After the September Fed meeting we heard a bunch a noise from a few Fed Presidents about how they “might” taper their $85 billion a month quantitative easing (QE) program in October, depending on the data. Then the government shut down in October and the data was unavailable. The data that we have seen recently … Read More →
Tomorrow the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. We await hints regarding the fate of the the Fed’s quantitative easing program which they have been threatening (bluffing?) to taper at some point this year. A Tapir Tapirs are rare endangered animals their … Read More →
Podcast Summary Ryan reviews the new home sale data that was released last week and was well below expectations. Ryan notes that it takes negative economic news to drive interest rates down. Ryan notes that the market is expecting the Fed to taper and that the recent GDP revision to 2.5% is being touted as … Read More →
Bernanke- The Economy is Weak “I don’t think the Fed can get interest rates up very much, because the economy is weak, inflation rates are low, if we were to tighten policy, the economy would tank.” Ben Bernanke testifying at the House Financial Services Committee last week. With those words Ben Bernanke confirmed what we … Read More →
Yesterday in a question and answer session Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made it clear that the Fed’s dual mandate, one that includes maximum employment was not being met. Bernanke said that he was not satisfied with the employment situation because of underemployment and the low labor participation rate. He also noted that the unemployment … Read More →