The U.S. Dollar has had quite a ride during the last two years.  The 2008 Crisis has caused huge waves of volatility to move through financial markets, and the foreign-exchange market in particular.  In this article we will examine the role of the U.S. Dollar in the global economy, and by examining how it has [...]

In 2009, the global economy appeared to be recovering quite nicely from the ’08 Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis.  By March of 2009, the recession seemed to bottom out—equity markets began to rally, unemployment began to fall, and economic growth resumed.  It appeared that the global economy had weathered the worst of the Crisis.  Investor sentiment was [...]

Recessions are a normal and even essential part of our modern economic system.  They tend to occur every 5-7 years as a normal function of the business cycle, and they are believed to purge waste from the economic system.  But the recession that came out of the 2008 Global Credit Crisis has not been a [...]

I’m a regular listener of This American Life, a weekly radio show hosted by Ira Hayes from Public Radio International. Each week they offer incredibly interesting stories about…well…pretty much anything. The thing that ties all their stories together is their uncanny ability to draw you into the situation and make you understand what’s happening; even [...]

“It’s a traders market”
It may be the new normal. The advent of computer or electronic based trading has allowed for millions of stock transactions per second and with the 24 hour fast paced news cycle available to us in many different formats, the stock market has changed in two important ways.

According to an article by the Financial Times, Alan Greenspan has converted to the dark side of those promoting nationalization of private assets, specifically banks. The article quotes Greenspan as saying “The US government may have to nationalize some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit.” [...]

The Labor Department released its monthly jobs report this morning, and number certainly don’t look promising. The good news, however, is nobody thought they would look promising, so it’s no shocker. In fact, analysts polled by Reuters were predicting heavier job losses.
December Unemployment at 7.2%
December’s jobless rate came in at 7.2%, up 0.4% from November’s [...]

The Federal Reserve released the meeting minutes from its December 15th and 16th meeting when it cut the target Fed Funds rate to between zero and .25%. The minutes can be viewed online here.
FOMC considers not releasing an explicit target
The minutes show that there was some initial resistance by committee members to slash the Fed [...]

Due to current economic conditions, mortgage rates have hit an all-time low. If you’re looking to refinance, now may be the best time.
Especially considering the Fed recently cut the Fed Funds rate target to 0%, which signals that we’ll almost certainly be facing some serious inflation in the near future as a result. And, as [...]

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has requested that Congress give him the remainder of the $700 billion TARP funds approved in the hopes of steering the U.S. Economy away from recession.
The original plan for the TARP money called for Paulson to use the funds on the purchase of illiquid assets from firms in the financial [...]

The financial markets have been wiping the floor with investors lately, and, as T-Bill rates hit 0.0304%, investors are moving toward the safety of short-term assets.
Carlos Leitao, chief strategist and economist at Laurentian Bank, calls it a “huge wave of panic,” and likens the situation to investors stuffing money under their mattresses.
The current T-Bill yields [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced Tuesday that it would lend up to $85 billion to AIG (American International Group) in an effort to help the struggling investment giant avoid bankruptcy.
The Fed suggested in a press release that the terms of the agreement aim to protect the interests of the U.S. government and [...]

As if the financial markets haven’t been in enough turmoil lately, one of the world’s largest banks, Lehman Brother, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early this morning. Lehman Brothers has been a player in the financial sector since its founding in 1850 and this news has opened some eyes to the severity of the nation’s [...]