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HomeBen Bernanke’s “Hail Mary”
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 29th, 2010 11:12 AM |
Hail Mary passes are typically thrown late in a game in an attempt to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. Ben Bernanke’s statement at the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference this past week is an indication that he is getting ready to throw his “Hail Mary.” The problem that I see, though, is that our ‘game’ is only somewhere in the second quarter.
Have you ever witnessed a football game where one team literally has to scrap its game plan because it finds itself in such a huge hole in the first quarter? That, my friends, is analogous to the state of the U.S. economy going into 2008. While we could debate whether the calls made by our coaching staff in Washington have helped or hurt our recovery, the fact is Ben and his fellow coaches have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at the economy and the results are anything but robust.
For a review of the game to date and the uncertain prognosis going forward, The New York Times’ Peter Goodman provides a wealth of ‘sense on cents’ in his fabulous and comprehensive commentary, (more…)
Rick Davis Explains ‘Double Dip’ Dynamics
Posted by Larry Doyle on July 15th, 2010 7:30 AM |
Are you sitting down?
Rick Davis recently wrote, “Unless the economy begins to pick up quickly, a double dip is likely — with the second round milder but lingering longer than the first.” How can our Sense on Cents Hall of Famer make this projection?
Rick sheds tremendous insights on the credit contraction ongoing and seemingly worsening in our nation’s economy. Davis paints a cogent picture as to how we are within weeks of the 2010 economic slowdown being worse than the 2008 recession at the same point in the cycle. You think I’m exaggerating? Hats off again to the fabulous work done by Rick Davis at Consumer Metrics Institute. Let’s navigate.
July 13, 2010 – Behind the Credit Numbers:
During the past week there has been a flurry of Federal Reserve reports and commentary concerning the levels of credit in the current economy. The two most notable were: (more…)
