U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did something Monday that Fed chairs rarely do: he commented on the dollar.
Comments about the dollar are almost exclusively left to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, but on Monday Bernanke, in a speech before the Economic Club of New York, said the large movement of capital precipitated by the financial crisis "resulted in a marked increase in the dollar," and those flows are now returning to their former status, due to improved credit market conditions and the stabilization of global economic activity.
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement almost exactly as expected. The language on interest rates is remaining low for an extended period of time remained largely unchanged, and the decision was unanimous.
As I have mentioned earlier, the Fed continues to avoid any potential language which could disrupt the financial markets. Any potentially controversial ideas seem to be reserved for speeches by the Chairman and other government officials.
Amid Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's call for a "credible process" for imposing losses on shareholders and creditors for a U.S. government decision to close down a financial institution, a parallel discussion will have to occur.
Namely, if an institution is 'too big too fail,' does that mean the institution is too big? In other words, should the U.S. government begin a long, incremental process of breaking-up those financial institutions – and other corporations – whose wayward behavior would pose systemic risk?
MarketWatch Chief Economist Irwin Kellner sometimes boldly goes where no man has gone before, to cite an old Star Trek phrase, and this week he evaluates the U.S. Federal Reserve's dilemma.
And what a dilemma it is: regarding quantitative easing policy, if the Fed withdraws its record cash injections too soon, it could trigger a double-dip recession, Kellner said. Conversely, if the Fed withdraws funds too late, inflation could re-heat. As part of its quantitative easing policy, the Fed's balance sheet has swelled to more than $2 trillion from about $869 billion in 2007.
Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke wants a council of regulators to monitor systemic risk in the economy. In addition Bernanke wants all systemically important institutions subject to a consolidated regulator, whether or not the firm owns banks.
To further justify his concept of a council of regulators, Bernanke went on to say: "For both purposes of effectiveness and accountability, the consolidated supervision of an individual firm, whether or not it is systemically important is best vested in a single agency."
The recession is over according to Ben Bernanke. Inflation is staying tame. And the Fed just said we all saw our wealth grow in Q2. Yet today the markets gave back. Based upon many key tech shares hitting 52-week highs and then selling off, this was just a day of traders finally locking in some handy trading profits. The DJIA stayed up for much of the day, but the rest of the key indexes came well off of highs and many went negative. This call for DJIA 10,000 still seems much more likely even if the market showed that not every index has to rise every day.
Today was another up day and you have to wonder if the woes of the world we all felt a few short months ago are just gone for good. Bernanke said the recession is effectively lower. The inventories are getting low enough that a manufacturing surge could come. And inflationary fears are not scaring traders. If this was a football game, it seems that the bulls keep scoring, and the bears just got a couple accidental safety scores.
Unlike Commissioner Gordon who can send out the Bat signal to call his helpmate against crime, there is nothing investors can do to summon aid in times of stress. They have to go it alone. But they can be armed with intelligence that helps. Here are few of the most prominent data points that will make a difference for all stocks, a macro perspective that should make navigating the stock market highway a little easier.
However, taken on a one-time basis, these aren't going to solve the mystery that is the market. Rather, data has to show a trend before it can be used. Even then, a trend stops and another begins. So even though the trend can be your friend, it can just as easily turn and become your enemy. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues: Be careful out there.
There will be thousands of op-ed pieces written all over the world in the next few days addressing President Obama's decision to keep Ben Bernanke on as chairman of The Federal Reserve.
While America's head central banker deserves credit for being creative and courageous in orchestrating an unusually aggressive monetary easing programme, it is important to remember that his pre-crisis actions played an equally critical role in setting the stage for the most wrenching recession since the 1930s. It is as if a doctor guilty of malpractice is being given credit for inventing a miracle cure. Maybe the patient needs a new doctor.
Oh snap!
Roach's piece goes on to explain how Bernanke's hands-off attitude toward inflating asset bubbles was part of the Greenspan ideology that played a significant role in leading to this mess.
Still, most Americans seem to agree with Obama's decision to reappoint Bernanke -- for whatever that's worth. A CNBC.com poll found that 66% think he should be reappointed because he saved the economy from collapse.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the Fed chairman saw we were in extreme deflation and prevented us from being brought down.
Ben's back!
Hey, it wasn't such a given, especially on the day when we had the jaw-dropping appointment of Denis Hughes, the president of the New York AFL-CIO, named as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve.
When the smoke is cleared you know that Ben Bernanke and not any other official before or after is going to be credited with recognizing what Lehman was and stood for. Bernanke was recessive and complacent pre-Lehman. He presided over an important debating society. He measured things and kicked them around.
U.S. market futures were fractionally higher in pre-market trading this morning, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq contracts trading about one point above fair value.
President Barack Obama is set to renominate Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to another term, and will announce his decision this morning. Fed watchers believe continuity in that office will help markets remain calm, as more questions are raised about the Fed's ability to withdraw its numerous programs aimed at restarting the economy before inflation becomes a problem.
The market also awaits data on Consumer Confidence and the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, both of which will be released later this morning.
There is "talk" that the economy is turning the corner, that the recession is history. But some of the numbers on the housing front are frankly frightening. The housing market is in quicksand and still sinking. The newest July numbers are gloomy at best. Let's take a look at them:
The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee minutes reveal that the Fed is going on a buying spree. The Fed plans to buy$1.25 trillion of agency mortgage backed securities, $200 billion of agency debt by the end of the year, and $300 billion of Treasury securities.
One can only guess from these numbers that the Fed is extremely worried about the financial sector and is still trying to prop up the banks by buying their junk securities to get them off the hook.
In appearance on CNBC, Black Swan author Nassim Taleb slammed the U.S. government's handling of the financial crisis and argued that none of the systemic problems in the system had been fixed.
"When you have cancer, sometimes it hurts to remove the tumor," he said. "They're not removing the tumor."
"It is a matter of risk and responsibility, and I think the risks that were there before, these problems are still there," he said. "We still have a very high level of debt, we still have leadership that's literally incompetent ..."
Should Obama reappoint Ben Bernanke? Taleb doesn't think so. "Bernanke belongs to a school of economics that is not in synch with the complex system. By having Bernanke there you're rewarding failure."
Meanwhile, three-fourths of investors surveyed recently said that Bernanke has earned another term, but that plays right into Taleb's arguments: by instituting policies that prop up markets, Bernanke has pleased market participants without really having fixed anything long-term.
Check out the video below to watch the whole interview.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did something Monday that Fed chairs rarely do: he commented on the dollar. 
In a speech to the Economic Club of New York, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed 
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement almost exactly as expected. The language on interest rates is remaining low for an extended period of time remained largely unchanged, and the decision was unanimous.
MarketWatch Chief Economist 
Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke wants 
The recession is over according to Ben Bernanke. Inflation is staying tame. And the Fed just said we all 
Today was another up day and you have to wonder if the woes of the world we all felt a few short months ago are just gone for good. Bernanke said the recession is effectively lower. The inventories are 
Unlike Commissioner Gordon who can send out the Bat signal to call his helpmate against crime, there is nothing investors can do to summon aid in times of stress. They have to go it alone. But they can be armed with intelligence that helps. Here are few of the most prominent data points that will make a difference for all stocks, a macro perspective that should make navigating the stock market highway a little easier.
There is "talk" that the economy is turning the corner, that the recession is history. But some of the numbers on the housing front are frankly frightening. The housing market is in quicksand and still sinking. The newest July numbers are gloomy at best. Let's take a look at them:
The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee minutes reveal that the Fed is going on a buying spree. The 
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