Crushing the States, Saving the Banks: The Fed’s Generous New Rules
by Ellen Brown Congress seems to be at war with the states. Only $150 billion of its nearly $3 trillion coronavirus relief package – a mere 5% – has been allocated to the 50 states; and they are not allowed to use it where they need it most, to plug the holes in […]
Socialism at Its Finest after Fed’s Bazooka Fails
by Ellen Brown In what is being called the worst financial crisis since 1929, the US stock market has lost a third of its value in the space of a month, wiping out all of its gains of the last three years. When the Federal Reserve tried to ride to the rescue, it only succeeded in […]
Fed Slashes Rates to Near Zero, Announces Crisis Management Measures
BY TOM OZIMEK The Federal Reserve has slashed its rates to near zero and announced a range of financial crisis management measures, including the launch of a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program, as the United States grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement, the central bank said it was cutting rates to a target range of […]
The Fed’s Baffling Response to the Coronavirus Explained
By Ellen Brown When the World Health Organization announced on Feb. 24 that it was time to prepare for a global pandemic, the stock market plummeted. Over the following week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by more than 3,500 points, or 10%. In an attempt to contain the damage, the Federal Reserve on March 3 […]
Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China
by Ellen Brown When the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on July 31st for the first time in more than a decade, commentators were asking why. According to official data, the economy was rebounding, unemployment was below 4%, and GDP growth was above 3%. If anything, by the Fed’s own reasoning, it should have […]
Why Is the Fed Paying So Much Interest to Banks?
By Ellen Brown, http://EllenBrown.com “If you invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, Soon that tuppence safely invested in the bank will compound, And you’ll achieve that sense of conquest as your affluence expands In the hands of the directors who invest as propriety demands.” — “Mary Poppins,” 1964 When “Mary […]
The Fed’s Dramatic About-Face
By Ellen Brown, http://EllenBrown.com “Quantitative easing” was supposed to be an emergency measure, but the Federal Reserve is now taking a surprising new approach toward the policy. The Fed “eased” shrinkage in the money supply due to the 2008-09 credit crisis by pumping out trillions of dollars in new bank reserves. After the crisis, the presumption was the […]
Trump’s War on the Fed
By Ellen Brown October was a brutal month for the stock market. After the Federal Reserve’s eighth interest rate hike, on Sept. 26, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,000 points, and the NASDAQ had its worst month in nearly 10 years. After the Dow lost more than 800 points on Oct. 10 and the S&P […]
Trump Takes on the Fed
By Ellen Brown The president has criticized Federal Reserve policy for undermining his attempts to build the economy. The best way to make the central bank serve the needs of the economy is to make it a public utility. For nearly half a century, presidents have refrained from criticizing the “independent” Federal Reserve; but […]
Fox in the Hen House: Why Interest Rates Are Rising
By Ellen Brown The Fed is aggressively raising interest rates, although inflation is contained, private debt is already at 150% of GDP, and rising variable rates could push borrowers into insolvency. So what is driving the Fed’s push to “tighten”? On March 31st the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the sixth […]
