The Hill: GOP lawmakers warn Bernanke against QE 3

08/26/11 by Alexander Bolton - House Republican lawmakers are warning Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to refrain from another round of quantitative easing, which they say could accelerate inflation. ✧ Bernanke is scheduled to speak at a Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., today, Friday morning at 10 a.m. ✧ At the same conference last year, Bernanke launched the second round of the Fed’s treasury purchasing program, which became known as QE2. Read more at The Hill...

"Opposition to a third round of quantitative easing has spread beyond the Tea Party to establishment Republicans and even some Democrats."

UPDATE: Phew! Bernanke did NOT suggest another round of quantitative easing at this conference. --bc
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CNBC: Secret Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here

11/11/2010 - There might not have been a second round of quantitative easing, if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke shopped at Walmart. ∴ A new pricing survey of products sold at the world’s largest retailer [WMT 53.95 -0.18 (-0.33%)] showed a 0.6 percent price increase in just the last two months, according to MKM Partners. At that rate, prices would be close to four percent higher a year from now, double the Fed’s mandate. Read more at CNBC...
(Hat tip: Glenn Beck 11/15) Read More......

NRO: Palin to Bernanke: 'Cease and Desist'

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE 11/7/2010 by Robert Costa - Snippets from Sarah Palin's prepared remarks:

I’m deeply concerned about the Federal Reserve’s plans to buy up anywhere from $600 billion to as much as $1 trillion of government securities. The technical term for it is “quantitative easing.” It means our government is pumping money into the banking system by buying up treasury bonds. And where, you may ask, are we getting the money to pay for all this? We’re printing it out of thin air.

The Fed hopes doing this may buy us a little temporary economic growth by supplying banks with extra cash which they could then lend out to businesses. But it’s far from certain this will even work. After all, the problem isn’t that banks don’t have enough cash on hand – it’s that they don’t want to lend it out, because they don’t trust the current economic climate. Read more at NRO...

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Democrats may drag feet on 'unsustainable' budget for 2011

POLITICO, 4/12/2010 - Congress is poised to miss its April 15 deadline for finishing next year’s budget without even considering a draft in either chamber. ∴ Unlike citizens’ tax-filing deadline, Congress’s mid-April benchmark is nonbinding. And members seem to be in no rush to get the process going. ∴ Indeed, some Democratic insiders suspect that leaders will skip the budget process altogether this year — a way to avoid the political unpleasantness of voting on spending, deficits and taxes in an election year — or simply go through a few of the motions, without any real effort to complete the work. Read more at Politico... Read More......