Federal Reserve

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'Anonymous' Hackers' Next Target: Ben Bernanke

Group wants Federal Reserve chairman to step down

(Newser) - Anonymous' next target: Ben Bernanke. The hacker collective uploaded a YouTube message over the weekend calling for the Federal Reserve chairman to resign—again. Anonymous first called for Bernanke’s resignation on March 12, Business Insider notes, but he clearly did not heed that request. So Anonymous is launching "...

Bernanke, Obama Agree: No Double-Dip

Fed chief, president expect recovery will strengthen

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke isn’t worried about a double-dip recession, despite an economy he acknowledged as unexpectedly troubled this year, reports MarketWatch . “I expect hiring to pick up from last month’s pace as growth strengthens in the second half of the year,” the Fed chairman told a meeting...

Bernanke Makes No News, Just Like He Hoped
Bernanke Makes No News, Just Like He Hoped
OPINION
Apr 27, 2011 5:13 PM CDT

Bernanke Makes No News, Just Like He Hoped

He easily handles questions in first news conference

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke made a little history today by holding the first-ever news conference to explain Federal Reserve policy, and he should be pretty happy with the result, writes Agustino Fontevecchia at Forbes . After all, he faced "a complacent press that didn’t press him on the hard issues,"...

Fed Keeps Rates Low; Bernanke to Face Media

Ben Bernanke will host the Fed's first news conference on policy

(Newser) - No surprises from the Fed today: Rates are staying low, and its $600 billion bond-buying program remains on track to end in June, reports MarketWatch . The Fed sees the economic recovery moving at a "moderate pace" and downplayed the risks of inflation. Far more interesting will be Ben Bernanke'...

Banks Profited by Loaning Fed Money Back to ... Feds

They charged bigger interest rates on cheap money from Uncle Sam

(Newser) - Crisis-walloped banks aided with federal loans likely made a fortune by lending the same money back to the federal government at substantially higher interest rates, a new report indicates. The study by the Congressional Research Service supports complaints that the largest banks essentially engaged in taxpayer-financed arbitrage by cashing in...

Foreign Banks Got Majority of Secret Fed Loans

Court forces Fed to release info

(Newser) - When the Federal Reserve opened its “discount window” at the height of the financial crisis, a lot of foreign banks lined up. The 97-year-old program hit an all-time high during October 2008, and during its peak week, 70% of the $110.7 billion doled out went to foreign banks,...

Supreme Court to the Fed: Release Dirt on '08 Crisis Loans

Banks sought to block details from media

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve will release information on several emergency loans it made to prominent banks when the financial crisis struck in 2008, CNNMoney reports. Bloomberg News initially filed a lawsuit against the Fed in an attempt to gain details on the loans; the Fed declined the request due to "...

Fed: Banks Did Not Make Single Wrongful Foreclosure

Consumer advocates livid over finding

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve’s probe into the robo-signing scandal and other abusive mortgage practices failed to turn up a single wrongful foreclosure, the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council revealed yesterday. But many consumer advocates on the council, which is made up of outside experts, complained that the Fed had too...

South Carolina to Get Its Own Currency?

State sen. wants study on the subject

(Newser) - South Carolina may soon have its own currency, if one state senator has his way. Republican Lee Bright introduced legislation that would back the creation of such a currency, because, “If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup,” he tells the...

Fed Extends Bond Program
 Fed Extends Bond Program  
Jan 26, 2011 1:56 PM CST

Fed Extends Bond Program

Shrugs off good economic news, says employment still in trouble

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve unanimously agreed to extend its $600 billion Treasury bond-purchase program today, saying the economy isn't growing fast enough to lower unemployment. The decision came from a new lineup of voting members that includes two officials who have criticized the bond purchases. They have said the purchases could...

China Prez: US Buck Is Has-Been Currency Giant

President Hu Jintao aims to make yuan global heavyweight

(Newser) - More from Hu Jintao's rare interview with the American press: An international currency system ruled by the American dollar is a "product of the past," complains China's president, who indicated the yuan was on a path toward becoming an international currency. President Hu Jintao conceded it would be...

Feds Quarantine $110B in Potentially Defective $100 Bills

New security features caused wide-scale printing problem

(Newser) - The new $100 bills were designed to thwart counterfeiters—but instead, the complex process required to create the high-tech bills has thwarted printers, resulting in $110 billion in currently unusable bills. The new hundreds, planned for roll-out in February, include a 3D security strip and color-shifting bell image—and producing...

Bernanke Ready to Spend More to Prop Up Economy

Don't worry about inflation, he adds

(Newser) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is such a fan of the decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities to prop up the economy that the Fed is prepared to spend even more. Added economic stimulus might still be needed because the current recovery is weak, Bernanke warned in an...

Fed Dished $3T in Aid to Foreign Banks

Other beneficiaries included ... Verizon, Harley-Davidson?

(Newser) - The beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve's $3.3 trillion in emergency programs during the financial crisis aren't names you'd expect to see: Foreign banks including UBS and Barclays ranked among the biggest borrowers under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, sparking more debate over the central bank's role, Bloomberg reports. A...

Fed's Employment Forecast Should Scare Obama

It won't fall fast enough for him to look good in 2012

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve issued a dour new economic outlook yesterday, predicting that the unemployment rate, currently at 9.6%, will fall to only 9% by 2011 and 8% by late 2012. That's bad news for everyone, but especially for President Obama; Daily Intel notes that incumbents lost in four of...

Fed Fires Back at China, Germany

Soaring unemployment an 'unacceptable outcome,' says Ben Bernanke

(Newser) - Ben Bernanke offered a full-throated defense of the Fed’s recent actions in a speech in Frankfurt today, saying the $600 billion quantitative easing plan was essential to reducing joblessness. “On its current economic trajectory, the United States runs the risk of seeing millions of workers unemployed or underemployed...

China Drops US Credit Rating Ahead of G20

Obama faces a world divided, peeved by Fed moves

(Newser) - China’s top state-endorsed rating agency dropped the United States’ credit rating yesterday, warning that recent Fed moves, along with “serious defects in the United States' economic development and management model” were “fundamentally lowering the national solvency.” The report probably won’t have much impact on our...

Palin to Bernanke: Cease and Desist!

Alaskan slams 'quantitative easing' policy

(Newser) - Chinese and German finance chiefs enraged by Fed chief Ben Bernanke's plans to inject $600 billion into the economy by buying Treasury bonds have found a somewhat unlikely ally: Sarah Palin. The Alaskan slammed the "quantitative easing" policy in a speech to a trade group yesterday, using terminology foreign...

Obama Enters G20 Currency Fray

Germany blasts US currency policy ahead of summit

(Newser) - Days ahead of a G20 summit, President Obama has weighed in on an international debate over currency, as the US seeks to cull huge German and Chinese trade surpluses, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a New Delhi press conference, Obama seemed supportive of the Fed’s decision to buy...

Bernanke's Rationale Looks Too Rosy

Felix Salmon isn't thrilled with Fed chief's op-ed

(Newser) - The Fed's controversial plan to buy $600 billion worth of Treasuries to stimulate growth has brought the phrase "quantitative easing" out from the obscurity of financial blogs. Will it work? Two columns today on the subject from Ben Bernanke himself in the Washington Post and Felix Salmon at Reuters...

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