Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 52730
Berkeley CSUA MOTD
 
WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ
http://csua.com/feed/
2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

2009/3/19-23 [Finance/Banking, Finance/Investment] UID:52730 Activity:kinda low
3/19    Can someone explain how this does not end up as Weimar or Zimbabwe?
        http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/18/business/fed.php
        \_ Because hyperinflation is not the same as inflation.  The idea
           is to create some inflation to fight the deflationary trend.
           (Note: this scares me too, but let's not unrealistic Chicken
           (Note: this scares me too, but let's not be unrealistic Chicken
           Littles)
           \_ I realize the plan is to create an inflationary trend to prevent
              deflation.  However, this seems to me to be flapping our arms to
              avoid hitting the ground. -op
              \_ The alternative being?
                 \_ A different analogy. -op
        \_ Because the total money supply (credit plus currency) is currently
           contracting and this extra $1T is less than the amount of credit
           that has been withdrawn from the economy.
           \_ The Jan & Feb CPI updates both say that inflation is occurring,
              after 6 months of deflation.  How do we know when enough money
              has been injected vs. not enough? -op
              \_ That is a good question, but I am sure the Fed has an answer.
                 Probably when the inflation rate is "high enough" which is
                 at least 2%/yr, probably more like 3-4%. There is a risk of
                 overshoot, of course, but the deflationary forces are so
                 strong worldwide, worrying about hyperinflation is pretty
                 silly, imho. The BOE, BOJ and EU banks are all doing the
                 same thing, btw.
2025/07/09 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
7/9     

You may also be interested in these entries...
2013/8/29-11/7 [Finance/Banking] UID:54734 Activity:nil
8/29    Applying for a home loan now. The loan officer keeps asking why
        I wrote large amounts of check, and what they're for, and fax
        her proof to support what I said. She said loan regulations have
        tightened a lot to prevent money laundry. What is the max amount
        of money I can transfer these days without triggering annoying
        audits? I am not a terrorist.
	...
2013/7/31-9/16 [Reference/RealEstate, Finance/Investment] UID:54720 Activity:nil
7[31    Suppose you have a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank earning
        minimum interest rate and you're not sure whether you're going to
        buy a house in 1-5 years. Should one put that money in a more
        risky place like Vanguard ETFs and index funds, given that the
        horizon is only 1-5 years?
        \_ I have a very similar problem, in that I have a bunch of cash
	...
2013/5/13-7/3 [Finance/Banking] UID:54676 Activity:nil
5/13    Does FDIC ever matter? How likely is it that your deposit of
        over $250k going to be screwed over in a major US bank?
        \_ Was Washington Mutual a major bank?
        \_ Was Washington Mutual a major US bank?
        \_ Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Good one.
        \- As with nuclear weapons, this insurance produces much of its value
	...
2013/3/9-4/16 [Finance/Banking] UID:54621 Activity:nil
3/9     In a 15/30 year loan, the amount of payment stays the same but
        the payment on interest decreases while the principal increases.
        Suppose I decide to pay off a huge chunk of principal, will
        the amount of interest I need to pay decrease drastically, or
        do banks still want to take out a huge chunk of interest rate?
        \_ You don't actually have separate "interest" and "principal"; you
	...
2011/11/27-2012/1/10 [Finance/Banking] UID:54243 Activity:nil
11/27   Whoa, since when did FDIC coverage go up to $250,000? That's cool.
        So is this coverage per customer per bank, per account per bank,
        total per person, etc?
        \_ I believe that it is per customer per bank. Not 100% sure though.
           \_ Yes, and you can get even more with joint accounts, etc.:
              http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/dis/index.html
	...
2009/1/28-2/4 [Finance/Banking, Finance/Investment] UID:52483 Activity:very high
1/28    Pork bill passes the House, no R's vote for it.
        \_ which pork bill?
        \_ Yay, fair and balanced NPR:
           http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99919378
           Also, GOP apparently unclear on definition of pork.
           \_ Even Chris Matthews called it one big earmark.
	...
2008/12/15-28 [Finance/Investment] UID:52252 Activity:nil
12/14   Short-term pop possibility: FDRY is being bought by Brocade.
        Deal is priced at $16.50 (cash, not tied to BRCD's stock price).
        FDRY is currently trading at $15.70; shareholder vote is on
        Wednesday 12/17.  FDRY shareholders will gladly take the deal;
        the only risk is that financing for the deal falls through,
        but it looks solid to me.  Quick 5%.  -tom
	...
2008/11/24-12/1 [Finance/Investment] UID:52094 Activity:nil
11/23   Investors giving up on the market:
        http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122748809906051937.html
        \_ That's weird, I am doing alright doing week trade.
           That's for spending only 5-10 min a night setting up limit
           orders, and not looking at the ticker or even thinking about
           it during the day. I could probably make more if I stare
	...
2008/10/19-21 [Finance/Investment] UID:51576 Activity:moderate
10/18   http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/money-stampeding-out-market/7452
        \_ All that cash just sitting on the sidelines now getting 3% is
           going to end up being put to use somewhere. What do you think
           investors are going to do with it, buy houses?
           \_ what's the next bubble?
              \_ Guns and canned food?
	...
2008/10/6-9 [Finance/Investment] UID:51393 Activity:low
10/5    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQdenm7JAur8
        35-year-old former Goldman VP Neel Kashkari to head new dept in charge
        of $700B bailout fund - known as The Office of Financial Stability
        \_ ob he worked in the IT department! -op
           \_ did he really?
              \_ http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4950BS20081006
	...
2008/10/8-9 [Finance/Banking, Finance/Investment] UID:51429 Activity:kinda low 80%like:51427
10/8    Coordinated intl rate cuts
        Ten year note up significantly even though equities down
          -> potential "game over" (or ass-raping) scenario
        In case anyone didn't see it yet, please see "Stock tip 3" from two
        days ago
        \_ I asked and he doesn't know what he's talking about. Now what?
	...
2008/9/23-29 [Finance/Banking, Finance/Investment] UID:51267 Activity:nil
9/22    Roaring 20s       --> Great Depression
        Roaring Millenium --> Great Depression II
        \_ does our state have a BUDGET yet?
           More concerning is we are about to hand $700B to one person and our
           Fed chief Ben Bernanke fully supports this idea--and if you Dems,
           Republicans, and libertarians haven't figured out by now:
	...
2008/9/17-19 [Finance/Investment] UID:51207 Activity:high
9/17    Guys, several days ago I posted (not on soda) that confidence was
        severely shaken in the financial markets and this effect would be
        long-lasting.
        Today, there is almost a sense of panic among U.S. investment bankers,
        traders, and politicians in the finance/banking committees.
        You know what white collar workers are thinking by virtue of
	...
Cache (4359 bytes)
www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/18/business/fed.php
Advanced Search The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the economy, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system. WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the economy on Wednesday, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities. Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero, the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the Fed's measures in the last year. The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the money supply. The idea was to encourage more economic activity by lowering interest rates, including those on home loans, and to help the financial system as it struggles under the crushing weight of bad loans and poor investments. Yields on long-term Treasury bonds dropped markedly, and analysts predicted that interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages would soon drop below 5 percent. US extends its inquiry of offshore tax fraud But there were also clear indications that the Fed was taking risks that could dilute the value of the dollar and set the stage for future inflation. The dollar, which had been losing value in recent weeks to the euro and the yen, dropped sharply again on Wednesday. In its announcement, the central bank said that the United States remained in a severe recession and listed its continuing woes, from job losses and lost housing wealth to falling exports as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown. "In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability," the central bank said. As expected, policy makers decided to keep the Fed's benchmark interest rate on overnight loans in a range between zero and 025 percent. But to the surprise of investors and analysts, the committee said it had decided to purchase an additional $750 billion worth of government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities on top of the $500 billion that the Fed is already in the process of buying. In addition, the Fed said it would buy up to $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months. That would tend to push down longer-term interest rates on all types of loans. All these measures would come in addition to what has already been an unprecedented expansion of lending by the Fed. The central bank also said it would probably expand the scope of a new program to finance consumer and business lending, which gets under way this week. In effect, the central bank has been lending money to a wider and wider array of borrowers, and it has financed that lending by using its authority to create new money at will. The actions announced on Wednesday are likely to expand that to well over $3 trillion over the next year. Despite a trickle of encouraging data in the last few weeks, Fed officials were clearly still worried and in no mood to cut back on their emergency efforts. Fed policy makers sharply reduced their economic forecasts in January, predicting that the economy would continue to experience steep contractions for the first half of 2009, that unemployment could approach 9 percent by the end of the year and that there was at least a small risk of a drop in consumer prices like those that Japan experienced for nearly a decade. The last occasion was nearly 50 years ago under different economic circumstances when it tried to reduce long-term interest rates while allowing short term rates to rise. Ben S Bernanke, the Fed chairman, has been extremely cautious in recent weeks about predicting an end to the recession, saying that he hoped to see the start of a recovery later this year but warning that unemployment, a lagging indicator, would probably keep climbing until some time in 2010. China uses vouchers to spur consumer spending Hangzhou officials hope the coupons will stimulate buying and avert the worst of an economic downturn that has eviscerated factory after factory.