By Bill Wilson — As CNBC host Larry Kudlow is fond of pointing out, the Federal Reserve cannot print jobs. And based on the past performance of its prior $2 trillion of quantitative easing (QE), it is hard to imagine just how another $480 billion a year of printing money is going to spur a real jobs recovery. In its [...]

By Bill Wilson — Here we go again. On Sept. 13, the Federal Reserve announced a program to purchase $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities a month — at a pace of $480 billion a year. Unlike previous incarnations of quantitative easing (QE), this one is open-ended with no sunset stated or envisioned. “If the outlook for the labor market does [...]

As originally published at RealClearMarkets.com. By Robert Romano — The Federal Reserve shocked markets on Aug. 1 when it decided to do nothing. Do nothing new, that is. Particularly, no QE3 — i.e. a third round of quantitative easing, or printing money to purchase U.S. treasuries and other securities. Markets immediately started tanking, and continued, through Aug. 2 before finally [...]

By Bill Wilson — Sep. 2012 looks to be an interesting month, with a confluence of factors that pose considerable downside risks not just for the U.S., but the global economy — any of which could send us, with anemic growth of just 1.5 percent for the second quarter, right back into a tailspin. They also make further quantitative easing, [...]

By Robert Romano — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has in the past said he opposes a return to the gold standard because it would reduce the central bank’s ability to intervene in the economy, effectively reducing his role to little more than a clerk. Apparently, he has had little problem since the financial crisis with being the government’s ATM [...]

Cartoon by William Warren — This Christmas themed cartoon was pulled from our archives in the hopes that you will enjoy it again today. NRD Editor’s Note: As always, you may reprint this cartoon anywhere you please, but we ask that you provide a link back to this source. To see more Warren Toons, click here.

By Bill Wilson — Markets were awash with irrational exuberance on Nov. 30 upon an announcement by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to lower interest rates for “temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements”.  Particularly, this will lower the cost of dollars in Europe, which is thought will help with any potential liquidity shortfalls there. Whether that will work [...]

By Robert Romano — “If a monetary deal’s going to work, the central bank has to have unlimited powers to intervene to support economies, and indeed banks, to prevent collapse.” That was how the UK’s Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat, put it on the BBC, speaking on the European Central Bank (ECB).  He was basically complaining that Article [...]

By Rick Manning — The U.S. Department of Labor announced on Halloween that they are providing more than $500,000 “to provide re-employment services to about 115 workers affected by layoffs at the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.” According to the Labor Department’s website, “National Emergency Grant (NEG) program temporarily expands the service capacity of Workforce Investment [...]

By Bill Wilson — According to legend, in Czarist Russia, Grigory Potemkin constructed fake villages to make Catherine the Great believe that the countryside was tranquil and prosperous, when in fact it was chaotic and stricken with poverty. Such it is with government economic statistics, as evidenced by the latest release of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showing a 2.5 [...]