Author: John Mason

I remember when there were more than 14,000 banks in the United States. I also remember when there were 12,000 banks in the banking system. Even in those days, the financial industry only accounted for no more than about...

The President and Congress just don’t get it! Financial reform is in the air! The bad guys did it and they need to be brought to account! Protect Main Street and go after those that are on Wall Street!Unfortunately, this...

Has the Federal Reserve begun its exit strategy? Has the Fed already started the “Great Undoing”? It has, but the new exit movement is not taking place in open market operations…or in repurchase agreements. It...

The “consumer” is spending. Retail sales jumped 1.6% in March led by auto sales, clothing and furniture. “There’s a growing risk that we’re underestimating the strength of the recovery,” said...

Yesterday, the members of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee refused to make a decision.The questions: Is the Great Recession over or not?The Answer: Too soon to call.“The...

These days I find it very hard to be on the same side of arguments with Paul Krugman. I must admit that today I am mostly in agreement with what Krugman has written in the New York Times. (“Georgia on My Mind”,...

Bank lending remained weak during March and the assets of the banking system, on average, continued to follow a downward path, resuming their decline from the November total after bouncing around for a month or two. Banking...

The front page of the New York Times reads, “Why So Glum? Numbers Point to a Recovery.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/business/09norris.html?hp) The economic recovery is at hand, yet, to many, even to many...

The ten year Treasury yield hit 4.00% yesterday, a level not hit since June 6, 2009. Then one has to go back to October 31, 2008 for the next time this yield hit the 4.00% level. The big question is, of course, where is the rate...