Free Republic

AMHERST - Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday that she expects the Fed to raise interest rates later this year and then continue gradual increases thereafter during a University of Massachusetts address that ended with her seeking medical attention. A spokesman for the university said the 69-year-old was fine after being checked out by EMTs and was to continue her schedule which included a faculty dinner at the home of Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy. A spokesman for the Federal Reserve Board said, "Chair Yellen felt dehydrated at the end of a long speech under bright lights. As a precaution,...

While the world breathlessly awaits the outcome of this week’s FOMC meeting—will the Federal Reserve raise interest rates or won’t it?—one thing is clear regardless: the Fed is driving the U.S. into a 2nd depression in order to carry out its one and only remit now that America’s ability to produce real jobs has been reduced to ash, namely, propping up criminal banks with multi-trillion-dollar giveaways. What’s so disturbing about the fatal path that the Fed has been on for 7 years is that it's one the Fed went down before, when—by its own admission—it extended and deepened the Great...

U.S. stocks sank Friday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down for the week, as Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged fueled fears about global economic growth. The central bank cited concerns about the global economy and a lack of inflation growth in its Thursday decision to leave interest rates unchanged. “Many are confused by the outcome of the recent Fed meeting,” said Kent Engelke, chief economic strategist at Capitol Securities Management. “Markets hate confusion and lack of clarity.” The S&P 500 skidded 32.16 points, or 1.6%, to close at 1,958.08 for a...

The market is calling the Fed’s bluff on raising interest rates. The Fed’s September meeting has come and gone, and interest rates remain at zero. The reasoning behind the Fed’s decision is sound. With emerging market economies in various states of disarray, global markets have responded by keeping energy prices low and the dollar strong. These forces have conspired to keep inflation here at home quite low. Federal Open Market Committee members’ median projection of inflation for 2015 is just 0.4%, well below it’s 2% target, which it has failed to reach for close to a decade.

WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday in a nod to concerns about a weak world economy, but left open the possibility of a modest policy tightening later this year. In what amounted to a tactical retreat, the US central bank said an array of global risks and other factors had convinced it to delay what would have been the first rate hike in nearly a decade. "Recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term," the Fed said in...

Fed decision day: The event traders across the globe have anticipated for months has finally arrived. As of 8:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 43 points lower, or 0.26% to 16621. S&P 500 futures shed 6 points, or 0.31% to 1982, while Nasdaq 100 futures slid 10 points, or 0.24% to 4370. Today’s Markets Months of speculation about whether September was the month in which the Federal Reserve would begin to lift short-term interest rates is finally coming to a close. The Federal Open Market Committee meets for the final day of its two-day policy-setting meeting, which...

Despite the stock market’s return to triple-digit gains on Tuesday in apparent response to signs that China will take steps to stimulate its economy, bankers worldwide are warning a decision by the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates next week could precipitate a stock-market collapse. Deutsche Bank, the European Union’s biggest bank, has grabbed attention by issuing a warning to the Federal Reserve that a rise in U.S. interest rates now would constitute nothing less than a “premeditated controlled demolition” that could cause global stock markets to collapse a dramatic 40 percent. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to decide...

A notorious al Qaeda magazine is encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks on U.S. economic leaders, including Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett. The list in Inspire magazine also included industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch, internet entrepreneur Larry Ellison, and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. A prominent economist was also on the list but asked that his name be withheld. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was named, though not Janet Yellen, who succeeded him. Also pictured was Jim Walton, one of the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, although he was misidentified in the caption as his late father, Sam Walton. Several...

The European Central Bank is ready to give the eurozone economy a bigger dose of stimulus if turmoil in China and weaker global growth hurt its modest recovery, President Mario Draghi said Thursday. Market volatility, concern over the effects of a looming interest rate increase in the U.S. and a drop oil prices have spawned uncertainty over the global economy, leading the ECB to cut its inflation and growth forecasts for the eurozone. Draghi said the ECB can add to its €1.1 trillion ($1.2 trillion) program if needed to raise inflation or support growth. […] The stimulus is intended to...

After a tumultuous week on the world’s stock markets, investors will be focused on Wall Street Monday ahead of another set of economic reports likely to steer the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade. The markets open Monday as investors digest news that the Fed is still actively considering a September rate hike. In a speech on Saturday, Stanley Fischer, the vice-chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors, suggested inflationary pressures could soon lead to an increase. His comments are likely to add to the volatility of already skittish...

On Friday morning at the Jackson Hole Summit, Judy Shelton of the Sound Money Project and Atlas Network spoke on the subject of the gold standard and addressed the perception that people who even dare to mention it are lunatics or, as The American Spectator noted earlier today, Quixotic. Shelton's presentation focused in the main on the numbers and the policies. Dr. Shelton pointed out that the Fed can't seem to face up to a simple, apparent, easily understood fact: Their policies aren't working. "The difference between our summit, and the one the Feds are holding up the road, is...

To wit, artificial suppression of free market interest rates by the central bank is designed to cause households to borrow more money than they otherwise would in order to spend more than they earn, pure and simple. Its nothing more than a modernized version of the original, crude Keynesian pump-priming theory—–except it dispenses with the inconvenience of getting politicians to approve spending increases and tax cuts in favor of the writ of a small posse of unelected monetary mandarins who run the FOMC and peg money market interest rates at will. But the whole enterprise is a crock. The consumer...

Submitted by SouthBay Research Hookernomices: In less than 10 years, the Federal Reserve Has Driven Millions of American Women into ProstitutionMainstreaming Prostitution: Beginning last year, the Bank of England included prostitution in GDP measurements.  According to the Office of National Statistics, prostitution generated $9B a year, adding 0.7% to the UK GDP.  They aren't alone: Sweden, Norway and a few other European countries already include it.  And if you can measure it, you can tax it.  And legalization is necessary for measurement.Prostitution is legal in most of the developed world.  In fact, of the G20 countries, prostitution is illegal...

All one needs to do is turn to the financial shows and get a litany of “financial experts” blaming the Federal Reserve and its coming rate hike for the recent market break. They are incorrect. The recent break in equity prices is not about a proposed and measly ¼ point rise in rates off of zero. Short term rates were between 4% and 5% in 2007 when the stock market made a then all time high of 14,000. Hand wringing over a ¼ pt raise is curious. The Federal Reserve’s mere hinting of a meager raise didn’t roll the Chinese...

If nature abhors a vacuum, investors aren’t so crazy about them either. It’s hard to avoid all the voids right now. The August Wall Street vacation evacuation is well underway, markets are facing an absence of inflation, huge air pockets underneath commodities and emerging-market currencies – and a vexing lack of clarity about what the Fed might do in less than a month’s time. The collective response to this environment devoid of strong conviction has been to pull cash out of riskier markets and wait. Barclays Capital says more than $90 billion has sought the shelter of money-market funds in...

Is the collapse imminent, and our very way of life under threat of total global meltdown? Perhaps the signs and warnings are there, at every level, for those who want to see it. An outright panic has taken hold over many who see September 2015 as a convergence of ominous events – including the Pope’s visit to America, the United Nations summit on Agenda 21-like development, expectations for a stunning policy change at the Federal Reserve, unprecedented experiments at CERN and the end of the seven year business cycle, a date that has already seen the tragic events of 9/11...

I sure am glad there's no inflation, because these "stable prices" the Federal Reserve keeps jaw-jacking about are putting us in a world of hurt. Those of us outside the inner circles of power are glad there's no inflation, because we'd rather get more for our money (deflation) rather than less for our money (inflation). You know what I mean: the package that once held 16 ounces now only holds 13 ounces. A medication that once cost $79 now costs $79,000. (This is a much slighter exaggeration than you might imagine.) Despite all these widely known examples of rampant inflation,...

I'm working on a settlement with a Federal government agency (not IRS). The settlement agreement calls for payment to be wired to an account at the NY Fed. We all know that the Fed is a privately held central bank and not owned by U.S. Does the U.S. Gov have accounts there and why? It seems that money should be sent to US treasury. BTW, they insisted on a wire and not a check. Anyone with legal/financial knowledge would be helpful.

financial reform increases staffing costs. Small banks are struggling to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed to regulate the financial industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, said Rep. Scott Tipton. The Republican from Cortez received some national attention this week for challenging Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to support his plan to ease the burden of Dodd-Frank on small banks. ... Mike Burns, president of Alpine Bank for the Southwest region, said in a phone interview that Dodd-Frank is creating head winds. “We really want to focus our time and energy in supporting the communities...

American teen employment has dropped 20 percent from the late 1980s, in part because more and more immigrants have flooded into the market to displace native-born kids from jobs in percentages far higher than on adults, according to the Federal Reserve. "The displacement effect of immigration on the employment of younger persons is much larger than on the employment of prime-age adults," said the September 2014 report, "Labor Force Participation: Recent Developments and Future Prospects."