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Easy Street

Easy Street: The Federal Reserve Loves the Stock Market

Heidi Moore Jun 10, 2011

Easy Street is our daily roundup of the most interesting news stories and commentary about Wall Street, Washington and the curious world of finance. You can see more of what we think are the biggest stories of the day on our News in Brief page. Every day, you can download Marketplace’s daily show on iTunes and follow us for more headlines at twitter.com/mktplaceradio. If you want to listen to Marketplace on the radio, find your local station and time here.

Banking & Finance

The Federal Reserve [does the market’s bidding]:(): banks stocks were hit hard, so, coincidentally, the Fed will reduce its surcharge on banking.

More on Wall Street’s mysterious, threatened layoffs.

Markets & Traders

The market for municipal bonds may be $700 billion bigger than the Federal Reserve thinks, says Citigroup. So what? So, if it crashes we’re that much worse off.

Fund Managers & Investing

We’re all so desperate to believe that small businesses can lend again that it can be easy to believe in any alleged savior that comes up.

Wide-eyed, just plain wrong story about business development companies as “lenders” Um, remember:

Related: A nice New York Times DealBook story by Azam Ahmad on hedge funds becoming lenders to companies that can’t get the money from banks. Since hedge funds are not regulated like banks, what will happen when people default?

Politicians & Regulation

SEC to Grassley: Drop Dead

Corporate America

The checkered past of Groupon’s CEO.

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