Bernanke: A brief judgement

With Ben Bernanke exiting his position as the US Federal Reserve Chairman it's time to reflect on his time in office. There is no doubt that he took over at a tumultuous time (The Financial Express offers a timeline here). My thoughts are simply that we don't know how well he did. Objectively, we know that the FED has consistently missed targets as shown here:


Inflation at 2% and full employment (maybe in the 4-6% range) are the aims of the FED. Since early on in the recession the FED has missed on both repeatedly.

So does FED failure equate to a Bernanke failure?

That's a much different question. We can't run history again with a different FED chairman, and hopefully we don't have the same confluence of economic events to produce an adequate comparable. But without that we can't truly evaluate his role in this.

2014 Top 5 POD Stories to Watch. Number 1: Oil Transportation

In this five part post I'll take a look at the five story lines that I expect will be the most interesting for me to follow in 2014.

Previously:
Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil
Number 4: US Tight Oil
Number 3: Monetary Policy
Number 2: China

Number 1: Oil Transportation

Here's my Alberta bias. But around these parts 2014 could well shape up to be the year of the pipeline. While we probably won't get into any construction in this calender year, we might get some clarity on the Keystone XL, but also on Kinder Morgan's TransMountain expansion and Enbridge's Northern Gateway.

2014 Top 5 POD Stories to Watch. Number 2: China

In this five part post I'll take a look at the five story lines that I expect will be the most interesting for me to follow in 2014.

Previously:
Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil
Number 4: US Tight Oil
Number 3: Monetary Policy

Number 2: China

2013 saw China overtake the US as the largest importer of oil. It saw China show yoy fall in consumption for November. It saw China stave off a hard fall. Whether the performance is positive or negative China's economic performance will always be in my list of top POD stories.

2014 Top 5 POD Stories to Watch. Number 3: Monetary Policy

Been awhile... Life happens.

Back to the five part post looking at the five story lines that I expect to will be interesting to follow in 2014.

Previously:
Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil
Number 4: US Tight Oil

Number 3: Monetary Policy

With Ben Bernanke stepping down as FED Chairman, monetary policy will likely keep itself in the headlines this year. Monetary policy is best left for the backpages, and when things are going well it often is. However, the financial crisis and subsequent 'great recession' has illuminated how divergent mainstream economic views on monetary policy have become.

The Monetary Policy Debate

For the purpose of this post I'll constrain my description of the current monetary policy debates to an extremely simplified summary.

2014 Top 5 POD Stories to Watch. Number 4: US Tight Oil

In this five part post I'll take a look at the five story lines that I expect will be the most interesting for me to follow in 2014.

Previously:

Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil

Number 4: US Tight Oil

There is no questioning the production numbers of the US. And there's no question where that resurgence has come from. The shale plays in North Dakota and Texas.

2014 Top 5 POD Stories to Watch. Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil

The next 5 posts will be of the most interest to me going into 2014 in the realm of the Peak Oil Dynamic.

Number 5: New Old Sources of Oil

This post is, to a large extent, inspired by the events that transpired in Mexico and Iran during 2013. The title of the post reflects the potential of gaining 'knowable' oil. Forget about the unknown type of 'finds' in Coober Pedy, or the unquantifiable shale plays of Eastern Siberia. This production is different.