Update 352 — Wall St. Regulators Face Music of House ‘18 Class at HFSC Hearing Tomorrow Today, we mourn the loss of Alice Rivlin, founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and a “decathlete” of high-level public office. Her steady hand and even temper weathered multiple administrations and several financial crises, both local and national. …
Wall St. Regulators Face Music of House ‘18 Class Read More »
Update 350 — Fed Stability Report and the Perils of Prediction, Cycles, and Psychology On Monday, the Federal Reserve released its latest assessment of risks to the financial system in its biannual Financial Stability Report. The Report mainly focused on the increase in high risk corporate debt — or leveraged loans (see last week’s update). …
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Update 341: Trump Seeks to Put Moore on FRBRaising Independence, Qualifications Questions On Friday, President Trump nominated Stephen Moore to a 14-year term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to fill one of two open Fed Board seats. Moore is a former Trump employee who some fear is woefully unprepared not …
Update 334: Hitting Hill for Humphrey-Hawkins;Powell Cites Concerns, Holds Rates in Place This Tuesday and yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared before Senate and House Committees to report, as the Fed Chair does semi-annually, on the state of the economy and monetary policy. In his July 2018 testimony, Chairman Powell painted a picture of …
Fed Chair Powell Cites Concerns, Holds Rates in Place (February 28) Read More »
Update 325 — Economic Groundhog DayNo Shadows; Corporate Debt Clouding Horizon The American debt binge is not limited to the national debt. As we will show below and in the next update, private debt has scaled up in recent years just as precipitously, to mix monetary metaphors. We start today with a look at …
Update 316 — Fed Stability Report: Incomplete Missing: Systemic Risk and TBTF Analysis Yesterday, the Dow lost over 800 points, its third worst point decline in history; the S&P 500 saw its steepest fall since February. Waves of selling are hitting Wall Street amid fear of slowing economic growth and trade tensions between the U.S. …
Update 313 — Quarles Tailoring Too Swiftly? Fed Undertakes Implementation of S. 2155 The current Congressional interregnum known as the Lame Duck session affords a chance to consider how the Fed plans to implement S. 2155, the broadest rollback of Dodd-Frank to date. So far, evidence suggests that the implementation process be watched closely. It …
Fed Undertakes Implementation of S. 2155 (November 16) Read More »
Update 304: Fed Developments – Nominations and Rules; How Trump is Shaping Financial Regulations On September 26, far away from the Kavanaugh maw, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to raise the target range for the federal funds rate from 2 to 2.25 percent. The market expects one more rate hike this year, three …
Fed Developments – How Trump is Shaping Financial Regulations (October 9) Read More »
Update 279: Much Ado About the Fed From Systemic Risks To Interest Rates The Federal Reserve made news this week in the usual way, with another interest rate hike, and also in less visible but important ways. Today, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) — of which the Fed is a key member — met …
Update 266 – Dereg Now, Dereg Whenever: Capital Rules Debate Pits Quarles vs. Quarrels If rapidly increasing economic growth, historic highs in financial industry profits, and capital markets in record territory of late all call for deregulation, there’s no bad time for it. And if proponents of financial deregulation control the House, Senate, and White …
