Tag: Federal Reserve

U.S. mortgage rates dropped from an eight-month high, after nearing 7 percent last week, as inflation slows ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting. The Fed’s aggressive interest-rate hike policy sent mortgage rates well above 7 percent last year, causing the once booming housing market to crash. Rates have been slow to decline from the nearly two-decade high, forcing many potential buyers out ...

Artificial intelligence could come with both advantages and risks in the financial system, cautions the Federal Reserve’s chief banking regulator. Michael S. Barr, the Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, told the National Fair Housing Alliance 2023 National Conference on July 18 that underserved communities could have greater access to housing because AI technology, such as machine learning, might ensure affordable ...

Interest rates are likely to be raised a “couple” of more times this year as inflation is still far too high, says the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Despite price pressures slowing, San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly believes the institution needs to continue raising interest rates, a policy decision that requires a balancing act ...

Federal Reserve economists still expect a recession starting later this year, according to minutes from the June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meetings. The economic forecast put together by staff at the policy meeting “continued to assume that the effects of the expected further tightening in bank credit conditions, amid already tight financial conditions” would trigger a “mild recession” ...

Nearly two thirds of the countries in the world are now “exploring” central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) at one level or another, a new report says. The report, published on Wednesday by Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council, reveals that a total of 130 countries—representing 98 percent of global economy—are taking steps to convert their central bank money into digital form. ...

The major American banks will be facing the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests this week, to see if they have enough capital in a potential crisis to make the grade. Despite the recent bank crisis this year, the lenders are are believed to have enough capital to weather a severe economic downturn., say analysts, but investor payouts are expected to dip ...

Commentary Allow me to explain why we have not seen a recession yet, despite the collapse in base money supply. We are witnessing the stealth nationalization of the economy. What does this mean? The entire burden of the monetary collapse and rate hikes is falling on the shoulders of families and small businesses, while large corporations and governments are virtually ...

Former FDIC chair says regulators had all the power they needed to spot, solve regional bank problems In the wake of the failure of several regional banks, lawmakers are furiously at work drafting new bills to give regulatory authorities more control over banks. But some experts say that bank regulators already had all the power they needed, but failed to ...

From the latest dot plot released by the Federal Reserve, the mode value of funds rate implies two more hikes of a quarter percent by yearend. However, careful examination shows there are more dots below the mode than above. Taking into account the dovish tone by chairman Powell, the market does not believe this and still expects only one more ...

Commentary The Federal Open Market Committee’s unanimous decision on Wednesday not to raise the federal funds rate, which banks charge each other for overnight loans, has champagne corks popping in some quarters, where it is hailed as evidence of the long-in-coming conquest of inflation; while others see Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell turning chicken in the face of a long-term ...

“For capitalism to work, you have to have effectively functioning, solid capital markets. And in order to do that, you need savings—real savings, not money printed by a central bank, but real savings from businesses and households,” says David Stockman, who served as budget director for President Ronald Reagan. “Back then, the public debt was 30-40 percent of GDP—not good, but ...

“For capitalism to work, you have to have effectively functioning, solid capital markets. And in order to do that, you need savings—real savings, not money printed by a central bank, but real savings from businesses and households,” says David Stockman, who served as budget director for President Ronald Reagan. “Back then, the public debt was 30-40 percent of GDP—not good, but ...

Commentary Ben Bernanke, former head of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, has co-authored a paper with Olivier Blanchard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, that seeks to account for inflation rates that have knocked at least 15 cents off the value of the 2020 dollar. Reading the paper for me was a trip back in time when ...

All eyes this week will be on the April inflation report. Will it continue its downward trend, or will the consumer price index (CPI) continue to be stubborn and sticky? The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Inflation Nowcasting is penciling in an annual inflation rate of 5.2 percent, which would be up from 5 percent in March. The core inflation ...

Commentary Charlie Munger, believed by some to be the real “brains” behind Berkshire-Hathaway, the multinational investment leviathon helmed by Warren Buffet, recently told The Financial Times, “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centres, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there” in real estate. His comments are well-founded. ...