Home » Posts tagged 'money' (Page 13)

Tag Archives: money

Pope Francis Teaches Another Way

Posted on by | 14 Comments

“There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast.”
– Andrew Carnegie

It may seem strange to open a discussion of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) with a quote from an icon of capitalism and a self described atheist. But a deeper understanding of message requires a step back with greater context. Francis is not decrying capitalism – far from it – but he calls for wealth to serve the human spirit and be a genuine force for liberation. The distinction is not academic but is a theme  Barataria has elaborated on as well.

Continue reading →

Point of No Return

Posted on by | 7 Comments

Low interest rates are a good thing, right? They are if you are a borrower, but not if you are a saver. People salting money away for retirement right now are getting almost no return on their savings, thanks in large part to a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP). Banks can borrow money from the Fed with no interest, so why would they pay interest on ordinary deposits, CDs, or any other money making instrument?

There is a lot of talk about the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing, which currently is performed by buying $85B in mortgage backed bonds every month. They may or may not start “tapering” to zero sometime in the near future. Beyond that, at some point interest rates have to come off of the peg of zero that they have been at since 2008, but that’s even further into the future. And the implications are vast.

Continue reading →

Meanwhile …

Posted on by | 10 Comments

A continuing resolution which re-opens the federal government was passed along with a debt ceiling increase that keeps everything hummin’ along until February. It’s good news, at least until the next manufactured crisis comes. We can’t be sure what kind of economic damaged was done in the 16 day shutdown until … well, until the workers in the government that tabulate this stuff get back to work.

So what stories have we missed during the obsession over the limits? Quite a few, actually. Here’s a rundown of some of the interesting stories that were easily lost over the last two weeks.

Continue reading →

Bezos Buys Post, Speculation Rampant

Posted on by | 6 Comments

When Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was announced as the future owner of the Washington Post, the world was curious.  After a little bit of time passed, the deacons of professional journalism did what they often decry – worked themselves into a tizzy of speculation.  Notable press critic Jay Rosen of NYU noted that Amazon booted Wikileaks off of its servers as soon as the government asked them to.  “That’s not answering the bell for freedom of information. That’s doing what the surveillance state requires, and relying on a legalism to justify it,” he wrote.

Others have been more alarmist.  The Post’s own Allan Sloan asked in an op-ed for more disclosure of Bezos’ personal politics:  “I’d at least like to hear from Bezos what his beliefs are and to have him reconcile the question of his being a libertarian who’s benefited immensely from taxpayers’ R&D money.”

What are Bezos’ plans and more importantly the philosophy that guided him to buy the Post?  We will find out.  But there may be much less to it than something to fear.

Continue reading →

Professor Bernanke, Again

Posted on by | 8 Comments

I think most of us would agree that people who have, say, little formal schooling but labor honestly and diligently to help feed, clothe, and educate their families are deserving of greater respect – and help, if necessary – than many people who are superficially more successful. They’re more fun to have a beer with, too. That’s all that I know about sociology.
– Ben Bernanke

President Obama has made it clear that next January, when his term is up, Chairman Bernanke is going to be replaced.  It’s not like the big guy is being fired, though.  “Ben Bernanke’s done an outstanding job,” Obama said in an interview with Charlie Rose.  “He’s already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to.”  What else would he want to do than to be arguably the most powerful man in the world?  Simple.  The title “Professor Bernanke” always suited him much better than “Chairman Bernanke”.

That’s just about the only thing that his admirers and critics can agree about him  – although the former might laugh it out while the latter would say it though clenched teeth.

Continue reading →