All Posts Tagged With: "Ben Bernanke"

Financial Crises and the Federal Reserve’s Punch Bowl

Why did the U.S. financial system nearly collapse last year? People blame Wall Street’s excessive greed and risk-taking. But without easy money, the massive risk-taking could not have happened.
To be sure, financial firms leveraged up—that is, they did a lot of business with borrowed money. That juiced up revenues and bonuses in the boom—and exacerbated [...]

18Nov2009 | Chidem Kurdas | 0 comments | Continued

Regulating Executive Pay Can Reduce Systemic Risk

Late last month White House pay czar Ken Feinberg unveiled executive pay rules for 175 key players in the nation’s seven-firm TARP-assisted sector. The new rules generated different bundles of base and incentive pay for the affected executives, along with a good bit of grumbling and grousing. Unsullied by the frowns and accompanying [...]

4Nov2009 | Bruce Yandle | 20 comments | Continued

Ben Bernanke Saved the Day?

Instead of being “brave,” Bernanke has been reckless, just like a young driver playing “chicken.” There is a huge difference between bravery and bravado, and Bernanke’s actions reflect the latter not the former.

28Oct2009 | William L. Anderson | 3 comments | Continued

The Financial Bailouts: “See the Needle and the Damage Done”

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, according to the New York Times, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke used “a speaker phone from his ornate office” to tell Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “that it was time to adopt a comprehensive strategy that Congress would have to approve” for dealing with the financial-market troubles. After a second call on [...]

27Feb2009 | Lawrence H. White | 8 comments | Continued

Subprime Monetary Policy

Gerald O’Driscoll is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and was formerly vice president and economic adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The comments of Brian Wesbury, William Long, and Maralene Martin are gratefully acknowledged. Parts of this article appeared in the author’s August 10 Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Our Subprime Fed.”
In [...]

1Nov2007 | Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr. | 0 comments | Continued

The Great Depression According to Milton Friedman

Ivan Pongracic, Jr. teaches economics at Hillsdale College. He extends special thanks to Lawrence H. White and Ivan Pongracic, Sr. for their helpful comments.
Few events in U.S. history can rival the Great Depression for its impact. The period from 1929 to 1941 saw fundamental changes in the landscape of American politics and economics, including such [...]

1Sep2007 | Ivan Pongracic Jr | 7 comments | Continued