“Central bankers alone cannot solve the world’s economic problems.”

Of all the things Ben Bernanke said in his speech at Jackson Hole Friday, that is the only one with which I am prepared to totally agree. The speech was widely anticipated and the initial reaction was underwhelming to say the least. Stocks sold [...]

“Unusually uncertain”. That’s how Ben Bernanke described the outlook for the US economy in his recent testimony to Congress. It is also how John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems described the outlook on the conference call for his company’s latest earnings report. Neither man has a very good track record at predicting the future [...]

Paul Krugman, having failed at getting Congress to spend more, has now shifted his more stimulus rhetoric to Ben Bernanke and the Fed:
But here we are, visibly sliding toward deflation — and the Fed is standing pat.
What should it be doing? Conventional monetary policy, in which the Fed drives down short-term interest rates by [...]