South America Decoupling from U.S.?

Is South America finally decoupling from the U.S.? The CS Monitor seems to think so:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1024/p06s01-woam.html

Greenspan at the Confessional

I hate to kick a man when he's down, but the NY Times beat me to it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html

I remember Greenspan raising interest rates towards the end of his tenure (ah, the days of earning 5% on basic money market accounts). Greenspan did see the excess--just not soon enough.

As Tom "American Treasure" Toles implies in this 3/4/05 Washington Post cartoon, how independent was Greenspan? Was much of Greenspan's unwillingness to raise rates was because of the Bush administration's policies and Greenspan's desire not to lose his job?

Living on a Prayer

From The NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/garden/23foreclosure.html

Forty-four percent of employees live paycheck to paycheck, according to a survey conducted by MetLife in late 2007, and 48 percent of American households have less than $5,000 in liquid assets according to Edward Wolff, an economist specializing in the study of poverty and income distribution at New York University.

Funny: Bernanke to the Rescue

In these volatile times, we gotta have some humor. Here's a funny Bernanke montage explaining the monetarian philosophy (i.e., when times are bad, the government should inject/drop money to stimulate the economy). Make sure the music is on--it's the music that makes everything so good:

http://moneyhelicopters.ytmnd.com/

Hat tip to Prof. Mankiw.

European Econ Forecast

Clever economic weather forecast from the FT:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3af6c64c-9eb6-11dd-98bd-000077b07658.html

Hat tip to Barry "The Big Kahuna" Ritholtz.

Hoover Institute

The Hoover Institute has a great link to some educational videos:

http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/

Not exactly economics per se, but close enough.

B&N Free Cappuccino Offer (Thru 10/31)

I love cappuccinos. B&N is offering a free one through October 31, 2008:

Barnes and Noble Coupon

Hope it works.