It's Too Soon for Feds to Ease Up on Economy

Unfortunately, his views are embraced by the GOP: Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - It seems to be Ron Paul's turn in the GOP spotlight, and while he may be a longshot to win the nomination, his views on monetary policy are representative of the party establishment—and they're highly dangerous, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . Paul believes in "Austrian" economics, meaning he sees money "printed without being backed by gold as the root of all economic evil." Such thinkers were sure that the Fed's figurative money-printing to shore up the economy would cause huge inflation—but three years later, it hasn't. More»

Stock futures surge on the news

(NEWSER) - Central banks around the world plan to ease the strain on the global financial system by taking coordinated action to prevent a lack of liquidity, they announced in a statement this morning—news that sent stock futures soaring more than 250 points . The Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank join the Fed in the moves, which the AP reports will, as of next Monday, "reduce the cost of temporary dollar loans to banks—called liquidity swaps—by a half percentage point." NPR explains that'll make it easier for financial institutions to get cash, which they'll hopefully then lend at reduced interest rates. More»

Banks took in billions of dollars, even as they claimed to be healthy

(NEWSER) - For more than two years, the Fed and the banks it bailed out during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis have kept many of the details of the massive, multi-trillion-dollar bailout a secret. But, thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests, 29,000 pages of bailout details are pouring out of the Fed at last, and those details are explained in an extended and damning report by Bloomberg Markets magazine. Among the biggest revelations:

• $7.77 trillion: the total amount doled out in aid by the Fed to all the banks, as of March 2009, which Bloomberg notes surpasses 50% of the value of "everything produced in the US that year." In comparison, the $700 billion TARP "at least had some strings attached," says one House Democrat. "With the Fed programs, there was nothing."

Wall Street Journal looks at the numbers and isn't impressed

(NEWSER) - Rick Perry often boasts of his $440 million Texas Enterprise Fund, which he says has created more than 59,000 jobs. But the program’s estimates often appear wildly exaggerated, the Wall Street Journal reports. A $50 million grant to Texas A&M for a new Genomic Institute, for example, has been credited with creating 12,000 jobs, but the Institute only actually employs 10 people. To get the 12,000 figure, officials tallied every job created since 2005 even vaguely related to biotechnology—including makers of dental supplies and fertilizer. More»

Rejection of stimulus a big mistake: investor

(NEWSER) - Worry no longer about an impending double-dip recession—it’s already here, says George Soros. “I think we are in it already,” the billionaire investor told CNBC , citing Republicans’ rejection of fiscal stimulus as a key problem. “We have a slowdown and basically a conflict about whether the rich ought to pay taxes to create jobs or not,” he said. A scuttled deal in Washington “would have balanced the budget over the long term, but would have allowed short-term fiscal stimulus, which would have been the right policy,” he noted. More»