20 years ago I looked at a map of the regional Federal Reserve Banks and I thought:  Why do we have banks in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York?  Cleveland and Chicago?  St. Louis and Kansas City?  Why does the San Francisco bank handle everything west of Denver?  Why do we need 12 banks?  At the [...]

What a day. I’m sorry, but politically, not one that I’m proud of:
1) Alphonso Jackson resigns as HUD secretary (effective April 18). Few doubt there is something to allegations of favoritism. See my previous posting on the temptations of power.
2) Henry Paulson presents a plan to overhaul the Fed that is not [...]

Let Friday, early news about a plan to broadly expand the power of the Federal Reserve was released.  Evidently the plan will be formally announced in a speech by Treasury Secretary Paulson.
I’m a bit out of breath.
McGehee was the first I saw to make mention that something like this was seriously in the works.  He [...]

This morning brought news of a refinement of the JPMorgan/Bear Stearns deal. Evidently, Bear Stearns stockholders aren’t happy about the $2/share deal, and want something better. Wouldn’t we all.
What will be interesting is whether the Fed accepts the deal or not. I favored the original deal, but the new deal appears to [...]

JPMorgan Chase appears close to closing the deal to acquire Bear Stearns. The arrangement, just 2 days after Bear Stearns stock price dropped 46% in a single trading session, would value the teetering financial services company at about $236 million ($2 per share). The closing price on Bear Stearns stock was $30.85 on [...]

Wow, the Federal Reserve has reacted dramatically to the global markets spinning out of control.  According to KCCI TV’s web site this morning, the Fed lowered the federal funds rate to 3.5%:
In a statement on its Web site, the Federal Reserve took the action in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing [...]