Fed

Janet Yellen will be replaced by Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve (Fed) when her first and only term ends in February 2018. Nonetheless, many believe she has done a good job as Fed chair. She inherited a very loose monetary stance from her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, and started to apply the brakes […]

The saying goes that the biggest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he does not exist. In the case of monetary policy, the “devil” has convinced us there is no inflation, and there is no risk in the current monetary policy. Many independent analysts, however, say that the first argument—the absence of […]

The devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma and now Maria will make the U.S. Federal Reserve’s job of conducting monetary policy trickier.

Doubts about the U.S. Federal Reserve raising rates for a third time in 2017 are building

In her recent set-piece testimony before Congress, Janet Yellen made clear that she is determined to repeat the sort of ‘gradualism’ in raising rates that proved so disastrous after the Tech bust. In other words, that she will not so much boil the frog slowly as to encourage him to go out and make a further […]

With the Bank of Canada and Fed chomping at the bit to raise rates while inflation sputters, many question what the inflation target should be and if a policy error is being made.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate for the third time in six months, providing its latest vote of confidence in a slow-growing but durable economy. The Fed also announced plans to start gradually paring its bond holdings later this year, which could cause long-term rates to rise. The increase in the Fed’s […]

It’s likely still early days as far as the U.S. Federal Reserve is concerned for protectionism being a threat to economic growth.

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key policy rate by 0.25 percent on March 15, however it remains in wait-and-see mode regarding the impact of the Trump administration’s fiscal policy.

The Federal Reserve, along with everybody else, is playing the waiting game—waiting to see what the Trump administration and Congress can actually get accomplished.

With the Fed unanimously raising rates for the second time in a decade on Dec. 14, its economic projections and future rate hikes carry less weight than usual.

Traders and investors hardly focus on company profits, yields, or economic data anymore. Instead, the market reacts purely on central banks. Will the Fed raise interest rates? Will the Bank of Japan (BoJ) buy more stocks? Will the European Central Bank (ECB) buy more corporate bonds? “Nobody has visibility; private sector signals have died. The […]

Describing business investment as “soft” has become a fixture of Federal Reserve statements for over a year now. A long period of reduced capital spending decreases economic potential and depresses interest rates, which hurts savers and encourages potentially excessive risk taking. The Fed held its key rate unchanged at 0.25 to 0.50 percent on Wednesday, […]

News Analysis No, politics had nothing to do with the Fed’s decision to skip raising interest rates at a meeting that concluded on Sept. 21. “We do not discuss politics at our meetings, and we do not take politics into account in our decisions. As I said, we’re generally pleased with the progress of the […]

They call him Dr. Doom and for good reason. Dr. Marc Faber, author, investment adviser, and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, usually emphasizes the risks in the financial system and never minces his words. However, his views are more nuanced than most people think, and his advice for investors is more pragmatic […]

A pick-up in inflation is the single most important improvement the Fed needs to raise interest rates.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) did not raise interest rates at a meeting on July 27, despite solid economic data.  “The labor market strengthened and … economic activity has been expanding at a moderate rate … Payrolls and other labor market indicators point to some increase [and] household spending has been growing strongly,” the Federal Open […]

The Fed sees rates rising eventually, although they won’t rise as fast or as high as previously thought.

NEW YORK—Before 1994, the Federal Reserve (Fed) did not even announce interest rate decisions. The markets were left to guess what would happen after each meeting. By 2016, the Fed communicates so much, markets sometimes don’t know what they should make of the different utterances of different Fed officials. Today, it was the turn of […]

The Federal Reserve faces a dilemma.