Greece: Three years after the bailout

By Mark Thompson

It's been three years since Greece was granted 110 billion euros in the first of two bailouts by its EU partners and the International Monetary Fund. Harsh austerity measures have driven the economy into the ground since then. Unemployment has soared. More than 6 in 10 young workers are out of a job.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. After six years of recession, MORE

Fed: Let's Twist again like we did last summer?

The Federal Reserve's next policy meeting is a two-day session concluding on June 20. That's just ten days before the Fed's Operation Twist policy -- swapping short-term bonds for ones with longer duration to help keep 10-year and 30-year bond yields low -- expires. Up until recently, few expected the Fed would seriously consider extending Twist.

But what a difference a lousy job report makes. Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart, who MORE

Who loves us, baby? China still does.

The United States may be hurtling towards a fiscal cliff at the end of the year. But if the U.S. is Thelma then China is Louise. Despite continued fears about another debt ceiling debacle at the end of this year, China is buying U.S. Treasury debt like it's going out of style ... or like it's Facebook stock.

The Treasury Department released its latest figures on foreign holdings of U.S. debt MORE

Battle of the beards: Bernanke vs. Krugman

By now, you have probably heard of the "feud" taking place between Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Nobel-prize winning New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman. And if you haven't, what the heck are you doing reading this blog?

Anyway, here's the lowdown in case you aren't up to speed. Krugman took Bernanke to task in a Sunday NYT magazine piece, criticizing Bernanke for not doing enough to tackle the MORE

Forget jobs. Show me the money!

Beyond Big Miss: Wkly earnings down, aggregate payrolls up, PT for econ. reasons WAY down.Returnees working cheap = wage/price disinflation

— Dan Alpert (@DanielAlpert) April 06, 2012

Dan Alpert, a managing partner at Westwood Capital in New York, is one of my favorite sources. He was a life saver on that fateful Sunday night in September 2008 when it seemed the world was ending. He was in the CNN studios doing TV MORE

How to avoid the looming budget train wreck

Republicans desperately do not want to raise taxes on the über-rich. And Democrats certainly don't want to gut entitlement spending for the nation's most needy. But with the Bush tax cuts and Obama payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of the year, and automatic budget cuts tied to sequestration set to kick in at the beginning of next year, it's clear that Congress has to do something MORE

Revenge of the bond vigilantes?

The above chart may be setting of some alarm bells at the Federal Reserve.

The Fed doesn't want to raise short-term rates for another two years. But it has also tried to downplay hopes that it will step in and buy more bonds to keep longer-term rates low. QE3? Operation Twist 2? Sterilized bond purchases? Call it whatever you want. It's still stimulus. And while the Fed would probably prefer to MORE

It's hard being a lonely Fed hawk

The Fed didn't surprise anybody Tuesday. Sure, some will note that it's sounding a little more alarmed about inflation. The central bank noted in its statement that "the recent increase in oil and gasoline prices will push up inflation temporarily."

But before you can say "rate hike," the Fed went back to its usual script and said that it "anticipates that subsequently inflation will run at or below the rate that MORE

One bourbon, two bourbon. Red bourbon, blue bourbon.

I got an e-mail from one of my local liquor stores (is it a problem if I am on the list for more than one wine shop in my neighborhood?) alerting me to the fact that one of my favorite makers of brown liquor, Heaven Hill Distilleries, is now selling election-themed straight bourbon whiskey. (Yes, with an E. This is America! Although they make Whiskey in Ireland too. But I MORE

ADP: The NIT of jobs numbers. That's not a compliment.

The markets are in a more chipper mood Wednesday following the worst drop of the year for stocks a day earlier.

One reason for the enthusiasm? Looks like the private sector hired 216,000 people in February, according to the latest monthly report from payroll processor ADP. That was roughly in line with forecasts.

But investors shouldn't get too excited. The big jobs number from the government comes out on Friday. And the MORE