On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

Econbrowser digs deep into the headline buzz generated when the Federal Reserve turned a $46 billion dollar profit. how the Federal Reserve Turned a Profit gives a fairly in depth analysis, says the Fed's strategy is an alternative to quantitative easing and has some additional warnings in the conclusion.

Must Read Post #2

Seems Microsoft is a tax dodger to the tune of over $1 billion dollars to the state of Washington. Seattle Weekly has the story and Tax Justice Network overviews it.

Must Read Post #3

Seems the Japanese Yen Carry Trade is a loser for this year.

Currency strategists are more in sync than any time since the depths of the financial crisis, increasing incentives to bet against the yen after the carry trade lost money in December for the first time in 10 months.

Forecasts for the euro, yen and Swiss franc from 61 Bloomberg survey contributors are within 9 cents of the mean on average, down from 11 cents a year ago. They haven’t been so unified since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s 2008 bankruptcy. The predictions’ so-called standard deviation fell 16 percent last quarter, the biggest drop in at least two years, after jumping 48 percent in the three months after Lehman’s demise.

The growing consensus signals that foreign-exchange swings will decline, luring investors to sell currencies from countries with lower interest rates to buy higher-yielding ones. That may weaken the yen and franc, and rein in the resurgent dollar. Japan’s currency, which fell 6.6 percent since its 14-year high of 84.83 per dollar on Nov. 27, may be the biggest loser.

Must Read Post #4

If Financial Institutions cannot buy Congress, well, they will turn to the courts in trying to stop any tax or well, pretty much anything they don't like. The latest target is Obama's new Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.