Comments on: The Financial Bailouts: “See the Needle and the Damage Done” http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:35:41 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Bailout Overseer Warns of Surprise Price Tag | Foundation for Economic Education http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-18329 Bailout Overseer Warns of Surprise Price Tag | Foundation for Economic Education Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:02:36 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-18329 [...] Timely Classic “The Financial Bailouts: ‘See the Needle and the Damage Done’” by Lawrence H. White Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and "In brief." He is a [...] [...] Timely Classic “The Financial Bailouts: ‘See the Needle and the Damage Done’” by Lawrence H. White Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and "In brief." He is a [...]

]]> By: Lawrence H. White http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-4030 Lawrence H. White Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:09:27 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-4030 In response to jp: Traditionally the Fed bought Treasury securities with newly "printed" monetary liabilities to expand (assets up, liabilities up). It could easily sell the securities back to the market to shrink its monetary liabilities (assets down, liabilities down). Now its assets are mostly loans to troubled financial institutions. These are harder to contract. They can't be sold. The Fed has to wait for them to be paid back (and not re-extend them). But the borrowers might be able to repay (may need a re-extension) when the Fed wants to contract. In response to jp: Traditionally the Fed bought Treasury securities with newly “printed” monetary liabilities to expand (assets up, liabilities up). It could easily sell the securities back to the market to shrink its monetary liabilities (assets down, liabilities down). Now its assets are mostly loans to troubled financial institutions. These are harder to contract. They can’t be sold. The Fed has to wait for them to be paid back (and not re-extend them). But the borrowers might be able to repay (may need a re-extension) when the Fed wants to contract.

]]> By: bobby b http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3939 bobby b Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:07:56 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3939 \" . . . the Fed . . . employed 495 full-time staff economists . . . engaged more than 120 leading academic economists . . . conducted some 30 conferences that brought 300-plus academics to the podium . . . published more than 230 articles . . . 74% of the articles on monetary policy published by US-based economists.\" - - - - - So, they\'ve been active proponents of providing stimulus for quite some time? \" . . . the Fed . . . employed 495 full-time staff economists . . . engaged more than 120 leading academic economists . . . conducted some 30 conferences that brought 300-plus academics to the podium . . . published more than 230 articles . . . 74% of the articles on monetary policy published by US-based economists.\"
– - – - -

So, they\’ve been active proponents of providing stimulus for quite some time?

]]> By: jp http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3846 jp Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:25:05 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3846 \" The Fed has no clear exit strategy from its unprecedented credit expansion. It has too few Treasury securities left to sell in order to pull the credits back in, the traditional method for contracting bank reserves.\" I would love to here White go into more depth on the above. \" The Fed has no clear exit strategy from its unprecedented credit expansion. It has too few Treasury securities left to sell in order to pull the credits back in, the traditional method for contracting bank reserves.\"

I would love to here White go into more depth on the above.

]]> By: Roger McKinney http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3793 Roger McKinney Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:28:23 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3793 I can't help but wonder in the future how much blaim Bernanke and Paulson will get for screaming fire in a crowded theater. B&P ran around screaming their heads off like teenage girls in a haunted house. They frightened the media so badly they were wetting their pants, and the media in turn did their best to frighten the public and convince everyone that the world was ending. All of this even though quite a few people, including the Minneapolis Fed, couldn't find a crisis in the data. Did the horror duo of B&P turn a minor crisis into an all out disaster? I can’t help but wonder in the future how much blaim Bernanke and Paulson will get for screaming fire in a crowded theater. B&P ran around screaming their heads off like teenage girls in a haunted house. They frightened the media so badly they were wetting their pants, and the media in turn did their best to frighten the public and convince everyone that the world was ending. All of this even though quite a few people, including the Minneapolis Fed, couldn’t find a crisis in the data. Did the horror duo of B&P turn a minor crisis into an all out disaster?

]]> By: knapp http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3623 knapp Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:36:07 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3623 Larry, Maybe the crisis could have been averted had the Fed not \"crowded out\" research from beyond the mainstream. I think you nailed the problem back in 2005: \"The problem is that the Federal Reserve System has too much influence on research in monetary economics...[as of 2002] the Fed and the twelve regional Reserve Banks employed 495 full-time staff economists. That year it engaged more than 120 leading academic economists as consultants and visiting scholars and conducted some 30 conferences that brought 300-plus academics to the podium alongside its own staff economists. It published more than 230 articles in its own research periodicals. And some 74% of the articles on monetary policy published by US-based economists in US-edited journals appear in Fed-published journals or are co-authored by Fed staff economists.\" Nuff said, Knapp Larry,

Maybe the crisis could have been averted had the Fed not \"crowded out\" research from beyond the mainstream.

I think you nailed the problem back in 2005:

\"The problem is that the Federal Reserve System has too much influence on research in monetary economics…[as of 2002] the Fed and the twelve regional Reserve Banks employed 495 full-time staff economists. That year it engaged more than 120 leading academic economists as consultants and visiting scholars and conducted some 30 conferences that brought 300-plus academics to the podium alongside its own staff economists. It published more than 230 articles in its own research periodicals. And some 74% of the articles on monetary policy published by US-based economists in US-edited journals appear in Fed-published journals or are co-authored by Fed staff economists.\"

Nuff said,

Knapp

]]> By: Beverlee Roper http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3593 Beverlee Roper Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:41:13 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3593 Fed Chairman Bernanke is quoted as saying, \"There are no ... ideologues in financial crises.\" Query: Does believing the law of gravity qualify one as being \"an ideologue\"? Market principles, absent coersion on the market, work like gravity. Is it not an honest observation, therefore, to say that believing in markets absent government coersion is no more ideological than believing in gravity? Fed Chairman Bernanke is quoted as saying, \"There are no … ideologues in financial crises.\" Query: Does believing the law of gravity qualify one as being \"an ideologue\"? Market principles, absent coersion on the market, work like gravity. Is it not an honest observation, therefore, to say that believing in markets absent government coersion is no more ideological than believing in gravity?

]]> By: liquid coal http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%e2%80%9csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%e2%80%9d/comment-page-1/#comment-3572 liquid coal Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:05:51 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/?p=8668#comment-3572 we must keep the growing of food crops completely separated from the farming of biomass for the production of liquid fuels. we must keep the growing of food crops completely separated from the farming of biomass for the production of liquid fuels.

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