Quantcast
Channel: Federal Reserve – Carl Menger Center
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 40

Federal Reserve Holds Yet Again

$
0
0

Unsurprisingly, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided today once again to hold the target federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent. Kansas City Fed President Esther George was the sole dissenting vote in this month’s FOMC statement, preferring that the target federal funds rate be raised to 1/2 to 3/4 percent. Pointing to some of the rosier economic data that has come out recently, the FOMC adopted a slightly more upbeat stance in its statement. According to the FOMC, the labor market has strengthened, labor utilization has increased, and household spending has been growing strongly.

One curious statement added in this month’s statement is that “Near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished.” This is probably a reflection of a belief that market risks from China, from the Eurozone, or within the United States have largely blown over. This seems overly optimistic. While August will likely be slow with so many people taking vacation, September has a history of being an unruly month and the next two to three months are definitely within the “near-term.” Has the Fed forgotten the roller coaster that was September 2008? China is a powder keg waiting for a spark, the Eurozone is facing another crisis in the Italian banking system, and the United States has seen bouts of “good” economic data followed up the next month by bad economic data. Whether the economy will boom or bust over the next three months is still up in the air.

Given the Presidential election coming up in November, it would be highly unlikely for the Fed to raise the target federal funds rate until after the election. The Fed wants to make the economy look as good as possible before the election, and raising rates risks slowing things down and increasing pessimism among voters. That would play into Donald Trump’s hand, so we would not be surprised if President Obama has told Chairman Yellen to do whatever she can to ensure a rosy outlook in November.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 40

Trending Articles