Bernanke In for Round Two?

The US Senate is expected to hold a final confirming vote on Ben Bernanke’s nomination for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. A vote on confirmation would likely come shortly after senators vote to clear a procedural roadblock to the nomination.

“We anticipate the confirmation vote tomorrow,” a Democratic aide said. “We think the (confirmation) vote will be tomorrow,” a Republican aide said separately.

Mr Bernanke is widely expected to win confirmation, but only by a relatively narrow margin.

The surprise election last week of a Republican to a Massachusetts US Senate seat long held by Democrats underscored voter anger about the economy’s woes and undercut support for Mr Bernanke, a chief architect of bailouts for Wall Street banks. Read the full article »»»»

Fed Reserve Speech Full of Hot Air?

In His speech earlier this week, US Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke highlighted that central bankers remain as confused as ever about the best approach to responding to the emergence of asset price bubbles.

At the time the US authorities were paranoid about the possibility that the US might experience deflation and something akin to the decade of economic winter the Japanese experienced in the 1990s. The prolonged period of zero or negative real interest rates, and massive fiscal deficits, are obvious macro factors in the creation of the bubble.

In the speech, to the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, the Federal Reserve Board chairman made a detailed response to the widespread criticism of the role of the Fed in the lengthy build up to the bubble in the US housing market that played such a major role in the global financial crisis :: Read the full article »»»»