Randomly Noted

The language is not abundantly clear, in keeping with long-standing Federal Reserve traditions.

The author is not the best known policy maker at the U.S. Fed.

But an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal by Fed Governor Kevin M. Warsh (who has served since 2006) has a message for the markets.

That message appears to be that despite extraordinary measures by the Fed and others to keep the U.S. economy from a worse downturn  than we have experienced, there’s a sizable challenge remaining. It is, to interpret, to get the Fed at some point successfully back to more normal courses of conducting monetary policy and emphasizing its stalwart stand against inflationary pressures.

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When we think of public WiFi access to the Internet, little shops like Starbucks or Panera come to mind. Or perhaps the local library. But in China, it’s big business – both legally and illegally. The government in 2007, concerned about safety (some Chinese Internet cafes are said to hold 300 to 400 PCs) and worried  teens might become addicted to playing games on computers, banned the openings of any new Internet cafes.

So it is with that in mind we look at Shanda Games, a Chinese online computer gaming company that went public today in what has become the largest IPO in the U.S. this year – it sold 83.5 million American Depositary Shares at $12.50.

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If you were to choose one person most responsible for bringing  1970s-early 1980s rampant U.S. inflation under control, could you think of anyone other than Paul Volcker, who led the Federal Reserve during those years? Not very likely.

So the venerable Volcker, now 81, and an adviser to President Barack Obama, addressed the House Financial Services Committee Thursday on regulatory reform. (Go to House Committee Website here and click on The Honorable Paul Volcker to see prepared remarks).

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