Category: US Federal Reserve Bank

Friday, April 01, 2016

Fed Watchers April Fools in March / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Peter_Schiff

It may be almost impossible to underestimate the gullibility of professional Fed watchers. At least Lucy van Pelt needed to place an actual football on the ground to fool poor Charlie Brown. But in today's high stakes game of Federal Reserve mind reading, the Fed doesn't even have to make a halfway convincing bluff to make the markets look foolish.

Just two weeks ago, the release of the Fed's March policy statement and the subsequent press conference by Chairwoman Janet Yellen should have made it abundantly clear that the Central Bank policy had retreated substantially from the territory it had previously staked out for itself. In December it had anticipated four rate hikes in 2016, but suddenly those had been pared down to two. Based on the conclusion that the era of easy money had been extended for at least a few more innings, the dollar sold off and stocks and commodities rallied.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Federal Reserve's Policy Forecasts Two Down - Two to Go / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Peter_Schiff

The Federal Reserve's years-long campaign to sheepishly back away from its own policy forecasts continued in earnest last week when it officially reduced the four expected 2016 quarter point hikes, suggested back in December, to just two. Given the deteriorating economic outlook, I believe there can be little doubt that the Fed will soon complete the capitulation process and remove all expectations for additional hikes this year. Even before that happens, savvy observers should have already concluded that the Federal Reserve is stuck in the monetary mud just as firmly now as it has been since the dawn of the financial crisis back in 2008.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Fed Clown Show Has Come and Gone / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Gary_Tanashian

The opening segment from this week’s edition of Notes From the Rabbit Hole has a little fun with the post-FOMC market situation.  Unfortunately, there is all too much reality in this clowning around.  From NFTRH 387:

Our main theme has been that the ironclad post-2011 confidence in the Federal Reserve among conventional market participants would slowly but surely start to fade because macro parlor tricks, so vigorously employed by the Bernanke Fed, were only tricks or in some cases (Operation Twist) borderline magic, after all.

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Understanding the Federal Reserve’s Shell Game / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: MISES

Dan Sanchez writes: The Federal Reserve is a key component of the American Transfer State. Under the guise of “macroeconomic management,” it redistributes vast amounts of wealth on an ongoing basis through inflation. The victims of these transfers are ordinary Americans. The beneficiaries are the government and its elite cronies.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The 5 Worst Days in American Economic History / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Andy_Sutton

I’ll be upfront going in and say that some of this material is going to double a bit with a fantastic message preached by Chuck Baldwin a few weeks ago. As I listened, some different angles came to mind, and some different events altogether. As we get further and further into the silly season otherwise known as an election year, it is important to remember that sometimes we really do get what we wish for.

I guess what hit me the hardest about all of this is the fact that we are watching a circus right now; and that circus has a pre-defined outcome. The winners have already been decided in the major national elections. What is more baffling is that it doesn’t even matter if the winners were already decided, the outcome will be the same regardless of who ‘wins’. There seems to be little doubt among voters that America is on the wrong path – regardless of political affiliation (of which I have none, by the way – I am an American – that’s it) but there is a huge argument about what the ‘right’ path might be and how to get the country on that path. Hence the Laurel and Hardy-esque two bit cheap show we witness every four years.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Fed's Nightmare Scenario / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Peter_Schiff

Operating under the mistaken belief that a modest dose of inflation is either a prerequisite for, or a by-product of, economic growth, the nation's top economists have been assuring us for quite some time that inflation will stay very low until the currently mediocre economy finally catches fire. As a result, they believe that the low inflation of the past few months has frustrated Federal Reserve policy makers, who have been supposedly chomping at the bit to keep hiking rates in order to restore confidence in the present and to build the ability to cut rates in the future if the nation were to ever, god forbid, enter another recession.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Why the Federal Reserve Always 'Happens' to Be Wrong / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: MoneyMetals

"The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth." - Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman

The Federal Reserve Board finds itself back in a quandary of its own making. When Fed chair Janet Yellen pushed through an interest rate hike this past December, she confidently cited an "economy performing well and expected to continue to do so."

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The Fed Doesn't have a Clue! / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Axel_Merk

"The Fed doesn't have a clue!" - I allege that not only because the Fed appears to admit as much (more on that in a bit), but also because my own analysis leads to no other conclusion. With Fed communication in what we believe is disarray, we expect the market to continue to cascade lower - think what happened in 2000. What are investors to do, and when will we reach bottom?

Friday, February 05, 2016

End of the Fed: It Can’t Do Any of the Things It’s Supposed to Do / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Jeff_Berwick

[The following is by TDV’s Senior Analyst, Ed Bugos]

Janet Yellen has been in the news with her often-stated determination to create price inflation.

Why Fed officials are so scared to death of the deflation we all look for at the shopping mall each weekend is anybody’s guess. Ours is that it keeps the crony banking system and its inflated bureaucracy afloat – on a sea of green, like in a yellow submarine.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Seven Years of Monetary Quackery; Can the Fed Admit it Got it Wrong? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Mike_Whitney

America’s richest investors are betting trillions of dollars that the US economy will stay lousy for years to come.

Who are these wealthy investors?

Bondholders. And their views on the state of the economy are reflected in the yields on long-term US Treasuries. At present, the yields on long-term debt are very low which means that investors think the economy will continue to underperform while inflation remains in check.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Fed Passes the Buck: Blame Oil and China / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: MISES

C. Jay Engel writes: There are a handful of themes out there on recent market action that are either totally wrong or otherwise highly misleading. For instance, regarding the recent calamity in the capital markets, one especially apparent dichotomy has presented itself as offering two choices as to what, exactly, is causing the painful turbulence.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Citadel Is Breached: Congress Taps the Fed for Infrastructure Funding / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Ellen_Brown

In a landmark infrastructure bill passed in December, Congress finally penetrated the Fed's "independence" by tapping its reserves and bank dividends for infrastructure funding.

The bill was a start. But some experts, including Congressional candidate Tim Canova, say Congress should go further and authorize funds to be issued for infrastructure directly.

Saturday, January 02, 2016

The Fed’s Academic-Based Theories Are Creating a BRUTAL Economic Reality / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Graham_Summers

One of the most frustrating aspects of today’s financial system is the fact that the Fed is being lead by lifelong academics with no real world banking or business experience.

Consider the cases of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen.

Neither of these individuals has ever created a job based on generating sales of any kind. Neither of them has ever had to make payroll. Neither of them has ever run a business. What are economic realities for business owners (e.g. operating costs, capital and profits) are just abstract concepts for Bernanke and Yellen.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Ron Paul - Do We Need the Fed? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Dr_Ron_Paul

Stocks rose Wednesday following the Federal Reserve's announcement of the first interest rate increase since 2006. However, stocks fell just two days later. One reason the positive reaction to the Fed's announcement did not last long is that the Fed seems to lack confidence in the economy and is unsure what policies it should adopt in the future.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Federal Reserve At End Of Monetary Road / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: GoldCore

The all important context for Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, where the Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade has been examined by the insightful Grant Williams. He is very skeptical of the Fed’s ability to continue to control markets much longer … and this is a gross understatement:

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

A Peek Behind the Fed Policy Curtain / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Gary_Tanashian

This article was originally and simply titled ‘Market Management’ as the opening segment from this week’s NFTRH 372.  We then covered US and global stock markets and precious metals in detail, along with brief but ongoing negativity about commodities (but also what to look for regarding signs of change), a currency update and extensive market sentiment and indicator updates.

Sunday, December 06, 2015

The Fed, Lindbergh and Scientifically Created Depressions / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Mario_Innecco

Transcript: non-farm payroll came out yesterday on Friday iraqi amount of 211,000 was expected 200,000 so it better than expected number unemployment rate stayed at five percent in the previous number was revised higher to 298,000 from 271 so it's a good number stock market went there and finish up just under three hundred and seventy points to sense and yeah gordon supra surprisingly went up more than 2% gold was up 25 bucks and it closed above he 1070 level finish around 1086 silver finish more than 40 cents at 14 goals 25 I think so yeah pretty encouraging buy...

Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Fed's Yellen Running Out of Makeup - Video / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Mario_Innecco

It's Tuesday before non-farm payroll which is coming out on Friday but it's been an interesting day in the markets we've had some interesting data in the us- the manufacturing I assume PM. number came out of 48 points, was forecast to come out and it dropped from 50 the previous month so that's quite a big drop in its below 50 which means a contraction so if you look at the headlines on Zero Hedge for example today we've had some interesting headlines about the US economy one of them says Atlanta Federal Reserve slashes fourth-quarter GDP forecast from 2.3 to 1.4.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

U.S. Federal Reserve Rate Hike / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: EconMatters

The Federal Reserve has been telegraphing to markets that they are going to raise the fed funds rate by 25 basis points next month at its December Fed Meeting. The financial markets think they are serious this time and have been pricing in this 25 basis point rate hike for the past 6 weeks. The real question is that since the Fed has told us that they are Data Dependent for the past 7 years regarding changes to monetary policy, what has really changed in the economic data for the positive? Why now of all times do they decide to raise rates? Are they raising rates for the right reasons? These are just some of our concerns as the Federal Reserve embarks upon their final FOMC Meeting on December 16th 2015.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Janet Yellen Responds as a Central Banker Would / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Gary_Tanashian

Let's try to untangle the web of Fed-speak going on here. "Reality" for our purposes is defined as my opinion, obviously.

Yellen Defends Seven Years of Low Interest Rates in Letter to Nader

Fed-Speak:

Warning that "an overly aggressive increase in rates would at most benefit savers only temporarily," she argued in the letter released Monday in Washington that the Fed's seven-year era of zero rates had sheltered American savers from dramatic declines in the value of their homes and retirement accounts.