Tag Archives: Fed Funds Rate

One thing I can tell you for certain about last week’s big rally on Thursday and Friday: there were a lot of people who desperately wanted a good excuse to buy stocks. And buy they did after a better-than-expected CPI report Thursday morning, pushing the S&P 500 up nearly 6% on the week with all of that coming on Thursday and Friday. The same could be said of bonds which also had a good week, with the aggregate index up 2.3%. The stock market rally probably says...

The Federal Reserve has been on a mission lately to make sure everyone knows they are serious about killing the inflation they created. Over the last two weeks, Federal Reserve officials delivered 37 speeches, all of the speakers competing to see who could be the most hawkish. Interest rates are going up they said, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how many people have to be put on the unemployment line, because that’s the only way to kill this inflation, to...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Low Rates Forever, Nothing much is happening in the money world. The press reports that traders are hanging loose, wondering what dumb thing the Fed will do next. Rumor has it that it may decide to raise rates in September, or maybe November… or maybe not at all.

Summary: Bernanke reviews the changes in the long-term dot plots. There as been a clear trend toward lower long-term growth, unemployment and Fed funds equilibrium. The full adjustment may not be over. Former Fed Chair Bernanke keeps a blog at Brookings.   His latest post offers insight into how to think about Federal Reserve, and in particular, Fed officials’ understanding of the US economy. Bernanke’s...