Eye On Housing
At the conclusion of its May meeting, the Federal Reserve held the key, short-term federal funds rate steady, with a top rate of 2.5%. The decision was unanimous and widely expected, with members of the Federal Open Market Committee agreeing that while economic growth conditions remain “solid,” inflation pressures remain anchored. In fact, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the core… Read More ›
As expected, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee, unanimously agreed to hold steady the federal funds top rate at 2.5%. The Fed’s January statement was consistent with recent policymakers’ comments suggesting a more flexible stance toward monetary policy at the end of last year and the start of 2019. In particular, the statement indicated that… Read More ›
In its statement following its December 12-13, 2017 meeting, the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to a range of 1.25 to 1.5 percent, a decision that was widely expected. Despite the increase, the FOMC believes that the “stance of monetary policy remains accommodative”. As illustrated by the Federal Reserve… Read More ›
In a statement following its two-day meeting covering July 25 and 26, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC or the Committee) decided to “maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1 to 1.25 percent”. All FOMC members voted in favor of this decision. In its statement, the FOMC maintains that, at this level, “the stance of monetary policy remains… Read More ›
The BLS released the Employment Situation report for May. Payroll employment increased by 138 thousand, and the prior two months were revised downward by a total of 66 thousand. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4% in April, but only because the number of people in the labor force declined faster than the number of people employed in the… Read More ›
Beyond confirming that if economic activity continues to unfold as expected another increase in the federal funds rate would be appropriate soon (June), the minutes from the May meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) added relatively little to the picture of the path of monetary policy that was laid out in the post-meeting statement and previous policy discussions…. Read More ›
Economic activity sputtered in the first quarter, job growth stumbled in March, and inflation turned negative at both the headline and core (excluding food and energy) levels. Policymakers on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) “decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3/4 to 1 percent” and pronounced “Near-term risks to the economic outlook appear… Read More ›
The minutes from meetings of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), traditionally released three weeks after the meeting, provide a closer look at the deliberations, than the brief statement released immediately following the meetings. The minutes from the March meeting provide deeper insights in two particular areas: the path of the federal funds… Read More ›
Expectations were high that the March meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would end with an announcement of a 25 basis point increase in the target range for the federal funds rate. Those expectations were met, and at the press conference following the meeting, when asked why the third increase came so quickly, after the first two came… Read More ›
The minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, released three weeks after the meeting as standard practice, offer a glimpse behind the curtain, providing details of the deliberations, areas of agreement as well as ongoing debate, and specific articulations of viewpoints from unnamed meeting participants, going beyond the statement released immediately following the meeting. Minutes from the January… Read More ›