China Related Market Events Overwhelm The Fed

Using quantitative easing has helped the recovery of the USA and other developing countries. The Fed’s then limited their ability to pursue more measures, but congress ignored those appeals to help support the economy. The Fed’s decided to use smaller steps to help investor expectations and to prevent a possible financial crisis in Europe. In 2011 it was announced that the FED’s would hold short-term interest rates close to zero percent through 2013; to help support the economy. Soon after it was announced that using the “twist” operation would push long-term interest rates down, by purchasing $400 billion in long-term treasury securities with profits from the sale of the short-term government debt. Inaugurating a policy to help shape market expectations, which will raise interest rates at the end of 2014.

In the late 2007, early 2008 the United States and the world was hit with the most serious economic downturn since The Great Depression in 1929. During this time the Federal Reserve played a huge role in assuring that it would not turn into the second Great Depression. In this paper, we will be discussing what the Federal Reserve did during this time, including a discussion of our nation’s three main economic goals which are GDP, employment, and inflation. My goal is to describe the historic monetary and fiscal policy efforts undertaken by the U.S. Government and Federal Reserve, including both the traditional and non-traditional measures to ease credit markets and stimulate the economy.

The discussion of whether the Federal Reserve should raise the federal funds rate is a highly contentious one. Members of the Federal Reserve (“Fed”) and academic economists disagree about what constitutes appropriate future macroeconomic policy for the Unites States. In the past, the Fed had been able to raise rates when the unemployment rate was under 5% and inflation was at a target of 2%. Enigmatically, since the Great Recession and despite a strengthening economy, year-over-year total inflation since 2008 has averaged only 1.4%—as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (“PCE”). Today, PCE inflation is at 1-1.5% and has continuously undershot the Fed’s inflation target of 2% three years in a row. (Evan 2015) In the six years since the bottom of the Great Recession the U.S. economy has made great strides in lowering the published unemployment rate from about 10% back down to about 5.5%. In light of this data, certain individuals believe that the Federal Reserve should move to increase the federal funds rate in 2015 because unemployment is near 5% and inflation should bounce back on its own (Derby 2015). However, this recommendation is misguided.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke 's meeting dealt mainly with the issues that could stabilize the economy after the great recession. After creating a number of policies to fight the 2008 crisis, Chairman 's move to further reduce Quantitative Easing was a bit of a disappointment. The Fed will reduce its purchases of long-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities by another $10 billion a month. Apart from this, Fed is going to concentrate on maximizing employment rates, stabilizing prices and interest rates.

Eric Rosengren, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and John Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, have both been known as “doves” in their individual monetary policy opinions and votes over the last five years. Since the summer of 2015, there has been a notable change in Rosengren’s rhetoric in the pursuit of normalization to the point where Rosengren is now actively suggesting an increase in interest rates in the very near future in order to promote growth in the economy, and as of the FOMC meeting on September 21st, 2016, was one of three dissenting votes (out of ten) for keeping rates low. Rosengren supports his new change of face with factors that will be discussed at length in this paper such as the pace of growth, the up-sides to higher rates, and the danger lurking in a prolonged low-rate economy. In similar (but not identical) fashion, John Williams is turning to the belief that rate hikes will be necessary sooner, rather than later if the Fed wishes to continue to spur growth in the United States economy, as opposed to letting the economy overheat into recession. Williams supports this point with evidence similar to Rosengren involving the pace of growth, the upside to higher rates, and the danger lurking in a prolonged low-rate economy. Eric Rosengren’s recent flip provides an interesting vantage point on both camps in the Federal Reserve. By comparing and contrasting the rhetoric of Rosengren (a former dove) and Williams

To begin, The Federal Reserve System opted to raise interest rates that were placed near zero years ago in order to aid the economy’s growth and prevent inflation from exceeding the target number. Several factors including: the five percent drop in the unemployment rate, and the increase in wages, and the outlook on future inflation contributed to the Federal Reserve’s decision take this action. However, the increase in interest rates in December has generated mixed results, and it appeared the Federal Reserve would announce the interest rates were going to increase again. Instead, Janet Yellen, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, announced that there were better days ahead for the economy, and a slow and careful approach to future increases in the interest rate would serve the economy best, ensuring the growth is maintained. Although the interest rates remained the same early in 2016, they are expected to increase during the June meeting of the Federal Reserve. but cited the economy needed low interest rates in order for the economy to maintain growth. I find it interesting that Yellen continues to worry about inflation growing in the coming years, although the interest rate increase should keep inflation in check through its effect of the economic markets. Yellen sites that she would like the inflation to become and stay at 2 percent each year. However, the current inflation rate is .9 percent, so the the economy is a long way from achieving its target inflation rate

Ben Bernanke was a key player in U.S. economic policy well before the Great Recession, and during that time seems to have achieved almost mythical status. The prolonged economic crisis has kept him front and center in the news, with regular appearances on Capitol Hill and increasingly heated rhetoric from detractors. As Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke maintains as he attempts to steer the nation onto a steadier economic course. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is, by all accounts, a man of formidable intelligence. He scored 1590 on his SATs, taught himself calculus in high school, and graduated

Congress has handed over the responsibility for monetary to the Federal Reserve, also known as the Fed, but retains oversight responsibilities in order to ensure that the Federal Reserve adheres to the statutory mandate of stable prices, moderate long-term rates of interest, as well as, maximum employment (Labonte, 2014). The responsibilities of the Fed as the country’s central bank are classified into four: monetary policy, supervision of particular types of banks and financial institutions for soundness and safety, provision of emergency liquidity through the function of the lender of last resort, and the provision of services of the payment system to financial institutions, as well as, the government (Labonte, 2014). The monetary role of the Federal Reserve necessitates aggregate demand management. The Federal Reserve defines monetary policy as the measures it undertakes in order to influence the cost and availability of credit and money to enhance the objectives mandated by Congress, which is maximum sustainable employment and a stable price level (Appelbaum, 2014). Since the expectations of businesses as capital goods purchasers and households as consumers exert an essential influence on the main section of spending in America, and the expectations are influenced in essential ways by the Federal Reserve’s actions, a wider definition would involve the policies, directives, forecasts of the economy, statements, and other actions by the Federal Reserve, particularly those

The Federal Funds Rate plays a huge role on the state of the economy in the United States. For something that has such impact on the whole economy in the United States, it is very little known and understood. The Federal Funds Rate may be the most important rate in the country. So what is the Federal Funds Rate? It is an interest rate that is used when banks lend to other banks or other depository institutions from “funds that are maintained at the Federal Reserve” (Target Rate). The transaction can only be done overnight and by trustworthy institutions. The target rate is determined by the Federal Open Market Committee (Target Rate). They will influence and determine the rate that will be used. So if it doesn’t have any first hand impact on a normal consumer or business, why should anyone care about it? The answer to that is simple, the Federal Funds Rate will greatly impact the economy in several areas and it will trickle down onto the normal consumer and business. The Federal Funds Rate will change the economy if it goes up, and if it goes down. As the year runs down, everyone will be watching with a close eye to see what the Fed will do with the rate. The Federal Funds Rate will increase in December of 2016.

Many observers believed that the 27-28 October Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting would be a non-event, largely due to the fact that there was no scheduled press conference after its conclusion. In fact, the press statement revealed some interesting insights into the current line of thinking of FOMC members. Most importantly, it is abundantly clear that the vast majority are still inclined to raise the federal funds target at the 15-16 December policy meeting. I have recently written about rising dissent on the Board of Governors, notably the views of Governor Lael Brainard. It appears that her openly questioning the policy apparatus of Fed Chair Yellen has yet to sway the opinions of other

Saying that the the interest rates will increase at a slower pace is a very broad statement and it is very difficult to predict what the FOMC is thinking. This speech shed some light on this issue. Janet Yellen gave the U.S. economy the committee's numeric expectations.

In CNBC’s statement in the news at exactly 10:20 AM September 22, 2017 (Friday) it says that “Economists at San Francisco Fed were worried that the central bank might not become successful in lowering the rates of the future bank

On March 15, 2017, the Federal Reserve raised benchmark interest rates to a range between .75 and 1 percent, a move that markets did not expect until later this year. The stock market is flourishing, employment and wages are increasing, and many feel hopeful that the economy is improving. But the Fed raised rates to “prevent the United States economy from overheating”, writes Applebaum. While Trump plans to stimulate

On September 18, 2013 the Federal Reserve reaffirmed its view that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the asset purchase program ends and the economic recovery strengthens. In addition, the committee agreed to continue its monthly $85 billion purchase of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent. Inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the Committee's 2 percent longer-run goal and longer-term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored .

After reading the recent statement, I now know that despite the hurricanes and the toll they took on the U.S., our economy is going good: economic activity is increases, unemployment rate has decreased, and consumption and investment has increased. The aftermath of the hurricanes will still disrupt the economy, but the effects will only last a little while. The FOMC expects the economy to continue to grow. Throughout this year, inflation is below 2 %, and the committee wants to keep it that way. Another thing that I learned, is that the federal funds rate all depends on economic activity.