Tag Archives: ben bernanke

Opinion: New World Economics

By Bill le Breton | Sun 16th September 2012 - 9:25 am

Bloomberg flickered on the screen as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, set out his policy before the world’s press:

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate the Committee agreed today to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month.

That’s open-ended Quantitative Easing (QE) to you and me; monetary stimulus a l’outrance designed to expand the money base until unemployment drops below 7% or PCE (personal consumption expenditure) core inflation increases above 3%.

In …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged economy | 15 Comments

BBC economics: a little simplistic when it mixes the economic and political

By Ed Randall | Sun 6th December 2009 - 11:20 am

Stephanie Flanders, the BBC’s economics editor, can be listed amongst those who have some influence on the public discussion of economic policy making in the UK. So her ‘Stephanomics‘ – which is part of the BBC News website – merits a read from time to time.

In a recent piece she suggests that there is a certain amount of solace for the Conservatives in what Ben Bernanke, head of the US Fed, has been saying about financial regulation in the UK. However, Stephanie gives what I think they call ‘a bum steer’ on the other side of ‘the pond’.