Apr 08 As the Amount of Money in Circulation Increases Rapidly, How Does the Fed Prevent Hyperinflation? By Business Desk Question: If the Fed and Treasury have increased the amount of money in circulation by $1.6 trillion in an effort to stave off deflation in the near term, how does the Fed take this money back out of circulation to… Continue reading
Apr 07 Why Does the United States Have to Borrow Money From Other Countries? Question: If the federal government (and/or Treasury) can just create money, why does it have to borrow it from other countries? Paul Solman: Great question. Because it’s so cheap to do so right now, the thinking goes, why… Continue reading
Mar 26 Can Individual Investors Participate in the New Toxic Asset Plan? Question: Is there an opportunity for individual investors who are not super-rich to participate in the new Toxic Asset plan? Maybe something like a mutual fund, or the Treasury’s non-competitive bid process? Paul Solman: Supposedly yes. From an AP… Continue reading
Mar 24 Watch Geithner and Bernanke Testify on AIG, Regulation Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress on the administration's handling of executive compensation for companies receiving federal loans and asked for expanded federal regulatory powers. Jeffrey Brown reports. Continue watching
Mar 23 New Program Aims to Entice Private Investors to Help Banks By Admin, PBS News Hour The Obama administration unveiled the latest program in its financial rescue plan Monday to draw private investors into a partnership with a new federal entity that could buy up troubled assets weighing down the nation's banks. Continue reading
Mar 20 How Worried Are You About the National Debt? Question: How concerned should we be about (1) our level of national debt and (2) China holding a large portion of our national debt? Paul Solman: These are among the great debates of our time, of course. Short-term,… Continue reading
Mar 11 Watch Banking Plan Aims to Combine Public, Private Funds Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he is working on a plan to remove so-called "toxic" assets from banks by having the government partner with private investors to create special funds. Analysts discuss the pros and cons of the strategy. Continue watching
Mar 04 Does the FDIC Really Protect My Deposits? Question: With as much debt as our government is in, does the FDIC really make my bank deposits safe? And if the FDIC had to pay millions of… Continue reading
Feb 16 Watch Global Markets Sputter as U.S. Focuses on Stimulus The economy continued its decline, with Japan reporting a worse recession than in Europe and America. Tom Bearden gives an update on the world economic outlook. Continue watching
Feb 09 More from 'Bad Bank vs. Good Bank' While awaiting a response to my answers to your questions from MIT’s Simon Johnson, who is about to become this quanda’s newest guest vetter, perhaps it would be interesting to read a bit… Continue reading