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While many of us in the alternative media and especially those researchers of Clinton crimes are breathing a big fat sigh of relief that anybody but Hillary is headed to the White House in 2017, Brandon Smith of Alt Market is warning us all not to get too comfortable… and with history on his side here, we should listen to him. Despite what looked like a rigged, fraudulent Hillary win orchestrated from the top down with the entire establishment machine behind her, Trump won the election. In an election year that would have otherwise seen record low voter turnout, the...

Donald Trump’s campaign released a new television ad on Friday titled, “Donald Trump’s Argument for America.” The two-minute ad will run on prime time national news and entertainment channels, including NFL, NASCAR, and NCAA programs. It’s a $4 million ad purchase aimed at major markets in key battleground states including: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, North Carolina ,and New Mexico, according to the Trump campaign press release. “This is Mr. Trump’s positive closing message to American voters, and it comes at a time when Secretary Clinton has abandoned any positive message of her own. We believe voters...

Fed Chair Janet Yellen's interest in running a "high-pressure economy" threatens to add to an increasingly divisive climate at the U.S. central bank. In remarks last week that jarred the market, Yellen ruminated about the benefits of letting inflation run a little hotter than normal while allowing the unemployment rate to drop below the point that historically would trigger Fed tightening action. To many observers, the comments were a clearly dovish signal that she favors a lower-for-longer approach when it comes to interest rates. But that kind of attitude could exacerbate tensions among Federal Open Market Committee members, in particular...

Janet Yellen: "The Federal Reserve may need to run a high pressure economy to reverse damage from the crisis that depressed output sidelined workers, and risks becoming a permanent scar."

The last time the Fed hiked was in December of last year. Even though it was well-telegraphed, it still led to two months of heightened market volatility that saw the S&P 500 tumble 13 percent before recovering. If the minutes reveal a divided Fed that might try to accelerate the course of rate hikes in the year ahead, that likely would move markets.

If a politician said he thought he should tax the income from your retirement plan, right now, at 50% (no matter where you are in the retirement process, that would certainly hurt the ability of your portfolio to compound), what would you think (other than that he was completely Looney Tunes)? But that's exactly what the Federal Reserve has done by keeping interest rates low. It has reduced the fixed-income returns in retirement plans and the broad pension plans upon which so many people are dependent to practically nothing. And the Fed has done this to prop up asset prices....

Former Philly Fed President Charles Plosser got a lot off his chest this morning during a Bloomberg TV interview. Decrying that central bankers "wring their hands all the time," Plosser noted that The Fed was very "concerned about credibility," and was "pretty good at conjuring up reasons not to act." His mutinous discussion then concluded, sounding very Trumpian, by noting that The Fed "shouldn't be afraid a recession might come," exclaiming "there's a real problem here" with The Fed.

Even with two years remaining in her term, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen may quit if Donald Trump is elected president, an economist argued on Tuesday. Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients that Trump doubled down on criticism of the Fed during his debate with Hillary Clinton. Trump said the U.S. economy is in a “big, fat, ugly bubble” and specifically called out Yellen. “And we have a Fed that’s doing political things. This Janet Yellen of the Fed,” he said. “The day Obama goes off, and he leaves, and goes out...

On Monday republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fired political shots at the Federal Reserve saying, “she is keeping them artificially low to get Obama retired,” while referring to the interest rate policy the Fed has taken under the leadership of Janet Yellen.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday the Federal Reserve is doing what President Barack Obama wants by keeping interest rates low. Fed Chair Janet Yellen and central bank policymakers are very political, and Yellen should be “ashamed” of what she’s doing to the country, Trump said, adding the Fed is not even close to being independent. By keeping interest rates low, the Fed has created a “false stock market,” Trump argued in a wide-ranging interview in which he also talked about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s health problems . Trump said rates are being kept lower to bolster...

"...Donald Trump told reporters Monday that the Federal Reserve is keeping interests rates at record lows to help President Obama and to keep the economy from going down. "They’re keeping the rates artificially low so the economy doesn’t go down," Trump said in response to a question about a potential rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month. "So that Obama can say he did a good job. That's the only reason that the rates are so low. They're keeping the rates artificially low so that Obama can go out and play golf after January and say that he did...

Negative interest rates are spreading like a virus. Central banks in the Eurozone, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan all have below-zero policy rates. “NIRP,” as economists call a negative interest rate policy, is a desperation move—but the only move those central banks have. The Federal Reserve hasn’t followed—yet. When the next recession strikes, I believe Janet Yellen will choose to break the zero lower bound. The rationale was laid out in Jackson Hole. Look behind the headlines and you’ll see the Fed already preparing for NIRP. In theory, negative rates should encourage consumers and businesses to spend more freely and stimulate...

Fear and uncertainty about the global economy are leading investors to embrace the relative safety of U.S. government debt and slashing yields to record lows. Interest paid on the 10-year Treasury note reached 1.38 percent late Tuesday, just below the previous record set in 2012. Historically, when concerns have flared about a potential recession, investors have shifted money into havens such as U.S. Treasurys and sent yields falling. The market’s signal this time seems somewhat hazier than usual, and there's far from any consensus among economists that a recession is approaching. As recently as the start of June, the yield...

By offering a subtle change to her outlook from less than a week ago, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pushed the prospect of additional interest rate increases further into the future. The head of the central bank said she and her colleagues were on watch for whether, rather than when, the U.S. economy would show clear signs of improvement, acknowledging the possibility that growth would be slow to pick up. "Proceeding cautiously in raising the federal funds rate will allow us to keep the monetary support to economic growth in place while we assess whether growth is returning to a...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made her usual bipolar remarks yesterday in a speech: Last week’s employment report was disappointing... ...Yellen... ...sounded like a politician and basically said nothing. I’m now going to tell you how Yellen’s comments will sound ... YELLEN: “Good afternoon everyone. FYI, this is a freakin’ OMG moment for us at the Fed. President Trump is bustin’ our cajones, and I’m pretty sure it’s because the Fed is being run by a dame. “The economy? I bet you want to know what the economy is doing. I could tell you this and tell you that. But...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is happy with the job done by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, with whom he is meeting on Monday to discuss regulatory issues and world economy, the White House said. "The president has been pleased with the way she has fulfilled what is a critically important job," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Tuesday signaled that the U.S. central bank should worry less about inflation at home than about global growth risks, such as the slowdown in China and depressed commodity prices. Those risks, and the reality that the Fed has little conventional monetary policy ammunition to counteract a downturn, means that “caution is especially warranted” when it comes to raising interest rates, Yellen said at the New York Economic Club. The dovish tone of Yellen’s speech sparked a rally on Wall Street as financial markets pushed back the expected date of the next rate hike to...

The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, but policymakers may signal fresh monetary action in the next few months, perhaps in June. The Fed will issue its policy statement at 2 p.m. ET, along with new economic forecasts. Fed Chairwoman will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. The central bank raised rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December. But financial market turmoil, perhaps partially fueled by that December move, along with weaker economic data spurred policymakers to hold off on further tightening...

"I think it's a myth that expansions die of old age… So the fact that this has been quite a long expansion doesn’t lead me to believe that… its days are numbered." - Janet Yellen, Dec. 16, 2015 "The trouble with thinking that expansions don't die of old age is that they do." - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2016 Who's right? Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson, claiming that Janet Yellen is wrong about the probable cause of death of an economic expansion, is taking on not just the Federal Reserve but most of the economic establishment. Much as...

Washington policymakers - and their colleagues abroad - have pursued reckless and irresponsible economic policies. The chickens are coming home to roost, and the Federal Reserve could easily push America into another recession. Prior to the 2008 financial meltdown, governments in the United States, Europe and Japan piled up debt to finance social programs they could not afford, and encouraged private individuals to borrow too much against real estate. All this to maintain consumer spending and modest growth, when government regulators meddling in virtually every business and hiring decision curbed private investment. China, instead of implementing needed market reforms, artificially...