Ben S. Bernanke

A meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee was held in the offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 8:30 a.m.
PRESENT:
Mr. Bernanke, Chairman
Mr. Geithner, Vice Chairman
Ms. Duke
Mr. Fisher
Mr. Kohn
Mr. Kroszner
Mr. Mishkin
Ms. Pianalto
Mr. Plosser
Mr. Stern
Mr. Warsh

Messrs. Evans, Lacker, and Lockhart, and Ms. Yellen, Alternate Members of the Federal Open Market Committee

Messrs. Bullard, Hoenig, and Rosengren, Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Boston, respectively

Mr. Madigan, Secretary and Economist
Ms. Danker, Deputy Secretary
Mr. Skidmore, Assistant Secretary
Ms. Smith, Assistant Secretary
Mr. Alvarez, General Counsel
Mr. Ashton, Assistant General Counsel
Mr. Sheets, Economist

Messrs. Connors, English, Kamin, Sniderman, and Wilcox, Associate Economists

Mr. Dudley, Manager, System Open Market Account

Mr. Blanchard ...

White Knight?

Here's a link to listen to an Audio Version of the report:

The story of the day on Friday was that a white knight in the form of Korea’s Development Bank was going to ride in and rescue Lehman Bros. (LEH). The thinking here is if a Lehman bailout is successful, then there would be one less shoe to potentially drop in the credit crisis.

We’ve already seen Bear Stearns go down and it is looking more and more likely that Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) are going down as well as the consensus view is that it is not a question of if, but when the government steps in. Thus, the fear in the back of traders’ minds is that we could see a domino effect as banks and brokers start to fall and that money available for bailouts may soon run out.

Therefore, the ...

Bloomberg is reporting that Fed Chairman Ben ...

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- After a tumultuous first quarter of scheduled and surprise cuts in the overnight federal funds target rate, the Federal Reserve Board voted 9-1 in second quarter 2008 to keep the target rate at a low 2.00%. The lone dissenter was Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, calling for a rise in interest rates to fight inflation. The Fed kept its target for the fed funds rate at 2.00% at its recent August 5 meeting, with Fisher again the lone dissenter. The Fed has recently been the target of questions from Congress regarding its ...

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 08/20/08 -- John Hope Bryant, Operation HOPE (HOPE) founder and chief executive officer, who also serves as vice chair on the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy (the Council), discussed today his historic meeting earlier this month with the Federal Reserve chairman and its board of governors to address the importance of financial literacy and education and the "silver rights movement" for America's underserved communities. Bryant, with his organization, Operation HOPE, has been a long-time leader in financial literacy rights for the underserved communities of the United States, and spoke at length with Chairman Ben Bernake and the Board about the need for a comprehensive policy to ...