A couple of weeks ago, media outlets were abuzz over the revelation that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s, ouster was publicly traded on InTrade.  For those of you unfamiliar with InTrade, it creates a market for buyers and sellers who bet on the probability of an event.  In this case, you can buy or sell shares based on whether or not you believe Secretary Geithner will leave his post by June 30, 2009.  

I’m not a big InTrade follower, but since Secretary Geithner plays such a prominent role in the health of the economy, I’ve watched this trade pretty closely.  At the time this article was written, this event was trading at $14.00.  Traders believe there is a very low probability of this event taking place.  However, if you choose to buy this event, and it takes place, you’ll earn a nice return.  Let’s take a look at several reasons to

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A couple of weeks ago, media outlets were abuzz over the revelation that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s, ouster was publicly traded on InTrade.  For those of you unfamiliar with InTrade, it creates a market for buyers and sellers who bet on the probability of an event.  In this case, you can buy or sell shares based on whether or not you believe Secretary Geithner will leave his post by June 30, 2009.  

I’m not a big InTrade follower, but since Secretary Geithner plays such a prominent role in the health of the economy, I’ve watched this trade pretty closely.  At the time this article was written, this event was trading at $14.00.  Traders believe there is a very low probability of this event taking place.  However, if you choose to buy this event, and it takes place, you’ll earn a nice return.  Let’s take a look at several reasons to

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As expected, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers slashed a benchmark interest rate yesterday (Tuesday). But they cut it by a bigger-than-expected amount, and did so in an unconventional manner.

Instead of establishing a new, specific primary interest rate, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted for a target range – 0.0% to 0.25% – a record low. Before yesterday’s cut, the Federal Funds target rate stood at 1.0%.

Instead of addressing the reason for its peculiar target range, the Federal Reserve opted for canned doomsday language that could have appeared verbatim in any of its previous rate cut announcements: It hasn’t been good. It doesn’t look good. And we’re trying to fix it.

Most cryptically, the FOMC said it “will employ all available tools” to promote economic growth and price stability. But those objectives could take some time to achieve.

“The committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low

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President-elect Barack Obama yesterday (Monday) formally unveiled his economic team, including the nomination of New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as the new administration’s U.S. Treasury secretary. The team’s first challenge will be assembling an economic stimulus package that could be even larger than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) the Bush Administration has deployed.

The nomination of Geithner to succeed current U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was leaked over the weekend, and was reported by Money Morning yesterday.

Geithner (pronounced: GITE-ner) obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He also has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in present-day Zimbabwe, India, Thailand and China.

As

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Biden was never a frontrunner in the 2008 Election, but he was always considered as a favorite VP choice (along with Bill Richardson). It seems, however, that if Barack chooses Biden as VP, quite a few things he said back in his presidential bid would come back to haunt him. Most notably: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.” “The Biden for President Campaign today congratulated Sen. Barack Obama for arriving at a number of Sen. Biden’s long-held views on combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.” It would almost be like Biden would be doing McCain’s work for him. Read the original article here for more examples.