News
Market Watch | Three pitfalls the Fed faces on path to tapering
It has become fairly clear after all of the talk and turbulence surrounding the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting that the central bank wants to pull back on its easy policy stance if it can.
Bloomberg | Low Inflation Gives Bernanke Time to Press on With QE: Economy
The lowest inflation since the brink of the Kennedy-era economic boom in the 1960s is buying time for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to press on with the central bank’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Businessweek | Why Less Fed Stimulus Is Actually Good for the Stock Market
Volatility and hand-wringing over the Federal Reserve’s possible tapering plans obscures the fact that equities actually rise when the central bank dials back stimulus. Bloomberg’s Whitney Kisling writes that the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained an average of 16 percent over two years the last four times the Fed started raising interest rates.
Real Clear Markets | All Eyes Are On the Fed, And That's the Problem
To read the financial and economic commentariat right now is to know that all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Will it or won't it cease buying Treasuries and agency paper, will it or won't it raise the rate it sets for short-term credit? If the pundits are to be believed, such information will impact the allocation of trillions of dollars worth of investment.
WSJ | The Fed Takes Aim at Foreign Banks
Senior officials from Germany, France, Japan and the European Commission have expressed deep concern to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the Fed's proposed new regulatory regime for foreign banks under Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Their concerns are likely to be raised in meetings of the Group of 20 finance ministers, and they deserve to be.
Blogs
WSJ | What to Expect From Fed Today
The meeting comes after several weeks of high drama in the markets sparked by the Fed’s attempts to explain how and when it might pull back from its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program, and confusing investors in the process. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke‘s challenge: Lay the groundwork for pulling the program back later in the year without alarming the markets with a sense that the central bank is about to slam on brakes.
Economist | Bernanke: mission accomplished
When Mr Bernanke speaks to the press tomorrow after the release of the Fed's latest policy statement and economic projections, his task will be to explain why those other factors justify the probable reduction in asset-purchases by late this year, despite the fact that the Fed remains well short of the programme's stated goals.
