Thursday, October 18, 2018

Federal Reserve Minutes Indicate Plans to Keep Hiking Rates

The Fed has been hiking the fed funds rate since late 2015.

That the Fed will continue raising interest rates will come as no surprise to careful Fed watchers. In the EPJ Daily Alert, I have been warning that we are in the early stages of a multi-year advance in interest rates. The Fed has been raising the interest rate it controls, the Fed Funds rate, since December 2015.

Here's the key statement from the minutes of the Fed’s September meeting that have just been released:
With regard to the outlook for monetary policy beyond this meeting, participants generally anticipated that further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would most likely be consistent with a sustained economic expansion, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near 2 percent over the medium term.
-RW 


4 comments:

  1. We knew this was eventually coming, but why now?

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    Replies
    1. Because Trump is in office. While the Kenyan Muslim Gay Mulatto was destroying the economy with asinine regulatory edicts, low interest rates were the only thing propping things up.

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    2. It's kind of hard for Trump to push this narrative when the chairman is his hand-picked guy Powell. He'd be better off just taking credit for some modicum of monetary discipline.

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  2. Someone is bound to tell Trump that he has an unlimited amount of money to spend in the form of United States Notes. His personality will insure that he uses them. We are headed for hyperinflation regardless.

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