Free Republic

The Federal Reserve said it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month in a third round of quantitative easing as it seeks to boost growth and reduce unemployment. “We’re looking for ongoing, sustained improvement in the labor market,” Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in his press conference today in Washington following the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. “There’s not a specific number we have in mind. What we’ve seen in the last six months isn’t it.” Stocks jumped, sending benchmark indexes to the...

The fact that interest yields are so low in so many parts of the world is no coincidence. Rates are determined not only by markets, but also by government policy. And right now many governments say they have good reason to keep their own borrowing costs as low as they possibly can. Just last week, the government’s report on job growth in the United States showed continued weakness, and an international forecasting group warned that the European economic powerhouse, Germany, will fall into recession later this year. Though bad for people trying to live off their savings, low interest rates...

More than 50 Lukoil gas stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania jacked up prices to more than $8 a gallon Wednesday to protest what they say are unfair pricing practices by Lukoil North America that leave them at a competitive disadvantage. Dozens of Lukoil franchise owners also gathered to protest at a station in this central New Jersey town where the posted prices were an eye-popping $8.99 a gallon. The owners and the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association said the one-day protest was aimed at raising consumer awareness about the challenges facing Lukoil dealers and getting the company to...

Producer prices rose by the most in three years in August as the cost of energy surged, a government report showed on Thursday, but underlying inflation pressures were contained. The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted producer price index increased 1.7 percent last month, the largest gain since June 2009 and accelerating from July's 0.3 percent rise. Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices at farms, factories and refineries to rise 1.1 percent last month. Wholesale prices excluding volatile food and energy costs rose 0.2 percent, slowing from a 0.4 percent increase in July. The rise matched economists' expectations. Despite...

In the past year the Federal Reserve System has done $600 billion of “quantitative easing.” QE2, the second round of this kind of stimulus, is officially over, but we could get another dose of it. In his July 13 report to Congress Chairman Ben S. Bernanke mentions QE3 as an option for the woebegone economy. “Easing” means having the 12 banks in the system buy Treasury bonds and Treasury-backed mortgage securities. Payment is with money created by the Federal Reserve. What’s going on here? Investing, as when JP Morgan buys a Treasury bond? Or something more like money printing? Defenders...

More than 50 gas stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are jacking up prices to more than $9 a gallon to protest what they say are unfair pricing practices by Lukoil North America. Sal Risalvato of the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association said Wednesday's protest is aimed at getting Lukoil to respond to dealers' grievances. Fox affiliate WNYW reports that a station in South Plainfield, N.J., had signs listing regular gas for $8.99 a gallon and premium listed at $9.49 a gallon for cash and $9.59 for credit.

Governor Palin has been warning us about this. Via Facebook: President Obama is clearly revealing his rapid loss of any grip on the economic and security issues that are of utmost importance to our country. His economic and foreign policy blunders are manifesting chaos. On the same day when we see more chaos erupting in the Middle East and President Obama declaring that Egypt is no longer considered our ally, the Federal Reserve announced that it will spend $40 billion a month to purchase mortgage-backed securities with no end date set. QE3 is upon us.In a speech nearly two years...

Quantitative Easing has become banal, a fine-tuning tool like any other. It is by now drained of all drama. Even the Federal Reserve’s hawks have lost the will to resist. Five of the six critics acquiesced. The Fed will buy a further $40bn (£25bn) of mortgage bonds each month until the jobs market improves “substantially”, and more if need be. It is open-ended. Zero interest rates will continue until mid-2015. It is pocket-sized compared with the pace of $75bn a month in the QE heyday, or the 500 basis point rate cuts at the onset of the Great Recession. This...

The Federal Reserve fulfilled expectations of more stimulus for the faltering economy, taking aim now at driving down mortgage rates. The Fed said it will buy $40 billion of mortgages per month in an attempt to foster a nascent recovery in the real estate market. The purchases will be open-ended, meaning that they will continue until the Fed is satisfied that economic conditions, primarily in unemployment, improve. There's strong hints that they'll do Treasurys next," Joe LaVorgna, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Advisors, said in a phone interview from London."They're pulling out all the stops to try to get this...

WASHINGTON -- A strong signal Friday from Chairman Ben Bernanke that more economic stimulus is on the way puts the Federal Reserve squarely in the middle of the fight for the White House in November’s presidential election. Speaking at the Fed’s annual retreat in the Wyoming resort city of Jackson Hole, Bernanke offered a spirited defense of his unconventional efforts over the past three years to stimulate economic activity through the purchase of government and mortgage bonds. And he seemed to signal that more steps would be taken soon. “As we assess the benefits and costs of alternative policy approaches,...

The assumption among the majority of Americans is that the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency will maintain America’s political, financial and economic hegemony around the world for decades to come. But, if there’s one lesson to be taken from economic history, it’s that no currency survives the test of time. As the economic crisis continued to deepen and affect nearly every nation on earth, many world leaders – from Europe to China – began discussing the replacement of the US dollar as the world’s monetary unit of trade. Dismissed by some as all talk, it should now be...

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke reinforced his call on Thursday for Congress to raise the cap on U.S. borrowing, saying a failure to do so could lead down the same risky path that the failure of Lehman Brothers did. During a Senate Banking Committeee hearing, Bernanke reiterated catastrophic consequences should Congress either fail to raise the limit on borrowing or edge too close to that limit. "The worst outcome would be one in which the financial system would be again destabilized, which we saw in Lehman, which would have extremely dire consequences for the rest of the economy," Bernanke said,...

The recent decision by Standard & Poor's to reduce the forecast of their rating of U.S. debt has forced a reevaluation of all the candidates for President now jockeying for position in the Republican field. I am well aware that Governor Chris Christie has been encouraged to consider running for President of the United States, and he has been consistent, admirably consistent in fact, in stating that he will not run. He has said that he feels an obligation to New Jersey voters to fulfill the term of office to which he was elected, and to do what he thinks...

Insight into the historical framework of our current national peril. This is the most difficult report update I’ve ever filed on any investigative matter on which I’ve worked, and certainly the most important. It strikes directly at the heart of the national security of the United States, which has been under attack from within for the last 75 years or longer. What exists today began with people who are long dead, but whose agendas live on through others to whom the torch has been passed. It is the proverbial rabbit hole that goes deeper than most can fathom. At center...

Elites Float U.S. Bank Bailout Plans The wretched scenario that I had reported on in the United Kingdom may be coming to America. If you even slightly care about this issue at all (and you should), you need to become politically involved. What the bankers are asking for is a bailout, and they will package it in the most populist way to get it passed. Or they will have it passed in any way possible, much like they did the Federal Reserve Act or the income tax amendment. CTB readers know that I have already laid out the new public...

WASHINGTON — Counting on the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress, Democratic lawmakers and their Republican allies are working on measures that would place millions of illegal immigrants on a more direct path to citizenship than would a bill the Senate passed in the spring.

Weimar Republic I have a theory that nations are like individuals. Those whose leaders are smart, strong and lucky prosper, and those whose leaders are stupid, weak and unlucky suffer or perish. That's why it matters which leaders we choose. There are relatively few people in the United States who actually have the power to make important decisions. The Constitution, for example, vests 100 percent of the power of the federal government in only 537 individuals — one president, one vice president, 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate. Everybody else in the entire federal government...

<p>Last week, for the first time in more than a decade, a U.S. Treasury secretary was forced to testify on exchange-rate policy before the Senate. The unlucky secretary was, of course, Paul O'Neill, who tried to make the case that a strong dollar is in the best interest of the U.S. while Democratic senators trotted out witnesses from labor and manufacturing companies to protest that the strong dollar was killing them. Mr. O'Neill did a serviceable job of defending himself and his administration. Nonetheless, it is beginning to look like a weaker dollar may be necessary for a sustainable U.S. recovery.</p>