Blogs - Economic Chat

Fed Members And Future Policy Predictions

I just read an interesting article about the members of the Federal Reserve and the implications on future monetary decisions.

Basically, the argument was that the new members are soft money proponents who will keep interest rates low. The author argues that this will lead to higher inflation.

What do you think? Continue

Added by paul on March 9, 2010 at 6:30pm

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FunnyOrDie.com's Missed Opportunity

I got excited about a video being produced to talk about the financial reforms needed in this country. Ron Howard directing with current and former President's being played by Will Ferrel, Dana Carvey, JIm Carey, Chevy Chase, etc... The problem is that it isn't very funny and it really doesn't make any solid points about the financial reform needs in this country. Here's the video. What do you think?

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Added by Nathan Andover on March 3, 2010 at 4:44pm

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Frontline Program: The Warning

I highly encourage you to watch the PBS Frontline program called The Warning. It is about how a woman tried to warn people that unregulated derivative markets within the financial system was not a good thing. However, many people within the government (especially Allen Greenspan) subscribed to the philosophy that there should be a separation between the government and the market. This is the laissez-faire ideology that holds that the market will regulate itself while creating the best outcomes… Continue

Added by OICUAM2 on February 21, 2010 at 10:35pm

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Wall Street Supports Republicans

Wall Street loves the Republicans. To express their love and support, Wall Street is sending tons of campaign contributions to Republican candidates. Wall Street bankers want nothing more than to be able to continue making huge risky bets while knowing they will be bailed out by taxpayers. These are the risky bets the Obama Administration is trying to limit. The Republicans voted against the financial regulation bill in the House. Nobody wants any industry to be over regulated. However, there… Continue

Added by paul on February 8, 2010 at 8:28am

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A Picture Of The Jobs Situation

Here is a graph showing the jobs picture of the last couple of years. The red bars are the accelerating rate of job loss during President Bush's last year in office; the blue bars are the decelerating rate of job loss during President Obama's first year of office.

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Added by Nathan Andover on February 7, 2010 at 11:30am

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President Obama Rejects GOP Economic Attacks

A Republican attacks President Obama about the budget deficits using less than accurate information. However, this time President Obama is there to respond to the attacks:

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Added by Nathan Andover on January 29, 2010 at 10:02pm

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George Bush's Debt

I have always been amazed that the Tea Party activists are so vocal about the huge national debt now that George W. Bush is out of office. Where were they during the Bush years? When Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.7 trillion and was being reduced with the budget surpluses being left by President Clinton. When President Bush left office, the national debt was over $10 trillion. President Obama has a goal of reducing the national debt. Yes, there are some investments that need t… Continue

Added by paul on December 25, 2009 at 10:07pm

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Bill Gates On Meet The Press

I enjoyed the interview with Bill and Melinda Gates on Meet The Press this morning. It is nice to see someone who has done well in business turning his attention to charitable works. I didn't realize that Warren Buffet had given so much of his money to the Gates Foundation. One of the main things I took from the interview is that there is a place for everyone and all institutions to get involved in the process of making the world a better place. Gates was very supportive of capitalism, but he… Continue

Added by OICUAM2 on November 29, 2009 at 4:35pm

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Pay For The Afghanistan War Strategy

As President Obama outlines his plan for Afghanistan, I hope we hear more discussions about how we are going to pay for it. President Bush put most of the War in Iraq on the American credit card. He rarely put money for the wars he was waging into his yearly budgets. This made our budget deficits under Bush seem smaller than they actually were - and they weren't so small to begin with. I would like to see some sort of tax or something dedicated to paying our war bills. Not only to avoid more n… Continue

Added by Nathan Andover on November 26, 2009 at 9:49pm

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Democrats Blamed For Republican Economic Problems

In the post election analysis, votes told pollsters that they voted for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey partly because they were concerned about the economy. This doesn't make sense to me. Republicans are making a lot of noise about the deficits and national debt, but it was the Republicans who greatly increased the national debt while they were in power. The deficit was so large this year because the economy tanked under George W. Bush. $400 billion of the current deficit was caused b… Continue

Added by paul on November 8, 2009 at 12:10pm

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Investment Portfolio Looking Much Better

It has been difficult to look at my investment portfolio the past few years. It is hard to contribute money while seeing my overall number going down each month. Now my investment portfolio is growing again. The market has done really well the past few months which rewards people like me who are heavily invested in stocks. Hopefully the rally will continue. I know there is a correction in store at some point (and maybe we are seeing it now with the recent weakness), but overall, I think we wil… Continue

Added by James Scott on October 29, 2009 at 12:25pm

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Ten Trillion And Counting

I just watched a really good program about the national debt and our current economic condition. The program is called Ten Trillion And Counting and it is a Frontline program from PBS. You can watch it online here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/ It basically showed how the national debt has been growing and what we are going to have to do about it. It showed how the debt was reduced during… Continue

Added by paul on September 2, 2009 at 10:00pm

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More Jobs Lost

Well, it was announced today that the United States lost close to a half million jobs last month. It was also announced that the national unemployment rate is now close to 9 and a half percent. The reason I wanted to write something about this is because the numbers don't do justice to the reality. It wasn't just a half million jobs that were lost. It was millions of jobs being lost with millions fo jobs being gained that resulted in a net loss of a half million jobs. For the millions of peopl… Continue

Added by OICUAM2 on July 2, 2009 at 3:03pm

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Personal Story Of Credit Freeze And Recession

I hadn't really been affected by the credit freeze and recession until this week. First, my small business credit card company, Advanta, sent me a letter saying that the financial trust that back all of their loans was no longer backing their loans. For this reason, Advanta said they were shutting down all of their business credit cards. Shutting down all of their business credit cards? I am lucky that my Advanta card was only a back-up that had no balance on it and was not needed to operate m… Continue

Added by paul on June 11, 2009 at 8:59pm

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New Interview With Warren Buffet

PBS's Nightly Business Report has a new interview with Warren Buffet. He talks about the economy, his philosophies, and the Obama Administration: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/research/learnmore/090122_buffett/ Continue

Added by OICUAM2 on January 23, 2009 at 10:00am

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House Financial Services Committee

I was looking at the website for the House Financial Services Committees today. I found a bunch of information that I thought was interesting so I thought I would share the web addresses on this site: http://financialservices.house.gov/ Continue

Added by Willie on January 13, 2009 at 1:30pm

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Economic Chat

I like having a place like this where we can have an economic chat. It isn't something I can do with my friends or family. I guess some friends and family would want to have an economic chat, but most would quickly try to change the subject. Economics is a big part of our lives, our nation, and our world. We need to have as many economic chats as possible. Thanks to everyone here for gathering to chat about economics. Continue

Added by Willie on January 7, 2009 at 11:30pm

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A Tale Of Two Stimulus Packages

There seems to be a big difference in how the former Bush Administration and the new Obama Administration handles the stimulus packages. The Bush Administration rushed through a huge financial services bailout with a three page outline of where the money was going. After it was passed with lots of arm twisting, the money was diverted to things people didn't realize the money would be spent on. For the Obama Administration the new stimulus package will have all of the details put on the interne… Continue

Added by Nathan Andover on January 6, 2009 at 10:26am

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I'm Ready For A Global Currency

Doesn't a global currency make sense? We have a global economy. People, goods, and services are exchanged around the world. Why shouldn't we have a unifromed way to value these exchanges? I read a report about how some countires use macroeconomic policies to manage the value of their currency. Do we really want countries to be "managing" the value of their currency in a global market? I want my exchanges of value to be based on what the real or at least perceived value is. Not based on what t… Continue

Added by James Scott on December 30, 2008 at 11:43am

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Why Did The Auto Industry Fail?

I've seen some articles saying that the auto industry failures are the result of the CAFE standards and other government regulations. I don't think higher standard for fuel efficiency is the reason why the auto companies are in so much trouble. I could see how this argument would work if the American auto industry had started to build a bunch of fuel efficient vehicles that didn't sell. This isn't what happened. The foreign companies built a bunch of fuel effiecient vehicles and they sold very… Continue

Added by Nathan Andover on December 10, 2008 at 3:33pm

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