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The Fed & Interest Rates blog
A mortgage worksheet that shows what two points of interest really costWork the payment formula by hand on a $300,000 loan and see why a two-point rate gap costs $366.40 a month, and what really sets mortgage rates.How Paul Volcker broke inflation and why it hurt so muchTwo presidents let a central banker be hated for three years, and that is why the inflation of the 1970s ended. The story, the cost and the lesson.The Federal Reserve in plain English and the levers it really holdsHow the Fed was created, who sits on its boards, what its tools really do, what it cannot do, and how Congress can still hold it to account.Inflation is the one tax that never needs a vote in CongressInflation moves buying power from savers and wage earners to the biggest debtor in the country, and no member of Congress ever has to vote for it.Embargo, Volcker and Foreclosure Is What Really Caused the 1980s Farm CrisisThe 1980s farm crisis was a debt crisis, not one villain. A tour from the 1970s land boom through the embargo and the Fed to the 1987 credit act.McKinley and Bryan in 1896 Compared as Two Ways to Run for PresidentOne man crossed the country by train and the other stayed on his porch, and the porch won. A side-by-side look at money, message, machine and map.Seven myths about Herbert Hoover the do-nothing presidentHoover tried more to fight a depression than any earlier president. Seven common claims tested against the record, and what conservatives should learn.