is the Administration Doing Enough?

April 27, 2009

Having been bashed, offline, thoroughly over the weekend I feel I need to explain my apparent antagonism towards the administration’s approach to solving the economic crisis. So here goes: I see the solution to our economic crisis breaking into two elements: fiscal expansion [a.k.a. stimulus or deficit spending]; and financial industry bail-out and reform. So […]

Economics / Fed, Fed Funds rate, inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, stimulus /

Fed Funds Rate: Minus 5%?

April 27, 2009

Buried in this weekend’s news was a report on the internal analysis being undertaken by the Federal Reserve Board with respect to its ongoing efforts to stimulate the economy. One of the more interesting nuggets is the calculation that, given the state of the economy right now, especially the balance between inflation and unemployment, the […]