Mattel is in the same fix as funds holding collateralized mortgage obligations. Both find it difficult to sell their products because potential buyers don’t know what they are getting. While concerns about safety hurt the sales of any consumer product,…
Fed’s actions aren’t solely up to Bernanke
Many news reports on the Federal Reserve’s response to ongoing problems in financial markets misinterpret what it is doing. This is not unusual. The Fed is a complex organization that many professional economists don’t fully understand, let alone reporters. But…
Creating money with a few keystrokes
Central banks pumped hundreds of billions of dollars of liquidity into banking systems recently. Unfortunately, most people don’t know what the heck that means or whether it is good or bad. You need a good Econ course to understand the…
Public spending suffers for poor accounting
Government accounting is peculiar, to say the least. It confuses people about spending on new roads, bridges and navy ships. It also distorts citizen perceptions of the state of government finances. The problem is that while various levels of government…