Fed Monetary Policy Coming Home to Roost The news yesterday that rates on the average 30-year mortgage hit 7.09%, a level not seen in 22 years, was a shock but not a surprise. As a byproduct of the Fed’s set of steep interest rate hikes to combat inflation, the mortgage rate news was foreseeable. But …
Update 711 — Don’t Believe in More Hikes? Fed Ready to Run Lag Risk while Prices Drop The effectiveness of Fed monetary policy — hikes totaling 525 basis points over the last 16 months that have brought inflation down 6.09 percentage points since its June 2022 peak — raises the question: how do we know …
Update 711 — Don’t Believe in More Hikes? Fed Ready to Run Lag Risk while Prices Drop Read More »
Update 700 — With Fed Pausing Rate HikesEyes on GOP Tax Package in Ways & Means Earlier today, The Federal Reserve announced it would pause its longest consecutive set of interest rate hikes in over four decades. This is the first time in 17 months that the central bank hasn’t raised rates, holding steady at …
Update 698 — Poised to Press Pause?How Fed is Weighing Halt to Rate Hikes The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for a record high of ten consecutive times in a forceful campaign to subdue inflation that remains stubbornly sticky. Inflation finally dipped just below five percent last month, leaving the Fed’s two percent target …
Update 689 — Fed Again Lifts Rates 25 BPs;Rate Hikes Amid Simmering Bank Crisis The Fed’s tenth consecutive interest rate hike comes today despite favorable data: jobs added to the economy have fallen each month since January and inflation has also declined — for nine straight months now – down from 9.1 percent in June …
Update 687: Fed Review of its SVB OversightWhat to Look, Hope for in Friday’s Report Much of Washington is standing by for a vote planned later today on Speaker McCarthy’s “Limit, Save, Grow” bill to extend the debt limit for less than a year in exchange for innumerable and devastating fiscal concessions by the Democrats. …
Update 680 — Regulatory Response to SVB:Feds Saw Problems but Hands Tied by Regs To hear some (the GOP, the WSJ) tell the story, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was caused by the Fed’s interest rate policy and regulators asleep at the wheel. But as today’s House Finance Services and yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee …
Update 678 — Inflation vs. Banking Crisis:Fed Announces 25 bp Interest Rate Hike Fed chair Jerome Powell is earning his salary this week, leading the Fed to a decision today unlike one he and the Fed have ever faced. It was only two weeks ago that Powell floated a 50 bp interest hike, testifying in …
Update 675 — Powell: More Hikes to ComeFed Course Reinforced by Strong Jobs Report The ongoing narrative of a strong and resilient U.S. economy was reaffirmed once again by this morning’s jobs report. During February, the U.S. added 311,000 jobs though unemployment rose from 3.4 to 3.6 percent. Indeed, job gains far exceeded economists’ expectations, …
Update 661 — A Soft Landing in 2023?Jobs, CPI, Tracking Fed Plane in the Sky As we enter a new year, the economy appears to be on the mend. Last year, inflation began accelerating and stayed elevated throughout. As yesterday’s CPI report makes clear, prices continue a descent thanks (only in part) to the Fed’s …
