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Keyword: bernanke

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  • Existing Home Sales Drop 2.6% – West Struggling with -7.38% – Bernanke Smells QE3 In The Morning

    04/19/2012 1:17:22 PM PDT · by whitedog57 · 2 replies
    Confounded Interest ^ | 04/19/2012 | Anthony B. Sanders
    April 19 (Bloomberg) — Sales of previously owned U.S. homes in March unexpectedly fell for the third time in the last four months, showing an uneven recovery in the housing market. Purchases dropped 2.6 percent to a 4.48 million annual rate from 4.6 million in February, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for an increase to 4.61 million. In January, sales at a 4.63 million rate were the strongest since May 2010. And The West is not the best. Down 7.38%. But at least median house...
  • Bernanke says financial stability a work in progress

    04/09/2012 5:27:10 PM PDT · by John W · 8 replies
    Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | April 9, 2012 | Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
    STONE MOUNTAIN, Georgia (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has yet to fully recover from the effects of the financial crisis, and regulators must continue to find new ways to strengthen the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday. "The heavy human and economic costs of the crisis underscore the importance of taking all necessary steps to avoid a repeat of the events of the past few years," Bernanke told a group of economists and finance experts at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
  • Bernanke Warns Of Risks In Money-Market Funds

    04/09/2012 8:32:37 PM PDT · by advance_copy · 13 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | 4/9/12 | Kristina Peterson and Michael S. Derby
    More regulatory action may be needed to safeguard the money-market mutual-fund industry, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in remarks prepared for a speech on Monday night, putting his weight behind other officials who want to toughen oversight of the $2.7 trillion industry. In an address largely focused on scrutinizing murky corners of the financial system, the shadow banking system, Bernanke emphasized the need to establish regulations that protect the system as a whole from the risks that threatened it during the financial crisis. The money-market mutual-fund industry remains prone to destabilizing panics even with new regulations already in place,...
  • FHFA's DeMarco: Decision on GSE Principal Reductions This Month

    04/05/2012 5:29:58 AM PDT · by whitedog57 · 1 replies
    Confounded Interest ^ | 04/05/2012 | Anthony B. Sanders
    At a speech in Boston yesterday, FHFA's Acting Director Ed DeMarco once again brought up the topic of principal reductions for homeowners. In the speech, he discussed FHFA's reasoning for their preference of forbearance over principal reductions as a tool to help distressed homeowners. The fundamental point of a loan modification is to adjust the borrower’s monthly payment to an affordable level. We have seen repeatedly that what matters most in successfully helping borrowers is a meaningful reduction in the monthly payment to an amount that helps stabilize the family’s finances. Indeed, we have found that payment reduction, not loan-to-value,...
  • US futures tumble as Fed backs away from stimulus

    04/04/2012 11:48:36 AM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 10 replies
    Yahoo ^ | 4/4/12 | AP
    NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock futures tumbled Wednesday after economic policymakers signaled that they may be less willing to fund more economic growth through bond purchases. The Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 112 points to 13,020. The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 12.1 points to 1,396.7. The Nasdaq composite futures slipped 21.25 points to 2,757.75. The Institute for Supply Management will release its services index at 10 a.m. Eastern time and economists expect it to show that growth has cooled compared to February, which came in at the highest growth in a year. But it was the...
  • Six Things Bernanke is Clueless About

    03/27/2012 6:52:39 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 7 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | March 27, 2012 | Mike Shedlock
    Bernanke's blind faith in empirical formulas over common sense is again in play with his speech today on Recent Developments in the Labor Market. In any given month, a large number of workers are being hired or are leaving their current jobs, illustrating the dynamism of the U.S. labor market. For example, between 2001 and 2007, private employers hired nearly 5 million people, on average, each month. Total separations, on average, were only slightly smaller. Taking the difference between gross hires and separations, the net monthly change in payrolls during this period was, on average, less than 100,000 jobs per...
  • What Does Bernanke Know? {The Guy Rate of unemployment - 25% unemployed}

    03/27/2012 5:46:48 AM PDT · by shove_it · 3 replies
    Smart Money ^ | 26 Mar 2012 | BRETT ARENDS
    Arends: Forget the Labor Department's jobs numbers. For a true picture of the bleak employment picture, use the Guy Rate. ~snip~ There are many reasons to distrust the unemployment figures. The most obvious is that those who give up looking for work no longer count among the official "unemployment." (Extraordinary, but true.) But we know Ben Bernanke looks at the raw data. What is he seeing? ~snip~ As you can see -- and as Ben Bernanke surely sees -- the picture remains grim. Just 75% of these guys are in full-time work -- or, to put it another way, one...
  • Bernanke: Obama Unemployment Numbers 'Out of Sync'

    03/28/2012 8:02:45 AM PDT · by NMRed · 18 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 3/28/2012 | William Tate
    Declining jobless numbers, sprouting lately from the Obama administration like so many spring crocuses, have left even the Chairman of the Federal Reserve puzzled over figures that are "out of sync" with the overall economy.
  • Bernanke Decries Gold, Defends Fed's Make-It-Up System

    03/23/2012 6:34:22 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 6 replies · 1+ views
    Forbes ^ | 03/23/2012 | Nathan Lewis
    “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” –Mahatma Gandhi Ben Bernanke did something odd this week – he made some meaningful comments about the gold standard system, which is the only sensible alternative to the Ben-Bernanke-makes-it-up system we have today. He did this, I would say, because of increasing pressure, especially from the conservative grassroots in the U.S., which is translating into constant criticism of Bernanke’s super-easy-money actions at the Fed from U.S. conservative politicians. I would say that we are well beyond the “ignore you” stage, and are in fact...
  • BERNANKE BELIEVES ‘MONOPOLY MONEY’ IS MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD! Grumbles how he can’t Adjust Gold

    03/22/2012 1:05:10 PM PDT · by geraldmcg · 11 replies
    WebToday ^ | 3-22-12 | WebToday
    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is giving lectures on the University Circuit attacking the proposal for the U.S. to return to a gold standard. In his contempt for honest money, Bernanke argued that government monopoly money is more valuable than gold! In his incredulous argument Bernanke said that the strength of a gold standard is its greatest weakness because if the money supply is determined by the supply of gold, it cannot be ‘adjusted’ (a.k.a. manipulated by the Fed and politicians) in response to changing economic conditions." That’s the whole point! Our founding fathers intentionally implicitly mandated that money had...
  • BERNANKE BELIEVES ‘MONOPOLY MONEY’ IS MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD! Grumbles how he can’t Adjust Gold

    03/22/2012 12:36:57 PM PDT · by geraldmcg · 2 replies
    SpecialGuests.com ^ | 3-22-11 | Special Guests
    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is giving lectures on the University Circuit attacking the proposal for the U.S. to return to a gold standard. In his contempt for honest money, Bernanke argued that government monopoly money is more valuable than gold! In his incredulous argument Bernanke said that the strength of a gold standard is its greatest weakness because if the money supply is determined by the supply of gold, it cannot be ‘adjusted’ (a.k.a. manipulated by the Fed and politicians) in response to changing economic conditions." That’s the whole point! Our founding fathers intentionally implicitly mandated that money had...
  • Commentary on the BERNANKE/GEITHNER CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: It's all about gold.

    03/22/2012 8:27:28 AM PDT · by geraldmcg · 4 replies
    www.webToday.tv ^ | 03/22/2012 | webtoday.tv
    Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith comments on the Bernanke/Geithner testimony to Congress: While watching the testimony of U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed Chairman Bernanke today, I was struck by several answers provided by the witnesses. One answer stood out amongst them all. In answering questions about funding of the IMF for the financial needs in the Eurozone, the U.S. Treasury Secretary said the chance of a default by the IMF, or any of its borrowers of money provided by the U.S. is extremely low. Why? Because the loans are all "backed by IMF gold"! ...
  • Bernanke, as Professor, Tries to Buff Fed’s Image (Why Gold Standard is bad)

    03/21/2012 6:32:30 AM PDT · by C19fan · 16 replies
    New York Times ^ | March 20, 2012 | Binyamin Applebaum
    The Federal Reserve’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, spent the better part of an hour Tuesday afternoon carefully explaining to a class of college students why the United States abandoned the gold standard in the 1930s. “Unfortunately gold standards are far from perfect monetary systems,” he told the class of 30 undergraduates at George Washington University. Tying the supply of money to the supply of a precious metal limits a government’s ability to address economic problems, Mr. Bernanke explained.
  • Fed Funds Announcement: Gold, Housing, Stocks, Inflation, Unemployment and the Taylor Rule

    03/13/2012 11:44:46 AM PDT · by whitedog57
    Confounded Interest ^ | 03/11/2012 | Anthony B. Sanders
    The Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee will announce this afternoon whether it is keeping the Fed Funds target at current levels or doing something else. Update: as expected, no changes. Housing One asset class that has weighed heavily on The Fed’s mind is the housing market. The Fed Funds Target rate fell off the cliff in January 2008 and fallen steadily to virtually zero. But notice that home prices (as measured by FNC’s 20 Metro house price index) has continued its downward path despite historically low Fed Funds Target rate and mortgage rates. Stock Market On the other hand,...
  • Bernanke warns of slow progress ahead on jobs

    03/01/2012 2:09:34 AM PST · by U-238 · 7 replies · 2+ views
    Reuters ^ | 3/1/2012 | Mark Felsenthal and Pedro da Costa
    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy, pouring cold water on the notion that recent upbeat signs herald a stronger recovery. Bernanke told Congress that unless growth accelerated, the unacceptably high U.S. unemployment rate would not keep dropping. But he stopped short of signaling further Fed bond purchases, dashing the hopes of some traders in financial markets who were betting on more monetary stimulus. "The job market is far from normal," Bernanke said. "Continued improvement ... is likely to require stronger growth in final demand and production." The swift decline in the...
  • Bernanke warns lawmakers nation headed for 'massive fiscal cliff" (Pot, meet kettle)

    02/29/2012 2:28:04 PM PST · by Signalman · 13 replies · 1+ views
    Hill.com ^ | 2/29/12 | Peter Schroeder
    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress Wednesday it risked taking the nation over a "massive fiscal cliff" at the end of the year. The central bank’s boss warned expiring tax cuts and spending cuts set to be triggered at the end of the year could hurt the economic recovery. “Under current law, on January 1, 2013, there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. "I hope that Congress will look at that and figure out ways to achieve the same long-run fiscal improvement without having...
  • Ron Paul To Ben Bernanke: "People Lose Trust In The Government Because You Lie To Them About...

    02/29/2012 8:55:52 AM PST · by Aquamarine · 19 replies
    zerohedge.com ^ | 2/29/12 | Tyler Durden
    Anytime Ron Paul sits across from Ben Bernanke you know sparks will fly. Sure enough, they did: starting 50 seconds into the clip below, Ron Paul, guns blazing, asks the Chairman if he does his own shopping, if he is aware of what true inflation is, and if he knows that Americans don't trust the government because they are being lied to about inflation. And it only gets better, once Paul starts brandishing a silver coin. The punchline: "The Fed will self-destruct anyway when the money is gone" - amen. And ironically letting the Fed keep on doing what it...
  • On Gas, Cars And Bernanke ($5 Gas, Anything Can Happen)

    02/26/2012 8:31:17 AM PST · by blam · 11 replies
    My Take On Financial Events ^ | 2-25-2012 | Bruce Krastering
    On Gas, Cars And BernankeBruce KrasteringFebuary 25, 2012 Everyone is talking about gas this past week, and for good reason. The price at the pump has been tearing higher. According to the papers this morning the national average price for regular gas is $3.65. Unfortunately for me, the price the media is spouting has nothing to do with my cost. As of this morning, my local gas guy is charging $4.85 for premium fuel, and that’s the stuff my car uses. I doubt the numbers being bandied about regarding prices at the pump actually reflect the real economic consequences. I'll...
  • Where are the jobs?

    02/18/2012 7:03:08 AM PST · by Kaslin · 44 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | February 18, 2012 | Bob Beauprez
    Three years ago yesterday Barack Obama signed his $800 billion Stimulus into law in Denver, Colorado.  He said would save or create 4 million jobs and that the unemployment rate would be below 6% by now.  He failed.Obama’s spending didn’t stop with the Stimulus of course.   In fact he’s piled up more than $4 trillion of new debt during his first three years with more than a trillion of additional red ink expected this year.  Still the question remains, where are the jobs?  Today more than 13 million Americans that want a job can’t find one.   Another 4 million Americans have...
  • Did Bernanke See His Shadow?

    02/06/2012 10:22:13 AM PST · by 92nina · 3 replies
    ATR ^ | 2012-02-03 | Alexander McArthy
    While many Americans celebrated Groundhog Day [last Thurs]day, lawmakers in Washington were participating in a more regular tradition: debating the state of the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took the stand before the House Budget Committee to defend the central bank’s recent policy decisions, a performance that mirrored the pomp and circumstance of the activities in Punxsutawney. Bernanke’s repetition of poor policy prescriptions was a fitting way to celebrate the national holiday. Once again, he insisted that interest rates will remain low without affecting inflation, and that government spending will increase job growth. In fact, Bernanke warned lawmakers ahead...