BARCELONA | By CaixaBank research team | As Bernanke’s words are digested, it is inevitable that questions come up regarding whether this sequence is correct or, on the other hand, the Federal Reserve’s actions are untimely.
MADRID | All the “Great Depression” stories show how both the governments’ blindness and central banks made the crisis last longer. So it does makes sense that in the current crisis both governments and central banks have been active to take measures, although not necessarily successful and effective. However, the ECB has been less belligerent than other bankers and its members don’t hold homogeneous positions.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Since Quantitative Easing programmes began, the dollar has been strengthened, that is, its price has gone up against the most used currencies in the international markets.
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | Americans blame Bush more than Obama, who seems to be benefiting from the current economic stability. However, everything could change once the Fed stops injecting QE steroids.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Monetary policies are a by-product of politics, after all, and in Europe, politics are tightly controlled from Berlin, which will probably use the Fed’s reaction as example of what the ECB must do.
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Maybe this time Bernanke is just trying to provoke a mini-crash to lay the foundations for a progressive withdrawal of the monetary stimulus in 2014 or, maybe, 2015.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | This “resumption of growth” view has spread like ‘bush fire’. But why?
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Let’s not forget, it was the Federal Reserve, through its massive liquidity injections, that saved the German banks in 2008 and again in 2010 and 2011.
WASHINGTON | Two online games posted in two regional Federal Reserve’s banks (San Francisco and Atlanta) enable us to forecast that the extremely accommodative US monetary policy will continue for a long period of time.
BARCELONA | By CaixaBank research | Compared with its pre-crisis size, the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve in the US has tripled while the European Central Bank’s has only doubled.