Dec 03 Tough Criticism for Bernanke By Carolyn O'Hara Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faced tough criticism Thursday from a Senate committee for the central bank's failure to regulate risk-taking on Wall Street. Continue reading
Sep 09 What Has Been Done to Insulate the U.S. From Systemic Risks Overseas? By Business Desk Question: Chairman Bernanke mentioned in the News Hour forum back in July that the key trigger to Depression 1.0 was the failure of a large central European bank. With Austrian and other banks in deep distress (I believe Austrian banks… Continue reading
Aug 12 Fed Holds Key Interest Rate at Record Low The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will keep short-term interest rates at a record low in order to further stabilize the U.S. economy. But it signaled confidence in the recovery, saying economic activity is "leveling out."… Continue reading
Aug 12 Where Are Toxic Assets Now? Question: TARP was originally proposed to deal with “toxic assets” to unclog the books of financial institutions and prevent them from becoming insolvent. The toxic assets to date have not been bought up, so… Continue reading
Aug 11 Did Hank Paulson Just Want to Save Goldman Sachs? By Business Desk Question: [In the Bernanke on the Record forum hosted by the NewsHour,] Chairman Bernanke did not mention the bailout of Goldman Sachs — the first bank to receive such funds. Was it more critical to the survival of the… Continue reading
Aug 05 Should We Have Dealt With ‘Too Big to Fail’ in the 1980s? Question: If you go back and look at the recession of 1982, you will see that the Fed bailed out large banks mainly due to bad LDC loans. I think the precedent of moral… Continue reading
Jun 25 How Regulatory Reforms Will Affect Consumers (Cont.) By Business Desk Paul Solman: Last week, we featured a number of economists (and a journalist) responding to the new financial regulations proposed by the Obama administration. But no economic historians were among them. We’ve remedied that omission by asking Eugene… Continue reading
Jun 25 Will the Actions of the Fed and Treasury Keep Asset Prices Artificially High? Question: It seems to me like the Fed and the Treasury are trying very hard to keep asset prices high. The Fed has vastly increased the money supply, partly by lowering interest rates to zero, and partially through quantitative easing. Continue reading
Jun 17 Will the Administration’s Regulatory Overhaul Work? Question: How serious is the administration about true reform of the financial system? Are its plans likely to work? Or is regulation a can of worms, a Pandora’s box, and every other cliche that might be subsumed under the… Continue reading
May 29 What Led to the High Interest Rates of the 1980s? Question: What were the causes and circumstances that led to the high interest rates in the 80’s? Was it inability to effect a change or inaction in addressing the issue? Paul Solman: If by “interest rates” you mean the rate… Continue reading