Eye On Housing
The October meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded with no surprises. As widely expected, the committee followed through on its September pledge to end asset purchases this month absent any significant deterioration in the economic outlook between the meetings. The committee reiterated its intention to keep the federal funds rate target in its current 0-25 basis points… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘FOMC’
Minutes to FOMC – Zombie Headwinds
They just won’t die. The seemingly endless parade of impediments holding back a more robust economic recovery have included existential threats to the Eurozone, financial crises, natural disasters, turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine, polar vortexes, and now renewed recession and the threat of deflation in the Eurozone, US currency appreciation and slowing global growth. As the US economy… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee September Meeting Concludes – Moving Right Along
The September meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded with the release of the traditional summary statement, Chairwoman Yellen’s press conference, and the economic projections of the meeting participants. The Fed also released a brief update to its June 2011 plans for normalizing monetary policy. There was little changed in the language of the statement. The economy is… Read More ›
FOMC Minutes From the July Meeting – Getting Better Slowly and Planning Next Steps
The Federal Reserve released the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held July 29-30. 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. While there was a general recognition that… Read More ›
GDP and FOMC – How Do You Spell Relief?
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 ›
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 ›