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 …
Update 656 — Fed Boosts Rate 50 BPsIs Soft—and Swift—Landing in Sight? Today, the Federal Reserve announced a 50 basis point interest rate increase, bringing the borrowing benchmark up to a targeted range of 4.25-4.5 percent. This rate hike, a slowdown after four consecutive 75 point increases, suggests the Fed believes it may have a …
Update 647 — A Record 4th 75 bp Hike:(How) Will The Fed Know When to Stop? For the fourth time since March, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 75 basis points — the most rapid increase in decades. After an admittedly slow start, the Fed Chair Powell says with his policy “damn the …
Two signal events occurred in the financial policy space this week. The big bank CEO hearings this week in the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees are becoming an annual event featuring both chieftains of banking and important consumers of other public policy issues. CEOs of seven major U.S. banks appeared before Congress and …
Now that Michael Barr has been confirmed to join the Federal Reserve Board’s Vice Chair for Supervision, the Board’s last vacancy has finally been filled and a regulatory agenda held in abeyance can now see action. The nation’s banks may have survived the pandemic with capital intact, but problems like Too Big To Fail — …
