St. Louis Fed

Before the Great Recession, U.S. consumer debt had risen fairly steadily for more than a decade. With the downturn, it finally dropped...until December's small rise. However, a longer look at the trend of ever-rising debt shows that America is still extraordinarily overextended.

James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, said the global economic recovery looks "very strong," despite concerns over slower growth in China and the European debt crisis. "The global economy is now in the middle of a powerful recovery led by Asia," Bullard said in a speech...

As a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, William Poole has a highly informed view of the Fed and the kinds of problems it has to grapple with. Right now, Poole says, the biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy is the "too-big-to-fail' issue." The government has taken on an...