Economy 
Barclays warns of disaster as Fed loses all credibility(0)
Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall “below zero.”
International Monetary Fund undertakes audit of U.S. financial system
Inflation is going up and up, and this year’s average will likely top 4 percent. But this time Mr. Dollar is also Mr. Powerless. He can raise interest rates in the fall, or he can pray, which would probably be the better choice. At least prayer would not prevent the US economy from growing, a highly likely outcome if interest rates go up.
Don’t blame speculators for high oil prices
A new study sheds light on the role speculation plays in the global oil market. There is no hard evidence that speculators are responsible for high oil prices. If the price of oil truly were above the level that the fundamentals could support, we would see growing inventories of crude. But inventory levels show no such pattern.
No One Predicted This! Oh, Wait…
Thomas Woods at the Campaign for Liberty writes:
This has been all over the web already, but I can’t resist. A couple weeks ago, John McCain said: “You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in. They’re the same ones that didn’t predict the dot-com meltdown. They’re [...]