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The Deep State ALWAYS WINS. We were always on borrowed time. 2 years was all Trump and we were going to get.
Get rid of this idiot. Bring in Steve Forbes or someone who actually knows what he is doing. He is killing the “Trump economy.” Just what Democrats want.
Why?
Well....because he can.
The Dow is not the economy.
So maybe I’m not the only one who sees Powell as less then competent.
Or maybe he really is doing exactly what he was told to do.
Either way, ain’t good for us.
bttt
Who appointed Powell?
This is disastrous for us retired people. The swamp is destroying Trump success out of their own greed.
Destroy the Fed/swamp.
Nonsense. Interest rates couldn’t stay that low forever, and the stock market couldn’t keep climbing forever.
Can Trump fire Powell??
First, the Fed is a bad institution that should be killed off.
Second, they did NOT destroy any wealth. By lowering interest rates artificially, the Fed drove up pricing in real estate and stocks etc. This is not real wealth.
There is a real rate of interest. It’s probably in the 7-8% range, but I don’t know. The Fed can push everyone into bonds by keep pumping up the rate, then the bond holders will be “wealthy”.
Meanwhile, Congress has been spending so much that a large interest increase will bankrupt the country. The true value of assets is only determined when the Fed stops manipulating interest rates and lets them float.
Interest rates were kept too low for too long. They are finally returning to sane levels. Is it rough if your investments require the stock market to be perpetually juiced? Yes, but it has to be done.
The government bond market as well as the stock market says the elitist Fed has gone too far.
At least Trump has some people in the media on his side.
There are some Fed governors leaning his way too, but they didn’t show it with their votes yesterday.
This is the same Gateway Pundit that posted a "bombshell" article the other night about Robert Mueller's failure to turn over an FBI 302 form to the judge in the Flynn case ... two hours AFTER that exact form was not only turned over to the judge, but was posted on the court docket and accessible for public viewing over the internet.
The bad thing was under Obama we had Zero interest rates so you had to put your money in equities to earn anything. Now the Fed is killing the small investors, who I am sure were mostly Trump voters, and they are getting hammered!
I think Trump should get rid of the Fed and the UN. Anything else?
Here’s today’s email message from Chris Low, Chief Economics Adviser at FTN Financial:
Thursday, December 20, 2018
It’s not uncommon for a Fed Chair to question market behavior, but yesterday was the first time we can remember seeing the Chair entirely dismissive of financial market signals. As Powell noted, FOMC participants updated their macro forecasts to reflect tighter financial conditions, and the FOMC’s risk assessment reflects the possibility of more financial-markets damage. But models are incapable of gauging the meaning of a financial market meltdown, particularly when multiple markets are in distress. For that, the Fed must engage human brains and use human judgement.
Powell’s insistence that it’s just the stock market and his implication that equity values are meaningless beyond their impact on wealth and future spending smacks of denial. The Eurodollar curve is inverted, for heaven’s sake, pointing to a 50-50 chance of a rate cut in 2020. Commodity prices are tumbling, in part because the world’s biggest buyer, China, is cutting back. The Treasury yield curve is inverting.
Market prices have meaning, reflecting supply and demand shifts realized and anticipated. They reflect inputs far more diverse and up to date than any macro model, and until yesterday, investors thought Jerome Powell of all people – a market veteran and skeptic of models – would understand their importance. The disappointed reaction of equities, yields, currencies, and commodities to the Fed’s decision and Powell’s explanation of it – now a global reaction as investors shed risk and fled to safe havens in Asia and Europe last night – reflects not only disappointment in the FOMC but disappointment in the Fed Chairman.
It would have been ok for Powell to say he did not understand why markets are doing what they are doing. But to pretend the signals are coming from stocks alone and to dismiss the possibility that a sell-off has meaning suggests lazy complacency. A sharp sell-off in the dollar is perhaps the ultimate rebuke. When a central bank is more hawkish than expected and its currency drops, you are witnessing the collective wisdom of the global market signaling a mistake that will be reversed either sooner, to avert recession, or later, in reaction to recession.
Here’s hoping yesterday was a rookie mistake Powell learns from, because a central bank head in denial is bad, but one who cannot learn from his mistakes is far worse. As you might have guessed, we’ll have plenty more to say about the Fed in the Economic Weekly.
The bank of England, like the Fed, is eager to reverse a decade of super-easy policy. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, is not exactly a central-banking superstar. He was recently described by Conservative Member of Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg as “a second tier Canadian politician who failed to get on in Canadian politics and got a job in the UK.” But he knows when to lay low. Today’s meeting minutes explain, “The broader economic outlook will continue to depend significantly on the nature of EU withdrawal. The monetary policy response to Brexit, whatever form it takes, will not be automatic and could be in either direction.” Sterling rallied in response. See, not so hard, is it?
The People’s Bank of China introduced a new low-cost liquidity tool for banks willing to lend to small business. The loans will be available on an ad hoc basis to banks meeting regulatory requirements and demonstrating a willingness to ease a small-business credit squeeze. The rate, initially 3.15%, is lower than current lending facilities with shorter terms. The PBOC is reluctant to cut rates in general, because it might undercut the yuan. But this action shows an understanding and desire to address an economic slowdown apparent in recent data and fear of further slowing evident in financial market behavior. Apparently, even Chinese Communists understand financial markets better than the Fed.
Today in the US, the December Philly Fed business outlook index is expected to rise from 12.9 to 15.0.
Chris Low
The economy has been recovering quite nicely and keeping the Fed rate artificially low in a strong economy is a recipe for disaster in and of itself. I know why Trump has been jawboning the Fed about rate increases, it impacts the stock market as rate increases always have, by making bonds more attractive and pulling money out of the market. Many see their 401k declining as a result, so it’s broadly unpopular with the voters. But, it has to happen. Claiming there’s some sort dark conspiracy seems sort of silly to me in light of this. Trump opposes it because his voters oppose it, but his voters aren’t really aware after going on nearly twenty years of artificially depressed interest rates, of just what the mechanism is and always has been, as far as Fed rates. Trump’s opposition is smart and political. That doesn’t mean these rate increases have been wrong. It just means they’re unpopular.
Only 1 of 2 things going on here with the Fed / Powell:
1. They’re seeing signs of inflation, and are acting to avoid Carter-era size numbers that destroy wealth.
2. Deep State is manufacturing a recession to kill off economic growth, with the motive being to finish off Trump.
I’m betting on the 2nd. The Fed is unaccountable to the public, and the board is populated by swamp creatures.