Federal Reserve

Dear Ben, Please Print us More Money

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Dear Ben, Please Print us More Money

We want you to prop up the stock market. Everybody knows it’s a Ponzi scheme that will collapse without your support. You don’t want us to end up like Bernie Madoff’s clients. No, Ben, we love Ponzi schemes. We get in early and get out before they collapse. That’s why we’re rich. The bad thing is that they sometimes collapse before we can get out. But you’ve bailed us out twice in the last couple of years….

Oh No, The Inventory Correction Is Confirmed

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Oh No, The Inventory Correction Is Confirmed

Awful economic data and corporate announcements confirm: orders are plummeting, the dreaded inventory correction is here, and a recession is now guaranteed. In our already miserable economy, this is going to be a rough ride. Fasten your seatbelt.

Fed’s Policies Slam Us Again

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Fed’s Policies Slam Us Again

July inflation is red hot, real wages are down, and real yields are more negative than ever, exactly what the Fed wants. The destruction of the American middle class continues.How these policies will pull us out of our economic debacle is mathematically unclear.

NY Fed: Execs Are Drinking Their Own Kool-Aid

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on NY Fed: Execs Are Drinking Their Own Kool-Aid

The New York Fed proves it (unwittingly): Executives are optimists who invariably, and falsely, assume the future is better than current conditions, though realty is staring them in the face.

Downgrades Don’t Matter

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Downgrades Don’t Matter

… if you can print money and are in control of the credit markets. Look at Japan. That doesn’t mean the underlying problems don’t matter.

Your Dollar—up to no Good

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Your Dollar—up to no Good

In case you didn’t stay up all night watching the spectacle, and tearing out your hair: Your very own… … your favorite one, the one you worked so hard to earn and even harder to save, yes, the ever shrinking one, well, it dropped to a new all-time low against the Japanese yen in Tokyo. And…

We Should Give them a Calculator

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on We Should Give them a Calculator

The raw numbers are ugly. The federal budget deficit is nearly 40% of total spending; that is, for every $1,000 the government spends, it collects $600 in taxes and borrows $400. Doesn’t anyone do any math in Washington?

Your Dollar

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Your Dollar

…is falling off a cliff again, hitting ¥78 and €0.69. You can sit idly by and watch it get demolished, or you can do something about it.

Our Chinese Bay Bridge

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Our Chinese Bay Bridge

The high-speed train fiasco in China makes us worry about our San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge whose gigantic one-tower landmark suspension segment was fabricated, you guessed it, in China. In return for some paltry savings, if any, California gave up enormous economic opportunities.

A Modest Proposal

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on A Modest Proposal

What galls me the most in this entire imbroglio of our debt ceiling is the hypocritical approach of our politicians: A Congress that authorizes every dollar that gets spent, gleefully accumulating a pile of debt so vast it’s hard to wrap your brains around it; and administrations who have been eager to borrow and spend as directed by Congress.