Author: John Mason

One of the most disturbing statistics around these days is the status of home owners. The New York Times reported yesterday that it is estimated that one-third of homeowners with a mortgage, or 16 million people, owe more than...

Have you ever noticed that when someone doesn’t have the skills to do a job well that they ask for more control so that they can do the job better next time?Enter Ben Bernanke into the New Year!Speaking in Atlanta...

More and more attention is being directed toward the problems that governments are having with their financial situation. We have spent so much time this year discussing the problems in the financial industry, in housing, in...

The report from the Federal Reserve yesterday was positive. The headline in the Wall Street Journal was typical: “Fed More Upbeat, but Keeps Lid on Rates.” In other Federal Reserve news we hear that the Fed is going...

The side that wins the political battles is usually the one that presents the issues in such a way that the “public” responds to this presentation and goes with them rather than with the “other...

Something new this week: the Fed started to see how the financial markets would accept its strategy for reducing the size of its security portfolio. At the close of business on Wednesday December 9, 2009 the Federal Reserve...

Bank Holding CompaniesThe Flow of Funds accounts from the Federal Reserve System just came out today. This gives us a chance to look at parts of the financial system that we do not get to look at on a more frequent basis. In...

Last month it seemed as if there was a glimmer of hope for the smaller banks: lending appeared to be picking up across the board. (See my November 9 post, “A Positive Trend in Small Bank Lending”:...