Working Life

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is first among equals when it comes to the other 11 regional Fed Banks. That person has a big say on interests rates because s/he sits permanently on the Fed’s Board of Governors. So, should the head of the NY Fed have to be confirmed by the Senate? Senator Jack Reed thinks so.

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Among the many reasons the country would be better off if Bernie Sanders was president is that the man just refuses to deal in silliness. He wants the country to have a serious debate — and whether the next head of the Federal Reserve Board is a man or a woman, or the current president is more “comfortable” with one person or another running the Fed, is entirely irrelevant to Sanders. And so Sanders goes really wild — he invokes the two words that most people will not speak in this debate even though those two words are part of the Federal Reserve Board’s mission: FULL EMPLOYMENT.

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I think the White House has been brilliant just this once. The nonsense about Larry Summers being the leading candidate to replace Ben Bernanke as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is an elaborate ploy designed to do one thing: avoid real questions about the Fed.

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   Health care gets teed up and…the people get half-a-loaf. An economic crisis requiring at least $1 trillion to create jobs–and the people get half-a-loaf. And, ladies and gentlemen, just to keep us consistent, financial reform…half-a-loaf.    Here’s the explanation:  

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   We live in very weird times. Here’s an example. So, commodity and energy prices are falling like crazy, as The Wall Street Journal reports: Raw materials registered another record drop in prices, while energy prices posted the biggest decline in over 22 years. The report suggests the weakening economy and falling energy prices should […]

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   Yours truly is hitting the road early and so will be out of reach for the morning of all the websites and news…good thing…because when the market opens at 9, all hell is going to break loose. I’m not sure how many people on Main Street understand the deep panic underway among the financial […]

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    This morning, Sen. Obama is scheduled to give a major address on the economy. Yours truly is scheduled to appear on CNBC’s "Power Lunch" (hey, I didn’t come up with the name) at 1:20 p.m. (Eastern Time). I may not have a chance to post the entire speech here before the CNBC gig but […]

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    Yesterday, I observed the bizarre proposal by Sen. Clinton to hand over fixing the economic mess we’re in to the very people who helped create the mess (well, actually, for most workers we’ve been in an economic mess for a very long time–but you’all know that). I wasn’t trying to pick on Sen. Clinton […]

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I have been waiting to hear what the presidential candidates have to say about how to address the financial crisis gripping the country, and the international markets. Very little of substance has been said, beyond vague pronouncements—until yesterday. Sen. Hillary Clinton released a plan, which, in my humble opinion, underscores why another Clinton Administration would […]

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    This just out via the Associated Press: The number of newly laid off workers filing for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly two months, providing more evidence that the weak economy is having an adverse impact on the labor market. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless […]

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