Mase: Economics and Finance

There seem to be three major stories in commercial banking these days: first, the cash going to foreign-related institutions; second...

Total reserves in the banking system rose by almost 50 percent in 2011 to average around $1.6 trillion.   The increase during the ye...

I didn’t post a “Post QE2 Federal Reserve Watch” last month because I was on vacation.   You have to go back to September 12 to get Part ...

Remember the old story about commercial banks?   Commercial banks only lend to people who don’t need to borrow. Well, that seems to...

Let’s start with another interesting fact from the commercial banking industry: 92 percent of the banks in the country hold 10 percent of...

Should there be a QE3 or not? This seems to be the debate now going on given the sluggish performance of the United States economy.  ...

The “sure” bet over the past year or so has been that the Federal Reserve would keep short term interest rates as low as they could for a lo...

In reviewing the banking data put out by the Federal Reserve System last month, I titled my post “Grasping at Straws” because there was some...

Recently, the Federal Reserve has held 43 meetings around the country on the financing needs of small business. These meetings began Februar...