Wall Street’s Fed fixation
LA Times
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke could not have been more precise about the projected cutbacks in the monthly $85-billion bond-buying program. He said in December that the Fed would continue the program until the national unemployment rate fell to 6.5%.
shared by @ObsoleteDogma, @ritholtz, @TheStalwart, The Big Picture, @fundmyfund
 

In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps
New York Times
Some economists say more inflation is just what the American economy needs to escape from a half-decade of sluggish growth and high unemployment.
shared by Huffington Post, reddit/Economics, @JamesGRickards
 

Optimism about an end to the euro crisis is wrong
Financial Times
The scale of the required adjustment is enormous and the IMF does not believe it will happen.
shared by @MarkThoma, Naked Capitalism, @JEliasof, @alanphelo, @mhewson_CMC
 

Amazon and the "profitless business model" fallacy
eugenewei.com
With every quarterly earnings call, my Twitter feed lights up with jokes about how Amazon continues to grow its revenue and make no profits and how trusting investors continue to rewards the company for it. The apotheosis of that line of thoughts is a quote from Slate’s Matthew Yglesias earlier this year: “Amazon, as best I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.”
shared by @derekhernquist, @MParekh, @MichaelKitces, @kevinroose
 

Goldman Sachs, Buying Redemption
New York Times
Via its Goldman Sachs Foundation, led by Dina Powell, the firm many associate with Wall Street greed and excess has staked out a position as one of the nation’s leading corporate philanthropists.
shared by @kevinroose, @AnjuliDavies, @MattGoldstein26, @mattbish, @FGoria
 

Shiller on Fama: Sharing Nobel Honors, and Agreeing to Disagree
New York Times
A winner of this year’s Nobel in economics explains areas of disagreement with his fellow laureates. And, he notes, this isn’t the first time co-recipients have had differing views.
shared by Abnormal Returns, @MarkThoma, Marginal Revolution, @derekhernquist
 

Eugene Fama, King of Predictable Markets
New York Times
An interview with the economist — and, now, Nobel laureate — who’s known as the father of the efficient-markets theory.
shared by @MarkThoma, EconLog, The Big Picture, @moorehn, Marginal Revolution
 

Bank’s Midlevel Executive Becomes a New Face of the Housing Crisis
New York Times
Rebecca S. Mairone, once of Countrywide, is a rare midlevel executive found liable in the mortgage crisis.
shared by @NickTimiraos, @EconBrothers, @LaurenYoung, @ReformedBroker
 

Twitter’s white lie to investors: We’re profitable
Quartz
You might have heard that Twitter isn’t profitable. But that’s not what its executives are telling investors as the company hawks its IPO at meetings that began today in New York.Twitter has invented an accounting metric that, after ignorin…
shared by @ritholtz, The Big Picture, @retheauditors, @moorehn, Huffington Post
 

Sen. Paul threatens to hold Yellen nomination: Source
CNBC
Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to put a hold on the nomination of Janet Yellen to chair the Fed, a source close to the Kentucky Republican said.
shared by Business Insider, @mark_dow, @JustinWolfers, @EpicureanDeal
 

Italy Breaks Your Heart
New York Times
So much treasure, so much waste. Italy is a cautionary tale of problems unfixed and pessimism unredeemed.
shared by @economistmeg, @LaurenLaCapra, @FGoria, @ErikSchatzker