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Home Archives for Federal Reserve

6/10/2009 By Ben 1 Comment

Calling All Colorado Congressmen to Back Federal Reserve Transparency

Update, 6/11, 10:30 AM: Impressively, HR 1207 now has 208 Congressional co-sponsors. But only two from Colorado: Republican Doug Lamborn and Democrat Ed Perlmutter. Open government is an important non-partisan issue. I recently brought readers' attention to the need to persuade Republican Congressman Mike Coffman to sign on in support of transparency for the nation's Federal Reserve bank. It's good to see Face The State join the cause and raise the stakes by urging members of Colorado's delegation across the political spectrum to back HR 1207. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: attention, cause, Colorado, Congressman, delegation, Face the State, Federal Reserve, HR 1207, join, members, Mike Coffman, persuade, political spectrum, raise, readers, Republican, sign on, stakes, support, Transparency, urge

5/29/2009 By Ben Leave a Comment

Ask Congressman Mike Coffman to Sign On to Federal Reserve Transparency

It won't be the first time I write it, nor likely the last. But Republican officials in Washington D.C. cannot hope to return to power simply by pointing out that they aren't as socialist as the Democrats. A vital piece of a successful 2010 and beyond involves the need to unite aggressively behind an affirmative platform of fiscally responsible government reform. Robert Romano on the Americans for Liberty blog brings our attention to a specific bill that represents a golden opportunity to do right by the taxpayer:Most of the financial bailouts have been conducted by the Federal Reserve, and on February 26th, Congressman Ron Paul introduced the legislation that would require an audit of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, liberty, National Politics, PPC Tagged With: 2010, 6th Congressional District, advance, affirmative, agenda, aggressively, Americans for Liberty, ask, attention, bill, blog, Board of Governors, bonds, buzzword, cause, Colorado, Congress, Congressman, consent, contact, Democrats, do right, Federal Reserve, financial bailouts, first time, fiscally responsible, fix, golden opportunity, government reform, growing, HR 1207, inordinate, insight, interest rates, issue, join, last time, ledgers, Mike Coffman, monetary policy, more closely, mortgage securities, necessity, officials, operations, oversight, platform, pointing out, power, representatives, Republican, Republicans, return to power, Robert Romano, Ron Paul, secret, shine the light, sign on, Socialist, successful, taxpayer, timeliness, Transparency, treasuries, U.S. House, unite, Wall Street Journal, Washington DC

12/21/2008 By Ben 1 Comment

Democrat Moe Keller Happy to Spend Your Money While Spending is Good

Hey, Colorado, guess what? Leave the Democrats in charge in your state for too long, and taste the fruits of bad fiscal judgment. Witness this Face The State story about my own state senator:Audio from April 3 uncovered by Face The State reveals Sen. Moe Keller, a Wheat Ridge Democrat and chairwoman of the Joint Budget Committee, optimistically arguing that Colorado’s economic future is a bright one, even though Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted on that same day the country was headed into a recession. "We do not have a projection from our economists that we are going into a fiscal train wreck," she said. Moe Keller and her fellow Democrats at the State Capitol are just happy to spend your money while the spending is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General Tagged With: bad fiscal judgment, Ben Bernanke, Bill Ritter, chairwoman, citizens, Colorado, Democrats, Denver, Denver Post, economic downturn, economic forecasters, economists, Face the State, Federal Reserve, fiscally conservative, gamble, Grand Junction, Joint Budget Committee, Josh Penry, legislative session, legislative staff, Long Bill, minority leader, Moe Keller, overly optimistic, policies, power, predicted, priorities, rainy day fund, recession, Republicans, sensible, smarts, special interests, state, State Capitol, state leader, state senator, taxpayer dollars, Wheat Ridge

9/25/2008 By Ben 2 Comments

Passing Thoughts on “Bailout” Debate

Passing thoughts on the "bailout" debate.... John Hawkins at Right Wing News:If the history of government intervention in this country has taught us anything, it's that we should be much more afraid of the long term ramifications of the government rushing through an emergency "solution" to a problem than the actual problem the government is trying to "solve" in the first place. Agreed. In that spirit, the Heritage Foundation has an excellent piece urging Congress to live up to its "deliberative" role in this debate. Meanwhile, Rossputin has recanted his initial tentative support of the administration's $700 billion bailout plan, writing:[Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke is warning us that doing nothing poses serious risks to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fiscal Policy, General, National Politics, property rights Tagged With: administration, bailout, Ben Bernanke, Congress, debate, deliberative role, emergency solution, Federal Reserve, government intervention, Heritage Foundation, insurance prices, John Hawkins, lawmakers, lender of last resort, market liquidity, market risk, moral hazard, Paulson Plan, price supports, recanted, Right Wing News, Rossputin, socialism, special interest goodies, taxpayer exposure, temporary, tentative support

9/23/2008 By Ben 5 Comments

Barack Obama and Democrats’ Role in Failing to Avert Financial Crisis

Writing at Bloomberg News, economic analyst Kevin Hassett unravels the story behind the recent financial meltdown (H/T Rossputin). An opportunity to avert the crisis came in 2005 with the introduction of legislation to provide a "world-class regulator" of government-sponsored mortgage loan institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted that failure to address the problem was "placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.'" Here's the key passage from Hassett's article (though you should really read the whole thing - it's not terribly long):If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fiscal Policy, General, National Politics Tagged With: Alan Greenspan, Barack Obama, Bloomberg News, cosponsorship, Democrats, economic analyst, Fannie Mae, Federal Reserve, financial meltdown, Freddie Mac, John McCain, Kevin Hassett, legislation, lobbyists, mortgage lenders, partisanship, party-line vote, Republican Congressional leaders, Republicans

9/7/2008 By Ben Leave a Comment

Putting Today’s Economy in Perspective

It's national election season, which means perspective on the economy is badly needed. Thanks to Rossputin for highlighting this article from economists Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein. Read the whole thing for yourself, but interesting tidbits are that family income last year hit its first all-time high in 7 years, income inequality declined faster than at any point in the previous 45 years, and the poverty rate stayed below its pre-1999 norms. Yes, economic growth has lagged, causing the country to flirt with recession. But according to Wesbury and Stein, "these figures bolster the case that the underlying fundamentals of the US economy were sound in 2007, before the Federal Reserve decided to try to inflate our way out of financial … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fiscal Policy, General, National Politics Tagged With: Brian Wesbury, bumper sticker, economic growth, economics, election season, family income, Federal Reserve, free trade, government spending, income inequality, National Taxpayers Union, poverty rate, Robert Stein, Rossputin, taxes

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Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

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