Mase: Economics and Finance

Why isn’t the economy expanding at a faster pace?   Why aren’t consumers spending as robustly as they have in the past?   Why aren’t bank...

I would like to recommend another article on bank accounting practices. This is the article by Michael Rapoport in the Monday’s Wall Street...

Bankers can’t have it both ways. Either they are going to have to honestly disclose their positions or they are going to face more and more...

Chairman Ben Bernanke gave testimony this past week on the Fed’s semiannual report on monetary policy to the United States Congress. I belie...

A set of findings that will be released today by the Congressional Oversight Panel which oversees the TARP effort highlights exactly the pro...

This is my monthly report on bank lending. Last month I reported on the continued absence of the commercial banking industry in loan market...

The commercial banking system is still holding onto cash rather than lending or investing. Over the thirteen weeks ending August 26, 2009 t...

Is the recession over? Has the economic recovery begun? Will there be a double-dip recession? The picture is fuzzy and one reason the pictu...

On the front page of the Financial Times this morning we read the disconcerting headlines, “’Tarp cop’ to investigate whether banks have ‘co...

The Federal Reserve is doing almost everything it can to get commercial banks to start lending again. Just a quick look at the data reveals...