Majority of Americans Say Fed Should Be Reined In or Abolished, Poll Shows

Treasury Fall Poses Long-Term Dilemma for Fed Balance Sheet
By Michael S. Derby This week’s jump in Treasury yields hints at a day in the distant future when the Federal Reserve could confront real difficulties managing an enlarged Balance Sheet. At issue is the eventual cost of the Fed’s vast holdings of Treasury securities, which are growing rapidly as it carries out a “Quantitative Easing” program to add $600 billion in Treasurys to its books and reinvest up to $300 billion of maturing Mortgages. While the institution faces no...

Attraction to bond funds snaps in Nov.
The appeal of bonds may be dimming, as investors took more money out of bond Mutual Funds than they put in last month. The pullout snapped a two-year string of positive monthly flows into bonds, where investors have sought refuge after the Financial Crisis soured many on stocks. Fund tracker Strategic Insight said Friday that investors pulled $1.3 billion from bond funds in November, the first outflow since December 2008 during the Credit Crunch. Last month's outflow stems largely from a sharp i...

Bank of Korea says economic growth to slow in 2011
South Korea's Central Bank says the country's economy is set to slow to a more normal level in 2011 following its strong recovery from the global Financial Crisis. The Bank of Korea said Friday that Asia's fourth largest economy will expand at a rate of 4.5 percent next year compared with an expected 6.1 percent in 2010. The Central Bank made the estimates in its Economic Outlook report for 2011. South Korea's growth has rebounded strongly this year after sputtering to a meager 0.2 percent expan...

Bank of Korea says economic growth to slow in 2011
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's Central Bank says the country's economy is set to slow to a more normal level in 2011 following its strong recovery from the global Financial Crisis. The Bank of Korea said Friday that Asia's fourth largest economy will expand at a rate of 4.5 percent next year compared with an expected 6.1 percent in 2010. The Central Bank made the estimates in its Economic Outlook report for 2011. South Korea's growth has rebounded strongly this year after sputtering ...

Americans want it all a cut in the deficit and no reduction in programs, poll finds
WASHINGTON - Americans want Congress to bring down a federal Budget Deficit that many believe is “dangerously out of control,” only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay. The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and Tax Breaks like the Mortgage-int...

THIS should be interesting: Ron Paul to run Fed Oversight Committee.
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Representative Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas, talks about the Federal Reserve's response to the Financial Crisis and the bank's that borrowed from the Fed's Term Auction Facility. Paul speaks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg) Representative Ron Paul, Texas Republican and author of “End the Fed,” will take control of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. House Financial Services chairman-ele...

Most Americans say they're worse off under Obama, poll shows
More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they're doing better. The balance isn't sure. Americans have grown more downbeat about the country's future in just the la...

Most Americans Say They’re Worse Off Under Obama, Poll Shows
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they’re doing better. The balance isn’t sure. Americans have grown more downbeat about the ...

Most Americans Say They Are Worse Off Under Obama, Poll Shows
Where's that Hope and Change? bloomberg More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows . The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they’re doing better. The balance isn’t sure . Americans have grown more do...

Banks That Failed Despite Fed's Cash
The Federal Reserve’s multitrillion-dollar effort to save the Financial System helped prop up hundreds of ailing banks. But not every institution fared so well. Some 20 American banks that tapped tens of billions of dollars from the Fed’s various emergency Lending programs later failed, according to data the Fed released last week. The shuttered banks, all once deemed by the Fed to be relatively healthy, ranged from small community banks in Florida to big savings institutions like ...

Poll: Most Americans Say They're Worse Off Under Obama
More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they're doing better....

Poll: More Americans Say Theyre Worse Off
Businessweek reports: Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they’re doing better. The balance isn’t sure. Americans have grown mor...

Most Americans Say They're Worse Off Under Obama: Poll
More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows....

Poll: Do Americans like the tax cut deal?
Washington (CNN) - A new poll indicates that two-thirds of Americans support the deal between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans to temporarily extend Tax Cuts for all Americans. But another new survey indicates that a majority of the public is not in favor of the extension of the Bush-era Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans. According to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday, 66 percent say they support the extension for all Americans, including families making over $250,000 per ...

Swindle of the year
Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package. It will pump a Trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S. economy over the next two years - which just happen to be the two years of the run-up to the next Presidential Election. This is a defeat? If Obama had asked for a second stimulus ...

China to raise banks' reserve ratio by 0.5 point+
BEIJING, Dec. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—China's Central Bank said Friday it will raise the deposit reserve requirement ratio for banks by half a percentage point from Dec. 20. It will be the sixth time the People's Bank of China has increased the ratio this year in the face of rising Inflation, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Consumer Price Index, a major gauge of Inflation, moved up to a 25-month high 4.4 percent in October, topping the government's target of 3 percent for the fourth s...

China Takes Another Step To Curb Bank Lending
Beijing — China ordered its banks to increase their reserves in a move to curb surging Lending as Financial Markets watched for a widely anticipated Interest Rate hike amid efforts to cool Inflation. The Central Bank's order Friday was the third reserve increase in five weeks and came as Beijing tries to rein in a flood of money flowing through The Economy from stimulus spending and bank Lending that helped China rebound from the global crisis. Beijing has announced a slew of measures in...

China raises banks' reserve ratios again
By Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch Beijing | Fri Dec 10, 2010 7:24am EST Beijing (Reuters) - China's Central Bank on Friday increased the amount of money that lenders must keep on reserve for the third time in one month, a move to mop up excess cash in The Economy and rein in Inflation. But the decision to raise banks' required reserves rather than Interest Rates means that officials have opted for a milder form of monetary tightening for the time being, suggesting that they believe prices pre...

China raises bank reserve levels to curb lending
China ordered its banks to increase their reserves Friday in a move to curb Lending as Financial Markets watched for a widely anticipated Interest Rate hike amid efforts to cool Inflation. The Central Bank's order was the third reserve increase in five weeks and came as Beijing tries to restore normal financial conditions following a flood of stimulus spending and bank Lending that helped China rebound from the global crisis. Banks were ordered to increase minimum reserves by 0.5 percent of depo...

Something Republicans and Democrats Agree On: Their Hatred of the Fed
These days, it's pretty hard for Republicans and Democrats to agree on pretty much anything. But a new poll from Bloomberg shows that they see eye-to-eye on one issue: their hatred of the Federal Reserve. While broad public discontent with the Fed isn't shocking news, the aggressive action Americans believe should be taken according to the poll shows they want big changes. Americans across the political spectrum say the Fed shouldn't retain its current structure of independence. Asked if the ce...

Ron Paul, Author of 'End the Fed,' to Lead Fed Panel
(Updates with Frank comments in 11th paragraph.) Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Ron Paul, Texas Republican and author of "End the Fed," will take control of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. House Financial Services chairman-elect Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican, selected Paul, 75, to lead the panel's domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee when their party takes the House majority next month, the Committee Chairman said today. "This is the Leadership team tha...

Asian economies: Importing pessimism
WAL-MART in China is not quite like Wal-Mart elsewhere. Its stores sell live turtles and toads. It is happy for its staff to join a union. And in Kunming, a southern city in which Wal-Mart has six shops, the company, as well as several of its competitors, must now report and justify any price increases to the government 48 hours in advance. This policing of prices is part of China’s unorthodox fight against Inflation, which is running at more than 4% a year. Rising prices are also discomfi...

Within 24 Hours, the Double Dip Recession Threat Returns
At the White House, yesterday: Q Thank you, Mr. President. Back in July, your Budget office’s Mid-Session Review forecast that Unemployment would be 7.7 percent in the second — in the Fourth Quarter of 2012. Will this package deal lower that projected rate? And also, is it going to do more to boost growth and create jobs than your Recovery Act? THE PRESIDENT: This is not as significant a boost to The Economy as the Recovery Act was, but we’re in a different situation now. I m...

Holes and corners
STABILITY is better than crisis and collapse. But what about recovery? After squandering time and cash in a binge that ended in a bust, Romania has sobered up and is trying to cope with its daunting problems. The most pressing is The Economy. In the excitement of joining the European Union in 2007, Romania enjoyed a three-year boom in which annual growth peaked at a stonking 8%. Where a prudent government would have hit the brakes, Romania’s stamped on the accelerator, running a big Budget...

Trichet Says Excess Forex Volatility, Disorderly Moves Adverse
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet reiterated that excessive and disorderly movements of foreign Exchange Rates must be avoided. “The euro area has a shared interest in a strong and stable international Financial System, as excess Volatility and disorderly movements in Exchange Rates have adverse implications for economic and financial stability,” Trichet wrote in a letter to a member of the European Parliament, published on the bank’s we...