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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the U-6 unemployment rate--which includes people who are working part-time for economic reasons and those who are marginally attached to the labor force--“definitely shows a less rosy picture” of employment in the country. People "marginally attached" to the labor force "are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for one work sometime in the past 12 months." In January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "U-3" unemployment...

The Federal Reserve is pushing back against mounting criticism of the central bank, even as those pushing for reforms ratchet up their attacks. Fed officials have in recent weeks met in private with staffers from both parties, focusing primarily on the Senate, according to sources familiar with the meetings. Meanwhile, Chairwoman Janet Yellen and other Fed officials have publicly sounded off against a proposal championed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-K.Y.) that would give Congress more sway over the bank. The uptick in outreach from the independent agency signals an effort to quell calls for significant changes at the Fed and...

It appears it is time for some Hillary-Clinton-esque backtracking and Liesman-esque translation of just what the former Federal Reserve Chief really meant. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the Fed chief from 1987 to 2006 says the Fed's bond-buying program fell short of its goals, and had a lot more to add. Mr. Greenspan’s comments to the Council on Foreign Relations came as Fed officials were meeting in Washington, D.C., and expected to announce within hours an end to the bond purchases. He said the bond-buying program was ultimately a mixed bag. He said that the purchases of Treasury and...

It’s long past time to end the Fed as it is currently constructed. And it was only a matter of time before an Obama appointee put an exclamation on the point. It’s what Obama appointees are best at. Yellen stepped out of her role as Master of the Stock Market to expound on taxation and public education.Yellen points out that poor school districts sometimes aren’t funded as well as rich one are because the United States relies on local control of education. It’s what she calls “subnational taxation.” Her implied proposal is that it would be much better if the...

Yellen picked through the various arguments over what the seemingly contradictory data says: the faster-than-expected fall in the jobless rate to 6.2 percent from 7.3 percent a year ago, against the persistently extremely low labor force participation rate since the Great Recession, just 62.9 percent. Yellen agreed that there have been some structural changes that have affected the way the labor market signals tightening through indicators such as part-time work, the number of people leaving jobs, and wage gains - which have been virtually insignificant since the recession ended in 2009. But she insisted that the combined data that the...

In testimony before a Senate committee on Thursday, Fed Chair Yellen said a minimum wage increase would likely have some negative effects on jobs, though it´s not clear how large. Still, boosting the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 per hour since mid-2009, would benefit some people, she added. In recent months, the federal minimum wage has been a hot-button issue. In February, President Barack Obama boosted the minimum pay for federal contractors hired in the future to $10.10 per hour. He´s also voiced his support for the federal level for all workers to rise to $10.10 from

Gold is falling after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave an upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy and said that inflation remains low. […] Yellen’s comments suggest that the Federal Reserve is set to continue reducing its economic stimulus, lessening the threat of rising prices. Investors typically buy gold as a hedge against inflation. …

The Federal Reserve look, dismal quarterly US "growth" and gave a mostly upbeat assessment Recent information "indicates that growth in economic activity has picked up ... "What the Fed is saying",ignore this first quarter number (AS) government reported that the economy grew at only a 0.1 percent annual "rate in a quarter", ... other recent data that has suggested activity is "bouncing" back. she said the nation may be more than two years away from what the Fed views as the new normal unemployment rate" of between 9 percent and 14 percent.

For three decades, the U.S. middle class enjoyed a rare financial advantage over the wealthy: lower mortgage rates. Now, even that perk is fading away. Most ordinary homebuyers are paying the same or higher rates than the fortunate few who can afford much more. Rates for a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage are averaging 4.48 percent, according to Bankrate. For “jumbo” mortgages—those above $417,000 in much of the country—the average is 4.47 percent. …

The Federal Reserve may be about to turn more aggressive in its regulation of the financial system. Fed Chair Janet Yellen suggested Tuesday that current regulatory rules might not be enough to prevent the kind of risk-taking that triggered the 2008 financial crisis and nearly toppled the entire banking system. She said the largest U.S. banks may need to hold additional capital to withstand periods of financial stress. Non-banks with deep reaches into the financial system might also need to meet tougher rules, she said. Such firms range from money market mutual funds to private equity and hedge funds. …

Janet Yellen REUTERS The monetary policies crafted and initiated by the Federal Reserve are intended to help Main Street rather than Wall Street, Fed Chair Janet Yellen told an audience of grassroots community organizers in Chicago on Monday. In an address that employed a handful of devices reminiscent of a political speech, Yellen made her case for a dovish approach toward raising interest rates. Yellen singled out the plights of several individuals – who she named and whose situations she described in detail – to illustrate labor markets are healing slowly and prolonged accommodative policy is needed to ensure labor...

Investors weren't too thrilled by what they heard from Janet Yellen during her first meeting in charge of the Fed. The Dow fell more than 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also finished lower. Stocks were relatively stable as Yellen started her press conference. But the Dow fell as many as 180 points before recovering after she said the Fed's stimulus program would most likely be finished by the fall and that a rate hike could come as soon as early 2015. Prior to the press conference, the Fed said it will continue trimming, or tapering, its monthly...

Like John Stossel and Thomas Sowell, I’m not a big fan of the Federal Reserve. It’s not just that I’m a libertarian who fantasizes about the denationalization of money. I also think the Fed hasn’t done a good job, even by its own metrics. There’s very little doubt, for instance, that easy-money policies last decade played a major role in creating the housing bubble and causing the financial crisis. Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played a big role, but it was the Fed that provided the excess liquidity that the GSEs used to subsidize the subprime lending orgy. But...

The Federal Reserve Board doesn't have the authority to regulate bitcoin, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday. "To the best of my knowledge, there's no intersection at all in any way between bitcoin and banks the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise or regulate," Yellen told members of the Senate Banking Committee. "The Federal Reserve simply does not have authority to supervise or regulate bitcoin in any way." Yellen was responding to questioning from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who sent the Fed and other banking regulators a letter on Wednesday calling on them to ban—or at least curb—the decentralized,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. central bankers thought they should get more regulatory powers in return for providing cheap cash to Wall Street banks during the 2008 credit crisis, according to Federal Reserve transcripts released on Friday. Powerful investment banks such as Goldman Sachs (NYS:GS - News) and Morgan Stanley (NYS:MS - News) had access to a raft of measures to prop up markets during the 2008 credit meltdown, but the Federal Reserve had little say over them. "I am just a little worried about being taken advantage of here," Richard Fisher, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said...

In her first testimony before Congress as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pledged to continue on the path set by her predecessor Ben Bernanke. “His leadership helped make our economy and financial system stronger and ensured that the Federal Reserve is transparent and accountable,” said Yellen in a remarks delivered before the House Committee of Financial Services Tuesday morning.Speaking about the economic recovery, monetary policy and the financial systems Yellen expressed optimism about developments in recent months, but also made it clear work must be done to meet the Federal Open Market Committee’s objectives for the economy.In a note following...

President Barack Obama is hailing the confirmation of Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve. He says she will be a “fierce champion” for the American people. The Senate on Monday voted 56-26 to confirm her, with several senators absent due to flight delays. …

"Measures that arbitrarily, or by assumption, assign the bulk of fluctuation in GDP to purely temporary factors may provide poor policy guidance when shocks are more permanent in nature," he said in prepared remarks to the Korea-America Economic Association. ... While gross domestic product growth rose above 4 percent in the third quarter, it has generally stayed closer to 2 percent since the recession ended in 2009, causing some to think that longer-term potential GDP growth is no longer the 3-percent rate to which Americans are accustomed. If that is the case, the Fed's ultra easy policy stance - including...

Several economic indicators for the US show deceleration. Yet the stock market and house prices continue to grow. Here is a chart of three economic indicators with clear downward momentum: civilian labor force participation (blue), the US homeownership rate (red) and real median household income (green). homessss And Goldman Sachs just downgraded Q4 2013 real GDP growth to 1.3%. These downward indicators compliment the declining M1 Money Multiplier and M2 Money Velocity. m1m2vel120213 Why? There are enormous excess reserves in the Fed system that aren’t leaking out to Main Street. And The Fed’s Balance sheet has exploded! (in terms of...

The recent confusion from The Fed over the future of quantitative easing (or money printing) can be addressed with a few charts. Here is a chart of real GDP growth PER CAPITA since 1960. Real, of course, indicates that it is Gross Domestic Product adjusted for inflation. Note that Q1 1984 was the peak of real GDP growth … and it has been a steady decline since then. realgdppercap I added the S&P 500 index to the real GDP per capita chart and you can see that the S&P 500 index spikes when real GDP growth is higher than average...