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Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
Hilsenrath describes how the Federal Reserve missed the signs of the mortgage financial crisis of 2008, the bubble economy, and how low interest rates and other actions of the Fed to rescue the economy led to a situation which hurt savers. The lack of a serious plan for homeowner rescue as part of the actions by the government further hurt the working and middle class. The rescue also lacked credibility because the banks ended up becoming bigger than they were, and no action was taken in the U.S. which had been pushed by the U.S. in similiar situations overseas- for example on South Korean banks for overborrowing during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. At the 2014 Boston Fed sponsored conference on Inequality, Fed chairman Janet Yellen described what she called the largest inequality in the U.S. not seen since the 19th century. The average net worth of the lower half of the distribution, said Yellen, of 62 million households, was $11,000, and a quarter of them had zero net worth. These were the shocking statistics that propelled two unlikely outsiders forward- Donald Trump to the Republican nomination for president, and Bernie Sanders who coming close to getting the Democratic nomination settled for a big part of setting the Democratic agenda supported by nominee Clinton in 2016.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and the populist movements of 2016 of Trump and Sanders
08/26/2016
By missing the signals of the bubble in financial markets and letting the mortgage crisis develop upto the point that the overleveraged banks had to be rescued and the global economy went into a deep recession, the U.S. Fed created the conditions for the populist movements of 2016. Very low rates designed to help the economy recover hurt savers, further depressing the financial assets of the middle and working class. The lack of access to public colleges hurt upward mobility, and the high cost of tution led to parents assuming large amounts of student debt further depressing their condition. The assets of middle and working class people revealed at a Boston Fed sponsored Inequality conference in Oct. 2014 were shocking- the average net worth of the lower half of the distribution in the U.S., or 62 million households was an average of $11,000, with one quarter at zero net worth, according to Janet Yellen, the chairman of the Fed, America's central bank.
Grouped Articles
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
From Trump to Brexit rhetoric: how today's politicians have got away with words
The Guardian 08/27/2016
Apple should repay Ireland 13bn euros, European Commission rules - BBC News
BBC News 08/30/2016
Apple must now pay its taxes. This is a vindication of protest | Owen Jones
The Guardian 08/30/2016
The Economic Expansion Is Helping the Middle Class, Finally
The New York Times 09/13/2016
Fed, With 3 Officials in Dissent, Stands Firm on Interest Rates While Noting Improving Economy
The New York Times 09/21/2016
U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Yellen on extreme inequality in the U.S. and how it reduces the economic mobility that aids recovery
10/16/2014
The Fed chairman tells a Boston Fed conference on inequality that it is fair to ask whether equal opportunity on which Americans place importance is not a part of core American values.
Grouped Articles
Fed’s Yellen Says Extreme Inequality Could Be Un-American
Wall Street Journal 10/17/2014
Janet Yellen Warns of Inequality Threat
New York Times 10/17/2014
How Quantitative Easing Contributed to the Nation's Inequality Problem
New York Times 10/22/2014
Yellen Goes on Road to Investigate Health of the Jobs Market
New York Times 10/16/2014
Yellen’s First Year at Fed: A Remarkably Steady Course
New York Times 12/22/2014
Income Inequality Is Costing the U.S. on Social Issues
New York Times 04/28/2015
Hedge Funds and the 2008 bailout by the U.S. Federal Reserve
01/19/2009
Grouped Articles
Hedge Funders Are All a Little Nuts
Wall Street Journal 08/27/2013
Hedge Funds' Investing Prowess Doesn't Live Up to Billing
Wall Street Journal 05/27/2014
Many TALF Investors Wealthy and Unknown
New York Times 12/02/2010
Fed Lending Benefited Banks Far and Wide
New York Times 12/04/2010
Hedge Fund Snapshots: Surviving the Financial Crisis
Wall Street Journal 04/18/2011
In Lieu of Bailout, a New Strategy
New York Times 01/19/2009
The U.S. Federal Reserve's support for Fannie, Freddie and housing mortgages in 2008-2009
04/03/2009
Grouped Articles
Dream Mortgage Bailout Has a Darker Side
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2009
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
How much of a factor were low interest rates under Greenspan in creating a bubble in housing prices?
01/02/2009
Fed chairman Bernanke was a Fed Governor who advocated low interest rates at the time. His response. Expert opinion.
Grouped Articles
Wanted: A Boring Leader for the Fed
New York Times 08/20/2013
What's Needed in the Next Fed Chief
New York Times 09/15/2013
Fed chief Bernanke urges better financial regulation to prevent crises
Washington Post 01/04/2010
Lax Oversight Caused Crisis, Bernanke Says
New York Times 01/04/2010
The Fed and the Crisis: A Reply to Ben Bernanke
Wall Street Journal 01/10/2010
Bernanke’s Bid for a Second Term at the Fed Hits Resistance
New York Times 01/23/2010
Obama and McCain, Presidential candidates 2008, and their ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
07/23/2008
The important role Fannie and Freddie lobbyists play in the campaigns of Obama and McCain at the highest level would make one rethink of them as agents of change very seriously. Both are promoting their own careers but in this they were promoting their own careers at the risk of the national interest as without the hard and timely work in 3 to 4 weeks of Secretary Paulson, Ben Bernanke and others, the collapse of Fannie and Freddie would have endangered the American and one could also say the world economy.
Grouped Articles
How John McCain Turned His Clichés Into Meaning
New York Times 12/18/2013
Wall Street Journal 07/23/2008
For ’08 Rivals, a Skein of Ties to Loan Giants
New York Times 09/10/2008
Cost of Fannie And Freddie Keeps Rising
New York Times 06/19/2010
Wall Street Journal 11/16/2010
Wall Street Journal 07/12/2011
U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke's defense of his role as Fed governor in 2003 in supporting low interest rates
01/02/2009
Bernanke responds to the criticism that low interest rates he supported helped cause the 2008 mortgage and financial crisis.
Grouped Articles
Central Bankers Hone Tools to Pop Bubbles
Wall Street Journal 07/08/2013
Reflections by America’s Buddha of Banking
New York Times 01/16/2014
New York Times 10/16/2014
Fed chief Bernanke urges better financial regulation to prevent crises
Washington Post 01/04/2010
Wall Street Journal 12/13/2012
The Fed and the Crisis: A Reply to Ben Bernanke
Wall Street Journal 01/10/2010
Longest Days of the 2008 financial crisis (1)- October 13, 2008, 3.00 pm at the Treasury Building, Washingon D.C., a meeting for $125 billion capital injection into U.S. banks
10/15/2008
Treasury Secretary Paulson meets the heads of major U.S. banks at the Treasury Building. Only Paulson, Fed chairman Bernanke, Sheila Bair of FDIC, and Geithner of the New York Fed on the government side knows why they are meeting. Termsheets are handed out and returned signed.
Grouped Articles
At Moment of Truth, U.S. Forced Big Bankers to Blink
Wall Street Journal 10/15/2008
Anatomy of the Morgan Stanley Panic
Wall Street Journal 11/24/2008
Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists
Wall Street Journal 03/11/2009
Dream Mortgage Bailout Has a Darker Side
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2009
Wall Street Journal 04/06/2009
Globalization: Capitalism Should Be Nicer | ZEIT ONLINE
ZEIT ONLINE 07/29/2016
The Bernanke legacy at the U.S. Federal Reserve
11/04/2010
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 01/28/2014
Ben S. Bernanke - What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability
Washington Post 11/04/2010
Wall Street Journal 05/08/2015
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Fed chairman Bernanke and New York Fed president Geithner ignore warnings in 2006 about the housing bubble
01/02/2009
Transcripts of the meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve show new Fed chairman Bernanke and Head of the New York Fed discounted the growing risks in the U.S. housing markets in 2006. Fed governors Janet Yellen and Susan Bies raised the issue in meetings at the Fed. Transcripts show a sense of complacency had set in at the Fed with Bernanke confident about a soft landing for the housing market.
Grouped Articles
Central Bankers Hone Tools to Pop Bubbles
Wall Street Journal 07/08/2013
Wall Street Journal 09/15/2013
What's Needed in the Next Fed Chief
New York Times 09/15/2013
Book Review: 'Stress Test' by Timothy F. Geithner
Wall Street Journal 05/12/2014
The Case Against the Bernanke-Obama Financial Rescue
New York Times 05/16/2014
New York Times 05/17/2014
An indepth look at the experiences and events shaping the thinking of Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve
10/09/2013
Applebaum provides an depth look after many intervews with people close to to Janet Yellen. He points out the influence of the thinking on unemployment of Pofessor James Tobin of Yale on Yellen. A must read for people interested in insights into her thinking.
Grouped Articles
Yellenâs Path From Liberal Theorist to Fed Voice for Jobs
New York Times 10/09/2013
Yellen’s Not on Team Krueger When it Comes to Inflation and the Unemployed
Wall Street Journal 04/16/2014
Yellen Tells N.Y.U. Graduates to Expect Failure and Learn From It
New York Times 05/21/2014
Fed's Yellen Defends Low Rates
Wall Street Journal 07/03/2014
Activists to Fed: Premature Rate Hikes Would Hurt Poor
Wall Street Journal 08/23/2014
Recognizing Bubbles But Still Cautious About Deflating Them
New York Times 09/10/2014
U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen's thinking on unemployment and expected Fed policy in 2014-2015
01/23/2014
Grouped Articles
Don’t Expect Job Data Alone to Persuade Fed on Rates
New York Times 01/23/2014
A Fed Policy Maker, Changing His Mind, Urges More Stimulus
New York Times 01/27/2014
Confronting Old Problem May Require a New Deal
New York Times 01/28/2014
More Men in Prime Working Ages Don't Have Jobs
Wall Street Journal 02/06/2014
Wall Street Journal 02/08/2014
Fed's Yellen Sets Course for Steady Bond-Buy Cuts
Wall Street Journal 02/12/2014
Raghuram Rajan on the risks to the U.S. economy and society before the 2008 financial crisis
01/02/2009
Is Bernanke making the same mistake made by Greenspan by keeping interest rates too low for too long. Would a stronger safety net in the US ease pressures on the US Federal Reserve to do excessive monetary easing and instead allow the Fed to let a more natural rise in employment take place? He isn't ideological and joins John Taylor, George W Bush's economic advisor, and Allan Meltzer of Carnegie-Mellon, in questioning Bernanke's excessive monetary easing. In 2005, Rajan was prescient in questioning the Greenspan Fed's policies and the risks from excessive leveraging in the financial system at the Jackson Hole conference.
Grouped Articles
Mr. Rajan Was Unpopular (But Prescient) at Greenspan Party
Wall Street Journal 01/02/2009
Interest Rates: The Zero Percent Solution
BusinessWeek 08/25/2010
BusinessWeek 11/04/2010
The Case Against the Bernanke-Obama Financial Rescue
New York Times 05/16/2014
Charting the Economic Fault Lines
BusinessWeek 02/10/2011
Wall Street Journal 02/05/2011
Regulatory Capture and the New York Federal Reserve
12/02/2014
Reilly raises the issue of whether the New York Fed should have regulatory responsibilities transferred to the Federal Reserve in Washington D.C, as part of an overall review of Fed overseeing of U.S. banks.
Grouped Articles
Fed’s New Bank-Regulation Tune Should Be One Direction
Wall Street Journal 12/02/2014
Washington Strips New York Fed’s Power
Wall Street Journal 03/05/2015
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
2009 U.S. Federal Reserve Transcripts and the role of Janet Yellen in worrying about "false dawns"
03/05/2015
Grouped Articles
Fed’s Yellen, in 2009, Urged ‘Bold Action’ on Growth
Wall Street Journal 03/05/2015
Fed Puts Interest-Rate Hikes in Play
Wall Street Journal 03/19/2015
Janet Yellen Isn’t Going to Raise Interest Rates Until She’s Good and Ready
New York Times 03/18/2015
Janet Yellen’s New Hat: Risk Manager
New York Times 12/16/2015
Janet Yellen and Fed Predecessors Find Common Ground Onstage
New York Times 04/07/2016
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Greenspan's role in the global financial crisis of 2008.
04/08/2008
The role that Greenspan's philosophy of letting markets do their own thing without any sort of restraint or checks played in the collapse in 2008 across the US, Europe and emerging markets.
Grouped Articles
His Legacy Tarnished, Greenspan Goes on Defensive
Wall Street Journal 04/08/2008
Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy
New York Times 10/09/2008
Asian Officials Push Back Against Savings Glut Theory
Wall Street Journal 07/04/2009
A Year After a Cataclysm, Little Change on Wall St.
New York Times 09/12/2009
Summers Says More Regulators Could Join Fed to Police Risk
Wall Street Journal 09/12/2009
Fed Chooses Staff Economist as Head of Bank Supervision
Wall Street Journal 10/21/2009
The roots of the 2008 U.S. mortgage financial crisis and the role of financial companies, banks, Congress, the State of California, and the Fed's Greenspan
02/27/2008
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/27/2008
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Criticism of Bernanke's role at the Federal Reserve
01/02/2009
The difficult renomination and the subsequent 70-30 vote with 30 Senators opposed including Boxer, Feingold, Sanders and others. This follows Ron Paul's criticisms in Congress of the Fed's role- see that link group.
Grouped Articles
Martin Feldstein: The Federal Reserve's Policy Dead End
Wall Street Journal 05/09/2013
Bhidé and Phelps: Central Banking Needs Rethinking
Wall Street Journal 07/16/2013
Fed Chairmanâs Departure Casts a New Light on the Bush Legacy
New York Times 07/26/2013
Wanted: A Boring Leader for the Fed
New York Times 08/20/2013
Wall Street Journal 09/15/2013
What's Needed in the Next Fed Chief
New York Times 09/15/2013
The forum at the International House, Morningside Heights, New York, with former heads of the Federal Reserve Volcker, Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen
04/07/2016
Fareed Zakaria is the host for a forum at the International House in April 2016. Past chairpersons of the Federal Reserve and chairwoman Yellen discuss Fed policies with Zakaria, in a rare situation where the Fed chairpersons are brought together to respond to questions about their policies and problems. At one point Zakaria asks if a former chairperson McChesney Martin's warning about pulling away the punch bowl when the party got started had not been heeded resulting in the 2008 financial crisis. William McChesney Martin served under five administrations since Harry Truman (1951-1970) and followed a policy of raising rates when the economy reached a certain point in its expansion. Martin brought tremendous experience to the Fed, with his work in finance on Wall Street and at Treasury, and in a rare coincidence it was his father who helped found the Federal Reserve under president Wilson in 1913. Posterity might see the work of Bernanke and Yellen in a light similiar to the work of Martin in helping the nation recover from crisis.
Grouped Articles
Janet Yellen and Fed Predecessors Find Common Ground Onstage
New York Times 04/07/2016
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Stand on Wall Street
WSJ 09/16/2016
Mian and Sufi show negative effects of the lack of a comprehensive plan that included homeowner rescue of the Obama-Bernanke Financial Rescue in 2008-2011
04/15/2009
Professors at Princeton and the University of Chicago have demonstrated through their research that the lack of a comprehensive plan providing siginificant efforts to help homeowners has hurt the U.S. economy in the long run and delayed a recovery. With the middle class already reeling under one trillion dollars of student debt, high unemployment, stagnant wages, and retirees facing interest rates near zero, a weakened middle class was further affected by the lack of strong efforts on the homeowner side to balance aid to banks. This makes a consumer driven recovery that much more difficult and prolongs the pain.
Grouped Articles
The Case Against the Bernanke-Obama Financial Rescue
New York Times 05/16/2014
New York Times 05/17/2014
The Ripple Effects of Rising Student Debt
New York Times 05/24/2014
From President Obama, Economic Clarity but Little Courage
Washington Post 04/15/2009
Book Review: 'House of Debt' by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2014
The New Rules of Borrowing for Homes, Autos and College
Wall Street Journal 09/13/2014
Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith and researcher Gjerstad on the causes of the global financial crisis of 2008 and why Bernanke got it right
04/06/2009
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/06/2009
The Case Against the Bernanke-Obama Financial Rescue
New York Times 05/16/2014
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
U.S. Federal Reserve policy under Janet Yellen- 2014-2017
02/12/2014
Grouped Articles
Fed's Yellen Sets Course for Steady Bond-Buy Cuts
Wall Street Journal 02/12/2014
Fed Puts Rate Increase on the Radar
Wall Street Journal 02/20/2014
Yellen Sticks to Plan Amid Weather Doubts
Wall Street Journal 02/28/2014
Wall Street Journal 03/20/2014
Fed Cuts Bond Buying by Another $10 Billion
New York Times 03/19/2014
Federal Reserve’s Bond-Buying Fades, but Stimulus Doesn’t End There
New York Times 06/19/2014
Fed chairwoman as listener with empathy for the unemployed and different opinion on the FOMC- a remarkable Janet Yellen in 2014-2015
12/22/2014
Janet Yellen brings a remarkable change of tone at the Fed as she listens to unemployed workers, listens carefully to committee members, speaks at the end of meetings careful to summarize varying opinion, and calms volatile financial markets in 2014.
Grouped Articles
Yellen’s First Year at Fed: A Remarkably Steady Course
New York Times 12/22/2014
The New Jobs Report Shows Janet Yellen’s Quandary in a Nutshell
New York Times 03/06/2015
Joel Peterson of JetBlue on Listening Without an Agenda
New York Times 05/09/2015
Janet Yellen and Fed Predecessors Find Common Ground Onstage
New York Times 04/07/2016
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Fed, With 3 Officials in Dissent, Stands Firm on Interest Rates While Noting Improving Economy
The New York Times 09/21/2016
U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen's remarks at the City Club of Cleveland on July 9, 2015
07/10/2015
Grouped Articles
Janet Yellen: Fed on Track for 2015 Rate Hike
Wall Street Journal 07/11/2015
Quotes from Janet Yellen at the City Club of Cleveland
Wall Street Journal 07/11/2015
Yellen Expects Fed to Raise Rates This Year
New York Times 07/10/2015
Years of Fed Missteps Fueled Disillusion With the Economy and Washington
WSJ 08/26/2016
Fed, With 3 Officials in Dissent, Stands Firm on Interest Rates While Noting Improving Economy
The New York Times 09/21/2016
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