Eye On Housing
An almost audible sigh of relief is conveyed in the statement that followed the July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) as the committee upgraded its assessment of the economy and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released estimates of economic activity for the April to June quarter, including 4.0% growth in GDP. The BEA reported that real… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘FOMC’
FOMC Minutes From the June Meeting – October Surprise?
Last week the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held June 17-18. Following its standard procedure the Fed released a statement immediately following the meeting announcing the major policy decisions, and released the minutes from the meeting, providing a more in-depth view of the deliberations, three weeks later. It has become a foregone… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Concludes – Meeting Expectations
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded its June meeting. The standard summary statement, Chairwoman Yellen’s press conference, and the economic projections of the meeting participants contained no real surprises. The statement expressed the committee’s confidence that economic activity is rebounding and the labor market is improving, although the unemployment rate remains elevated. The pace of asset purchases will be… Read More ›
Timing The First Move – Honest, We Were Just Talking
With expectations of the pace of retreat from longer term interest rates firmly grounded, attention has turned to the timing of the first move to raise short term interest rates. Some insights into the timing and process were made available in the minutes from the April 29-30 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting released by the Federal Reserve. To avoid… Read More ›
GDP Growth and the Fed’s Perspective – Riding the Storm Out
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the advance estimate of real GDP growth for the first quarter of 2014. Real GDP grew at a 0.1% seasonally adjusted annual rate, a sharper slowdown from the 2.6% growth in the fourth quarter than we expected. The slowdown was broad based, with every major category subtracting from growth except personal consumption expenditures… Read More ›
Fed Policy, Then and Now
Last week the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the most recent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting (January 28-29), as well as transcripts from the meetings held in calendar 2008. (Minutes are released 3 weeks after the conclusion of the meetings, transcripts are released for the entire year with a five year lag.) These accounts represent the bookends of… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Concludes – The Song Remains The Same
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded its January meeting, the last meeting with Ben Bernanke as chairmen, and Janet Yellen confirmed as the incoming chairwomen. The change in leadership is expected to have no impact on monetary policy. Bernanke and Yellen have been of one mind throughout the Fed’s extraordinary stimulus program. The statement released to the public following… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Minutes – A Look Inside The Process
The minutes from the December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) were released and offer a closer look at the deliberations of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting arm. Chairman Ben Bernanke provided a thorough summary of the key decisions and issues in his press conference that followed the December 17-18 meeting (Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Concludes… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Concludes – The Beginning of the End
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded its December meeting and announced that it would begin the much anticipated winding down of its asset purchase program, popularly referred to as tapering QE3. The Fed will reduce purchases from the current $85 billion per month to $75 billon, with the reduction evenly split between Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Beginning… Read More ›
October Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Concludes – Waiting For Good Data
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded its October meeting and announced that it would continue the asset purchase program at the current $85 billion per month pace. The committee repeated its consistent message that the purchases would continue until incoming data indicated substantial and sustained improvement in the labor market. The waiting is likely to continue for at least… Read More ›