Ron Paul vs. the Federal Reserve

Krugman asks the question
Fresh from presenting a FIFTH Neo-Keynesian definition of Inflation in the form of "core inflation", Paul Krugman finally begins to pay attention to the actual issue at hand: I’d like to highlight one aspect of this discussion that has been striking me: the conservative focus on the evils of increasing the Money Supply. You hear it all the time: the Fed is printing money! Danger, Will Robinson! In some comments on this blog I see assertions that the true measure of Inflation isn’t prices, ...

Third-quarter growth revised up to 2.6 percent
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 8:38am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth was a touch higher than previously estimated in the Third Quarter, but below expectations as a rise in the pace of inventory accumulation was offset by downward revisions to Consumer Spending, a government report showed on Wednesday. Gross domestic product growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 2.6 percent from 2.5 percent, the Commerce Department said. Economists had expected GDP growth, which measures to...

Third-quarter growth revised up to 2.6 percent
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:12am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth was a touch higher than previously estimated in the Third Quarter, but below expectations as a rise in the pace of inventory accumulation was offset by downward revisions to Consumer Spending, a government report showed on Wednesday. Gross domestic product growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 2.6 percent from 2.5 percent, the Commerce Department said. Economists had expected GDP growth, which measures to...

WHO IS ALICIA MUNNELL? AND WHY IS SHE DRAWING FIRE?
Presidential nominations to the Federal Reserve Board are normally humdrum affairs. In fact, Congress hasn't rejected a central-bank nominee in more than eight decades. But this is the Clinton White House, which seems unable to fill any job easily. And that creates uncertainty for the Clintonites' expected choice for a Fed opening: Alicia H. Munnell. Munnell, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Economic Policy, hasn't yet been formally nominated to replace Governor John P. LaWare. But Senate Republ...

Congressman Paul Says Fed Transparency Is His Goal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Congressman Ron Paul, the new head of the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve, said on Sunday he will seek greater transparency but will not be sending Subpoenas to the Central Bank chairman from Day One. Paul, a longtime critic of the Fed, will be the new chairman of the domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee when the new Congress is seated in January. "Now that doesn't mean that the first week in January I...

Fed Increases its Treasury Security Purchase Limit to 70%
When the Federal Reserve decided to execute a new course of Monetary Policy in November, it had a problem. It wanted to buy more longer-term Treasury securities, but it was already nearing its concentration limit for the amount of each specific Treasury Security it could hold. But since the rule was self-imposed, it lifted the limit, effectively doubling the amount it can purchase of any given Treasury Security issue. This is a pretty big change. The Central Bank had temporarily relaxed its 35 ...

Federal Reserve issues interim rule amending Regulation Z to clarify certain disclosure requirements of the Mortgage Disclosure
The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday approved an interim rule amending Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Board is issuing this interim rule to clarify certain aspects of a September 24, 2010 interim rule, in response to public comments. The September interim rule implements provisions of the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act (MDIA) which amended TILA to require mortgage lenders to disclose examples of how a loan's Interest Rate or monthly payments can change...

Sales Of 'Existing Homes' Rose 5.6% in November
It says that sales of single-family homes, townhouses, Condominiums and co-ops rose 5.6 percent from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million. Sales have now risen in three of the past four months, though they remain well below the 6.49 million pace of November 2009 — when tax incentives gave the market a boost. In a statement, NAR chief Economist Lawrence Yun says that "continuing gains in Home Sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady Job Creation will...

Money and Marbles
Jim Hamilton: Econbrowser: Velocity of money: I wanted to follow up on Menzie's recent observations about what's been happening to the supply and demand for money. These discussions are sometimes conducted in terms of the following equation: MV = PY. Here M is a measure of the Money Supply, V its velocity, and nominal GDP is written as the product of the overall price level (P) with real GDP (Y). We have direct measurements on nominal GDP. And once we agree on a definition of the money supply ...

Feds Bullard: Full of Self-Contradictions
James Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis was on CNBC Monday, December 20, 2010 mostly defending the Fed’s Controversial $600 billion Treasury purchasing program (QE2) announced in Nov. What struck me as totally self-contradictory were Bullard’s statements regarding the QE2, treasury yield, Inflation expectations, and inflation, which I will outline and rebuff below. Bullard – Higher Treasury Yield = QE2 Success During the interview, aside from the ...

On Tuesdays Radio Show
• Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) joins Alan to discuss the end of the lame-duck session and his plans to tackle the Federal Reserve in the New Year. • The Washington Post reports that the government is building a vast domestic spying network. The ACLU’s Mike German , a former FBI agent, shares his concerns with Alan. • Could the New START Treaty be a defining moment for President Obama? Alan will have all the latest on the vote. ...

Senate inaction kills Diamond nomination to Fed board
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nomination of Nobel Prize-winning Economist Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve's Board was scuttled on Wednesday when the Senate failed to vote on it before adjourning for the year. A Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Diamond had a strong expertise on Budget and tax issues. This research focus prompted criticism from some Republicans who argued he lacked the proper experience on Monetary Policy. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved Diamond...

UK economic growth in 3rd quarter revised downward
Britain's economy grew by 0.7 percent in the Third Quarter, less than the 0.8 percent first estimated, official Statisticians said Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics also revised down its Second Quarter growth figure, to 1.1 percent from 1.2 percent, due to weaker construction activity than earlier calculated. Vicky Redwood, senior U.K. Economist at Capital Economics, said details within the report were a mixed bag of signals. Government Spending now appears to be a smaller component ...

The Federal Reserve: Aging Magician of the Welfare State
December Currency deposits__ supply_          growth rate        increase__              2005                       728.9              3,233.3 ...

Federal Reserve Blocks New Foreclosure Regulations
WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper Foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute. The new regulations ...

Summary Box: Treasury flat in light trading
LIGHT TRADING: Treasurys traded in a tight range Tuesday. The 10-year note rose 34.3 cents for every $100 invested. That lowered the yield to 3.30 percent from 3.35 late Monday. MORE FED BUYING: The Fed bought $9.4 billion in Treasurys, including $1.61 billion in Inflation-indexed notes. The purchases are part of the Central Bank's $600 billion bond-buying program aimed at lowering long-term Interest Rates. FIGHTING THE FED: Yields have been rising steadily since early November, even after the...

Attention Inflationistas: You Are 3 Years Too Late
All the inflationistas - and hyper-inflationistas: You missed your window. Inflation was running rampant during 2001-07, and you somehow seemed to overlook that. Now, inflation is running at its Lowest Levels in half a century,. and its all you eejits can talk about. “Inflation is also lower than the policy makers’ long-term forecast. The Fed’s preferred price gauge, which is tied to Consumer Spending and strips out food and energy costs, rose at a 0.5 percent annual pace, the ...

Ignorance Is Bliss: The Matty Edition...
People occasionally email me asking why I continue to rag on Matthew Yglesias. It's hard to answer that question in a civil tone, simply because the "why" should be blindingly obvious to anyone with the I.Q. of a potted plant. Here's a perfect example of what I mean: When it comes to wages, the basic story of recent decades is redolent of Scrooge. Real average hourly earnings (excluding fringe benefits) now stand roughly at 1974 levels. Yes, that’s right, no real increase...

Economists are creating new methods for tracking prices.
By Annie LowreyPosted Monday, Dec. 20, 2010, at 5:10 PM ET A shopping cart full of goods that help determine the Consumer Price Index.At some 23,000 Retailers and businesses in 90 U.S. cities, hundreds of government workers find and mark down prices on very precise products. And I'm not kidding when I say "very precise." Say the relevant worker is finding the price for a motel room. She might write a report like this: Occupancy—two adults; Type of accommodation—deluxe room; Room clas...

Frustration Builds Over High Food Prices In China
Students at the No. 2 High School in Liupanshui City of southwestern China's Guizhou province had endured rising living expenses for months. But on November 22, after a new round of food price increase — though a relatively minor one of no more than 50 cents per meal — they had had enough. More than 1,000 students gathered in school canteen, smashing windows and vandalizing the cafeteria facilities. The event in Guizhou underscores a broader discontent over rising Inflation across C...

Gross domestic product grows, but below expectations
The U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.6 percent from July through September, higher than a previous government estimate, but still below the expectations of Economists. The government had estimated last month that the third-quarter growth would be 2.5 percent, while economists had pegged it at 2.9 percent. The new data is yet another indication that the Economic Recovery continues to occur, but at a sluggish pace. Meanwhile, new data indicated that Inflation was even lower than previously tho...

Julian Simon and I vs. Paul Krugman, by David Henderson
The two Economists [Krugman and Simon] appeared in different ways. Krugman wrote a deeply, though unintentionally, ironic article titled "Why most economists' predictions are wrong," filled with predictions that were... mostly wrong. Simon, sadly, had just passed away and so his appeared in the issue was by way of David Henderson's remembrance of him. This is from a recent reminiscence by Chris Alden, co-founder of the Red Herring, a now-defunct Silicon Valley publication for which I was the m...

Economist recommends raising rates to 2% to stimulate lending
Once again, another Economist telling us that we should raise the benchmark Federal Funds Rate to 2%. Steve Hanke is an Economics Professor at Johns Hopkins and a Senior Fellow at the Cato. I would recommend 1.5%, but that is just a guess. Stay tuned as we have a more substantive piece coming up about where the Interest Rates should really be. Via Cato: In the monetary sphere, the Fed has, in a standard Keynesian manner, flooded The Economy with high-powered base money since the onset of the cr...

Rockwell, Woods, Rogers, and Paul on the Fed
(Here’s the book by Congressman Charles Lindbergh (the aviator’s father) exposing the truth about the “Federal” Reserve. Napolitano mentions Lindbergh in his introduction to his show’s exposé of the “Federal” Reserve.) [Thanks to Travis Holte] ...

Krugmans Rhetoric Becomes More Shrill: Ron Paul Now is a Zombie
I think we can expect Paul Krugman to go on the offensive against Ron Paul, as he perceives Rep. Paul to be a threat to everything Keynesians believe. In today’s NYT column, Krugman declares Rep. Paul to be someone who is a promoter of “zombie economics,” and this time purposely leaving out the context of a Ron Paul quote. Krugman writes: When historians look back at 2008-10, what will puzzle them most, I believe, is the strange triumph of failed ideas. Free-market fundamenta...