Author: John Mason

The United States economy lost only 11, 000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.0% from 10.2%. Good news!There is still plenty of work left to do, however.President Obama held a summit on jobs yesterday,...

The one thing that seems to provide an explanation for a lot of the things going on today is the continued weakness of the banking sector. It explains the actions of the Federal Reserve System. It explains the actions of the...

It is instructive to take a closer look at how people seem to be handling their money. Obviously, people are not spending much, although the Federal Reserve sure cannot be faulted for not trying to jump start consumer and...

This from the Financial Times on the morning of Friday, November 20, 2009: “Short-term US interest rates turned negative on Thursday as banks frantically stockpiled government securities in order to polish their balance...

Ben Bernanke spoke in New York yesterday and, depending upon which paper you read this morning, he basically said one of two things. First, he said that the Fed was interested in a strong dollar and would continue to keep the...

Yesterday, I posted a report on the strategy of the Federal Reserve to exit its position of excessive monetary ease. (See http://seekingalpha.com/article/173556-federal-reserve-exit-watch-part-4.) In that report I mentioned that...

This is the fourth month that I have posted something about the performance of the Federal Reserve with respect to their exit strategy, the strategy it is following to remove the massive amount of reserves it put into the...

“It is very important to the United States that we have a strong dollar.”So said the United States Secretary of the Treasury.Yes, Paul O’Neill said that.Oh, yes, John Snow said that.And, Hank Paulson.Oh, you...

Will the Federal Reserve System join the ranks of other government public supported agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?One could argue that they are on the verge of such ignominy.Never before has the Federal Reserve been...