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Showing posts from July, 2006

Your Friend the Fed

Note: This feature length cover story by Chris McMahon originally appeared in the July 2006 issue of Futures Magazine. Link to original @ Futures Magazine New Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben S. Bernanke recently learned an important and difficult lesson. After telling Congress in late April the Federal Reserve Bank may pause in its campaign to raise interest rates, a move that triggered a market rally, he seemingly reversed himself when days later he told a CNBC reporter the market misunderstood his statement and added, "It's worrisome that people would look at me as dovish and not necessarily an aggressive inflation fighter." The move from inflation "dove" to inflation "hawk" caused the market to tank. During an address on financial literacy, Bernanke apologized to the Senate Banking Committee for upsetting the markets and added that in the future his comments would go through regular communications channels. Watching an accomplished economist