Economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled that the Fed would return to another round of “quantitative easing” (QE) in his August 31 annual address from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a speech that also claimed economic success for the Fed's past two QE purchases of federal debt securities.
The hyperbole surrounding the White House's announcement yesterday of much higher fuel economy mandates is in sharp contrast to what consumers really want.
For the last decade, household incomes have been declining steadily, and the American middle class is being squeezed. In fact, barring a very dramatic change in political sentiment, the American middle class — the chief source of productivity and vitality in America for centuries — will likely be compressed out of existence.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to give his annual Jackson Hole speech on August 31 while the world waits in anticipation. They are likely to be disappointed.
In past years, the invitation-only event hosted by the Kansas City Fed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been an opportunity for Bernanke to suggest future Fed policy actions. In 2010 he said that a second round of stimulus — called QE2 for Quantitative Easing Round Two — was likely, and in November the Fed began its purchase of another $600 billion of long-term debt securities.
Since then little has changed: Unemployment remains significantly above eight percent, the housing market remains largely moribund, gross domestic product remains barely positive, and consumer confidence is waning.
The FCC is considering imposing a tax on Internet providers, according to a story reported in The Hill. The Internet has become a means for Americans to share information in a wide variety of formats to people anywhere else in the world. More and more, people seek information and ideas via the Internet, shop for good and services and purchase those on the Internet, create videos and music which others can obtain on the Internet, and even post whole books for reading on the Internet.
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