More reading, the Fed and AIG

Don't forget that the Fed's own website is a valuable and very accessible resource for you.

Here are press releases on the Fed's actions this past year RE: AIG.

First, the original decision to lend $85 million to AIG. Pay attention to the reasons given at the time of the loan.

Second, the Fed and the Treasury restructured their support of AIG. The details of this are a bit technical but you can wade through it to get a general understanding.

Finally, a more definitive restructuring of that support as financial markets continued to decline earlier this year.

You can also read about the whole crisis in a pretty decent summary on wikipedia.

What you should be reading

From the Washington post. Very thoughtful, some might say "middle of the road" piece. Hat tip: Mankiw.

More links to help you out this weekend

A very thorough summary of pros and cons of the Bernanke Fed for your perusal.

For those of you absent today, here are the documents I handed out.

#1: the paper due next Wednesday. Feel free to post any questions here or email me.

#2: Study Guide for the final exam. Stop by to get your old tests to help you study.

I AM STILL MISSING A FEW ESSAYS FROM THE LAST TEST FROM SOME OF YOU. THEY MUST BE TURNED IN MONDAY OR YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO ON THAT PORTION OF THE TEST. NOT GOOD FOR YOUR GRADE.

Finally, remember if you are interested in taking the AP Macroeconomics exam in the spring, you should stop by for a conversation with me about signing up and preparation. I am trying to get a rough head count of general interest, so even if you are just thinking about it, let me know. 

Behold! Your econ teacher is a (near) genius.

Unemployment falls to 10%. I predicted it would decline to 10.1. Skeptics can stop by the office and view the evidence of my prescience scrawled in the front cover of my textbook.

Highlights from Bernanke's testimony this morning

Here are some preliminary remarks from Bernanke for you to consider in preparing for class on Friday. Remember to bring in as homework an opinion article on the role of the Fed. You can read all of Bernanke's prepared remarks here.

Here is another article that gives a little more context.

The key question is: should the Fed be more closely regulated by Congress, or should it actually be given MORE independent regulatory authority? And, of course, why or why not?

Homework for December 2

Use one of the online resources in the left column (Wall St. Journal, NY Times, Financial Times, etc.) to find and print out an article on the dollar relative to some other currency. Read it, annotate, and bring in for class discussion tomorrow.