The Federal Funds rate is still effectively zero. Surprise. Since 2008 the Fed has keep interest rates an unprecedented effective zero, giving a free ride to big debt and Wall Street. The phrase that pays from the Fed is a highly accommodative policy.
The BEA is finally giving us some interesting data in this BEA economic release, Summary Estimates for Multinational Companies: Employment, Sales, and Capital Expenditures for 2009. Their statistics show U.S. multinationals fired more Americans than those abroad during this recession, even while some of these companies were bailed out by U.S. taxpayers. Additionally, these same corporations clearly have been offshore outsourcing jobs over the last decade.
Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke gave one hell of a speech at the G-20 implying emerging economies are to blame their own inflation and currency manipulation could lead to another global financial crisis.
Firstly, Bernanke's speech, Global Imbalances: Links to Economic and Financial Stability, is reprinted below, in it's entirety. The reason to reprint the speech in total is too many in the press are interpreting his speech, many incorrectly, so I suggest reading what he said directly first.
Currency pegs are being tested to destruction on the fringes of Europe’s monetary union in a traumatic upheaval that recalls the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
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