The continuing foreclosure crisis worsened in October 2008. The Federal Reserve (Fed) continued the aggressive expansion of new private credit that it began in mid-September and it created three new credit facilities to add to the plethora of other facilities created since the financial crisis...

The Federal Reserve (Fed) and the U.S. Treasury have taken unprecedented steps to stem the financial crisis that began in August 2007 as part of the extended foreclosure crisis. In the most recent episode in September 2008, seven financial institutions either failed or were merged with stronger...

Proponents of inflation targeting suggest that countries using this tool understand better, their responsibility for price stability and are able to better communicate their superior policy target. Thus, they also should achieve lower inflation. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is a strong proponent of...

Milton Friedman, one of greatest economists of all time, died on November 16, 2006 at age 94. He was famous for his conclusion that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” and for the related notion that ultimately the only thing a central bank, such as the Federal...

Since August 2007 the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) has approached near panic in their adoption of multiple and inconsistent traditional policy measures and, since December 2007, they have multiplied these efforts by adopting major new policy tools, some of which may go...

The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007. Coming in train with a foreclosure crisis that began in late 2006 and its associated financial crisis that began in August 2007, there is a tendency for analysts to attribute the recession to the financial crisis. The worst aspects of the financial...

China-bashing has become a popular media and political sport. This is largely due to the U.S. trade imbalance and the belief, by some, that China is responsible for it because it manipulates its currency to hold down the dollar prices of its goods, unfairly creating a trade advantage that has...

Financial sector regulatory reform has been a leading national issue since the U.S. Treasury issued its Blueprint for reform in spring (2008). The mortgage foreclosure and financial crises reinforced popular interest in whether the U.S. regulatory framework was deficient and how to fix the...

China’s major imbalances include trade and capital account surpluses and a large annual build-up of international reserves. China has a capital account surplus reinforcing the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, mainly U.S. dollar-denominated assets. Usually, a sustainable fixed or...

The U.S. mortgage loan foreclosure crisis has become the biggest risk facing the U.S. economy. In August 2007, the National Association of Business Economists named the combined effects of subprime debt defaults and excessive personal and corporate debt as the greatest short-term threat to the...