Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at his confirmation hearing this week. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Bloomberg Now, in the winter of our discontent, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Misery Index has made a comeback. Those of a certain age will recall it was a measure conceived in the 1960s by the economist Arthur Okun, then an adviser […]
Read MoreU.S. home prices roared almost 20% higher in the past year, giving families who own properties a major boost to their finances during the pandemic. But Wall Street, a key source of home mortgage finance, sees important questions ahead for the red-hot housing market, now that the Federal Reserve has shifted its focus to tackle […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Henry Kaufman is one of the rare Wall Street veterans who can authoritatively draw parallels between the inflation scare of the 1970s and today’s alarming run-up in prices. And he has zero confidence Chair Jerome Powell’s Federal Reserve is ready for the battle it now faces. Kaufman decades ago was the celebrated chief […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Jeffrey Gundlach said “recessionary pressure is building” in the U.S. economy with persistent inflation spurring Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to roll back easy-money policies. The Fed “seems pretty far behind the curve when you consider wage growth,” the billionaire money manager of the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund said Tuesday during a […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched while cautioning that the post-pandemic economy might look different than the previous expansion. “We will use our tools to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched,” Powell said […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve has managed to do something that’s rarely seen in the U.S. these days: Get members of the Democratic and Republican parties to agree. At this year’s annual meeting of the American Economic Association, prominent economists from both sides of the political spectrum argued that the Fed is behind the curve […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Sign up for the New Economy Daily newsletter, follow us @economics and subscribe to our podcast. Federal Reserve policy makers could start to raise their target interest rate as soon as March and shrink the central bank’s balance sheet as a next step in response to surging inflation, Federal Reserve Bank of St. […]
Read MoreThe bond bears have been in ascendance this week, even before the release of the latest minutes from the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The yield on the 10-year Treasury has jumped 23.7 basis points this week, the largest four-day yield gain since June 5, 2020, as the Fed minutes showed discussion of a […]
Read MoreMarkets will see the latest minutes from the Fed’s monetary policy committee Wednesday. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images Stocks fell Wednesday after the minutes from the last FOMC meeting confirmed that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates soon to combat inflation. The release of the Fed minutes is usually a dull affair, as they usually […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve officials said a strengthening economy and higher inflation could lead to earlier and faster interest-rate increases than previously expected, with some policy makers also favoring starting to shrink the balance sheet soon after. “Participants generally noted that, given their individual outlooks for the economy, the labor market, and inflation, it may […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — The U.S. economy will spend 2022 learning to live with the coronavirus without much in the way of help from the Federal Reserve or the federal government — especially with the derailing of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending plan. The Fed’s pivot last week toward tighter credit — ending its emergency bond-buying […]
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