Category: US Federal Reserve Bank
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Fed Balance Sheet Continues To Decline / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Kelsey_Williams
FED BALANCE SHEET
Below is a chart posted and updated regularly by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis…
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Thursday, May 09, 2024
The Federal Reserve Is Broke! / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
The Federal Reserve is losing billions of dollars. As financial journalist and market analyst Jim Grant put it during a recent interview on Fox Business, the Fed is actually broke.
But most people don't seem concerned about the central bank's financial condition. They are more concerned about what Donald Trump may do to the Fed if he wins the election.
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Here's a Dirty Little Secret: Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Is Still Loose / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
Everybody wants to know when the Federal Reserve is going to declare victory over price inflation and begin loosening monetary policy.
The real question is - when are they going to make monetary policy tight again?
Because despite all the worry about high interest rates, monetary policy remains relatively loose.
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Monday, July 24, 2023
The Fed as Bad Bank Ultimate Irony / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Jim_Willie_CB
A historical paradigm shift is in progress. The process of de-Dollarization began with Russia in response to the Maidan coup in Kiev back in 2016. The Russian reacted in multiple ways, but the Eurasian Trade Zone grew. That was the Jackass name given, which has emerged as the BRICS Union in recent years. Numerous nations have followed the Russian lead in removing the USDollar from their trade payments and banking practices. The American observers have dismissed this trend as trivial and not enduring. They are wrong, dead wrong. In the last 18 months, the Japanese had dumped $240 billion in USTreasury Bonds over a 12-month period. They continue. They accumulate Gold in their banking reserves, thus following the BRICS theme, their operating policy. The macrocosm, by contrast, will feature 20 nations dumping USTBonds en masse, and acquiring Gold for banking reserves. The UAE will become a primary office for the conversion, their Dirham notably pegged to the USD.
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Saturday, April 01, 2023
The Fed Knew / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Richard_Mills
Should we leave the creation of new money in the hands of bankers or place its creation solely with our government?
“The financial system used by all national economies worldwide is actually founded upon debt. To be direct and precise, modern money is created in parallel with debt…
The creation and supply of money is now left almost entirely to banks and other lending institutions. Most people imagine that if they borrow from a bank, they are borrowing other people’s money. In fact, when banks and building societies make any loan, they create new money. Money loaned by a bank is not a loan of pre-existent money; money loaned by a bank is additional money created. The stream of money generated by people, businesses and governments constantly borrowing from banks and other lending institutions is relied upon to supply the economy as a whole. Thus the supply of money depends upon people going into debt, and the level of debt within an economy is no more than a measure of the amount of money that has been created.” Michael Rowbotham, ‘The Grip of Death’
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Monday, September 26, 2022
Is Powell Bent on Wrecking the US Economy? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has taken a turn to the dark side.
After years of pleasing everyone on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C. with ultra-loose monetary policy, Powell has, for now, decided to recast himself as the villain. He now seems intent on crashing markets, killing jobs, and driving the economy into a deep recession in the name of fighting the inflation he helped unleash.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
What Should We Do If There Is No Fed Monetary Policy Pivot? / Stock-Markets / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: The_Gold_Report
While investors may have been betting on a Fed pivot, expert Michael Ballanger analyzes where we may find ourselves if they don't.
As a young and very brash “stock salesman” in the early 1980s (Note: Back then, they did not call us “wealth managers” or “investment professionals” or “advisors.”), I discovered a newsletter writer that was the best storyteller I have ever read, and his name was Richard Russell. The author and founder of the 1958 “Dow Theory Letters,” he rose to fame after calling the bottom of the horrendous 1973-1974 bear market in December of the terminal year resulting in a bombardment of catcalls and peer-pressure ridicule. Nobody—and I mean NOBODY—expected that stock prices were going to do anything but continue to crater and that was what made him such a beast.
As we do our collective best to weather this storm of selling pressure in what started as tech stocks but which has now migrated to literally everything, I am reminded of one of the more poignant “Russell-isms.” He said, “In a bear market, he who loses the least, wins.”
“My losses have taught me that I must not begin to advance until I am sure I shall not have to retreat.” — Edwin Lefevre
That phrase is the major portion of the reason that I advised subscribers on January 7th of this year, with the S&P 500 clipping above 4,800, that capital preservation was our primary focus and that volatility would dominate the investment landscape in 2022.
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Thursday, September 23, 2021
Corruption at the Fed: Are America’s Money Masters Engaged in Self-Dealing? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
By Jp Cortez : America’s central bankers are tasked with impartial oversight over aspects of the American economy. But could these individuals be making decisions on interest rates and bailout operations based on what is best for their own personal investment portfolios?
After some embarrassing revelations regarding the trading activities of two senior officials, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell abruptly ordered a comprehensive examination last week into internal compliance with an ethics rule directing Fed employees to avoid “actual and apparent conflicts of interest.”
Monday, August 30, 2021
Fed Chairman Doubles Down on Loose Money as Inflation Rages / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
Precious metals markets are rallying on some early Friday remarks from Jerome Powell. The Federal Reserve chairman is speaking at the Jackson Hole virtual gathering of central bankers Friday and Saturday, and he started off by emphasizing the view that high inflation readings will come down soon.
There is still a question of whether anything has changed since the last Fed policy meeting. There, Fed officials had suggested they may soon begin tapering their asset purchases.
Something that could give the Fed’s money masters an excuse to back down on tapering is the recent global surge in COVID cases linked to the Delta variant.
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Friday, June 18, 2021
FOMC Surprise Takeaways / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Monica_Kingsley
The Fed didn‘t play ostrich on inflation, but didn‘t take action either. While acknowledging that 2021 inflation would come at 3.4%, it hinted at 2 rate hikes before 2023 is over – and didn‘t mention taper at all.
It‘s though by no means guaranteed that 2021 inflation would come in at this or lower level. Far from it, but Fed‘s yesterday posturing might be a self fulfilling prophecy in one aspect, and that is commodity prices fanning the inflation flames – thus far though, $CRB doesn‘t confirm that, which has bullish implications for oil and beyond. Stock bulls too can look forward for extending gains without a meaningful correction. As for the labor market pressures, I look for these not to be going away soon.
Wednesday, June 09, 2021
Fed ‘Taper’ Talk Is Back: Will a Tantrum Follow? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
‘Taper’ talk from the Federal Reserve is back in focus. But for now, it’s all talk and no action.
Last week, former New York Fed President William Dudley said the central bank will begin the process of tapering – winding down its monthly asset purchases – by year end.
While echoing current Fed policymakers’ position that the recent spike in prices is “transitory,” Dudley acknowledged the likelihood of inflation persisting above 2% longer term.
Tuesday, June 08, 2021
Fed’s Tools are Broken / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
The U.S. central bank has metastasized from an institution that was originally designed to assist distressed banks, to one that believes its purview now includes perpetuating asset bubbles, fighting global warming and reconciling racial inequities. Another distortion of the original purpose of the Fed is that its mandate has changed from providing stable prices and full employment, to creating an inflation rate above 2% for a period of time equivalent to the duration it was below that level.But the members of the FOMC claim there is nothing to fear if inflation were to ever grow too hot because it has the tools to bring it under control. In other words, when necessary, the FOMC can not only stop QE but it can raise rates aggressively enough to vanquish inflation without destroying the markets and economy along the way. Let’s see just how true this contention really is.
But before we get to how “successful” the fed will be to tame inflation, a funny thing happened on the way to achieve its 2% goal. Our central bank focuses on the incredibly distorted core rate of inflation found in the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. But meanwhile, prices are surging in the real world. For instance, headline PCE inflation increased by 3.65% year over year in April. And even in the fed's preferred metric, prices jumped by 3.1% y/y. Not only this, but a slightly less massaged reading of inflation, which can be found in the headline CPI metric, had prices rising by 4.2% y/y.
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Friday, March 26, 2021
Freedom Fatality of the Fed / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
In a recent interview, I referred to the Fed as a disgusting institution. I want to explain why I believe that to be the case, as I do not like to disparage anyone or any entity indiscriminately or capriciously—only when absolutely necessary. To be clear, central bankers may not be nefarious in nature, but their product is iniquitous.
Any entity whose very purpose for existence is to destroy markets is inherently disgusting and, in the end, one that ends up being evil. At its core, the Fed is Robin-Hood in reverse; stealing from the poor by destroying their purchasing power to give to the rich by inflating their asset prices. The Fed, along with all central banks, are inherently freedom killers, middle-class eviscerators and economic destabilizers; regardless of stated intentions. If that wasn’t bad enough, the problem now is that the Fed has usurped markets to the point of no return.
Monday, November 23, 2020
Evolution of the Fed / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
The evolution of humankind supposedly goes something like this: From a void and through a series of serendipitous happenstances arose; galaxies, the Earthly Primordial ooze, Bacteria, Monkeys, and eventually homo sapiens (wise man). The evolution of the Fed is deserving of equal derision, but with a much worse outcome.Back in 1913, the Federal Reserve Act gave birth to the Federal Reserve System. The law gave power to the central bank to become a lender of last resort to financial institutions. If a bank found itself in trouble, it could approach the discount window and exchange 100% guaranteed government debt for Fed credit at a deep discount. This process defined the majority of the Fed's role for decades to follow.
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Monday, November 09, 2020
Is Fed Chairman Powell the Real Election Winner? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
As President Donald Trump continues to insist that he will be the winner of the election after all the legitimate votes are counted and the illegitimate ones thrown out, at least one publication has declared a different winner. Not Joe Biden, but Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.
The Wall Street periodical Barron’s argued Powell has become a more important figure for markets than whoever occupies the White House.
Even as the presidential election outcome has been beset by uncertainty all week, Wall Street didn’t panic. Quite the opposite. Stocks surged on expectations for divided government and gridlock – and four more years of Fed stimulus.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Why the Knives Are Out for Trump’s Fed Critic Judy Shelton / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Judy Shelton, one of President Trump’s nominees for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, has faced unprecedented criticism from former Fed employees and academic economists. The denunciations say more about the critics than they do about Shelton, whom I have known for many years.
Shelton is a nominee for one of the two unfilled positions on the twelve-member Fed Board. The other nominee, Christian Waller — an executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — has attracted little attention. On July 21, the Senate Banking Committee approved his nomination by a bipartisan vote of 18-7, whereas Shelton’s nomination saw a party-line vote of 13 Republicans to 12 Democrats. The full Senate has not yet set a date to debate and vote on the nominations.
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Thursday, September 03, 2020
Understanding the Fed's True Mandate / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: The_Gold_Report
Michael Ballanger interprets the motives of the Federal Reserve and their impacts on the "haves" and "have nots" in America and beyond.
This week, the financial community around the globe was handed a "new approach" by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States that essentially flipped the middle finger at savers, senior citizens on limited pensions and proponents of sound money principles. Before I expand upon this outrage, let me expound upon the background of the current Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell.
Judging from the accolades and fawning praise showered upon this man (as the S&P and NASDAQ hit record levels fueled exclusively by Fed stimuli), one might think that he hails from the academic world, a scholar with vast experience in macroeconomic theory, or at least extensive dealings in the retail banking sector. His grandfatherly deportment portrays great studiousness and wise counsel as he does his very damnedest to convey that image with perennial gray suits and trademark purple ties. If one could take this carefully crafted persona and make a snap favorable assessment of the man who controls the retirement lifestyles of millions of global citizens, one would be making a fatal error.
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Thursday, August 06, 2020
Bananas for All! Keep Dancing… FOMC / Stock-Markets / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Gary_Tanashian
Keep Dancing (while the music plays)
FOMC came, FOMC delivered what we knew they would, FOMC left and the machines drove the markets down and up for a couple days, leaving the situation largely as it had been. NDX near its highs, SPX holding the support of its EMA 20 and DJIA thus far successfully testing its moving average convergence (SMA 50 & 200).
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Friday, July 03, 2020
How the Fed Gets Away With Ripping Off Ordinary Americans / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
The Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars without generating runaway price inflation through the use of a neat trick.
The privately owned bank cartel shovels the bulk of the money to Wall Street banks and not to the public at large. Instead of millions of Americans rushing out to bid up prices on consumer goods, a relative handful of bankers is using the free money to bid up asset prices and then pay themselves huge performance bonuses.
It’s quite the racket. Fed officials have been able to point at stock prices as “proof” of how they successfully engineered an economic recovery.
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Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Was the Fed Just Nationalized? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Ellen_Brown
Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But the door to that result has been cracked open.
Mainstream politicians have long insisted that Medicare for all, a universal basic income, student debt relief and a slew of other much-needed public programs are off the table because the federal government cannot afford them. But that was before Wall Street and the stock market were driven onto life-support by a virus. Congress has now suddenly discovered the magic money tree. It took only a few days for Congress to unanimously pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which will be doling out $2.2 trillion in crisis relief, most of it going to Corporate America with few strings attached. Beyond that, the Federal Reserve is making over $4 trillion available to banks, hedge funds and other financial entities of all stripes; it has dropped the fed funds rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) effectively to zero; and it has made $1.5 trillion available to the repo market.
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