FOMC minutes, easy for longer but is the fire still raging?
The minutes from the FOMC Sept meeting didn’t reveal much in terms of gaining any clues of when they might raise interest rates in light of their more optimistic view of the economy in terms of expecting 2nd half improvement that they expect to continue into ’10. Based on their still sanguine view of inflation due to weak labor markets and the “significant under utilization of resources,” they showed no inclination to change monetary policy anytime soon. They went over all the tools they have to unwind their massive monetary accommodation when the time comes but they clearly have no idea when that might be. IMO, yes the unemployment rate remains high and many do not think rates should be hiked under those circumstances but we are currently living under emergency interest rate levels that were reached when we were worried about the collapse of the entire financial system. While things are still tough I agree, is the fire still raging?
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October 14th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
How come I get the feeling that they are playing russian roulette with more than one bullet?
October 14th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
[...] excellent question posed by Peter Boockvar, via the Big Picture. If the fire is out, why are the hoses still going full blast? (i.e. if the [...]
October 14th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
A few more statements about ending QE would probably suffice for now. They could do a BoJ and keep lifting it 0.25% every now and then before dropping it again…. at least it would scare the oil and gold specs.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Hello Mr Brockvar
While I enjoy reading your posts, could I suggest you be more liberal with paragraphs? It would really make it easier to read.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html
“Write for scannability: don’t require users to read long continuous blocks of text”
Thank you.