Not to mention the decline over decades in the value of the dollar against other world currencies...
Guess all it took was for China to catch a cold...
BTW, who whose face should be on $10?
They HAVE TO.
If they raise interest rates then IMO the rate they pay on the national debt goes up and we see an addition 400 billion in a little move on interest rates.
The economy must REALLY be doing well... /sarc
Once interest rates go up, the debt servicing costs for the USG will rise and the prices of houses will decline.
The “Money Bubble” is balanced on the razor’s edge....
The Federal Reserve does influence rates. But their decision was completely appropriate given the weak jobs data.
Federal Reserve Act
Section 2A. Monetary policy objectives
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy's long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.
If they raise rates the dollar is stronger and hurts American businesses. With China devaluing their currency slightly, the last thing that we need is for the dollar to get too strong.
Maybe when Trump gets too close to the nomination the fed will raise rates 1% or something to scare Wall Street. They’ll blame it on Trump. The Trump crash of 2016.
Aw, c'mon, get with it, it was FAR MORE important to ask about whose portrait should go on the new $10 bill, and what they wanted their SS codename to be....
Was there ever any doubt about this non action. The economy is in such a mess, raising rates would have made an even bigger mess. All the talk about higher rates is and was just more political double talk.
Wonder what Trump thinks.
So, after seven years of 0% interest rates our economy isn't strong enough to withstand a quarter percent (0.25%) rate hike?
If that doesn't tell you all just how bad our economy truly is, I don't know what will.
The elderly who rely on interest rate income continue to get hammered while Obama's Wall Street buddies make out like bandits.
Shameful.
Before a single candidate could criticize the FED for it's horrible money policies, that candidate would have to find a way to communicate in sound-bites what it is the FED is doing.
That's a losing proposition for any candidate, and I share your frustration, BTW.
Tells you how weak the economy really is.
Having painted themselves into a corner, the Fed solution is to apply a second coat.
Raise your hand if you really thought Yellen was going to raise rates.
Janet Yellen has some explaining to do.
She must have known for months that the economy was too weak to allow interest rates to be raised. So why didn’t she tell us that?
Why, instead, did she continually give the impression that the Fed would be raising interest rates today, which implied that the economy was doing well enough to sustain a rate hike? Who benefitted from this?
Barack Obama and the Democrats benefitted. They and the Obama-supporting media have been using every propaganda ploy to try to convince Americans that our economy has been rolling along like never before, that prosperity wasn’t just around the corner, it was already here.
And the Fed Chairwoman was instrumental in that effort by assuring everyone that, because of Obama’s wonderful economy, a September rate hike was virtually in the cards.
Of course, to continue to help Obama, she had to keep interest rates from rising because she knew that in our weak economy a rate hike would trigger a recession which would darken Obama’s final year in office.
Janet Yellen really needs to step down now. She has lost credibility and is taking the credibility of the Fed down with her.
But of course Obama will not replace her because he knows she will continue to serve his propaganda interests.
In a few days, today’s non-rate-hike will be forgotten, and we’ll begin to hear a new round of assurances from the Fed Chairwoman that the Fed will almost certainly be raising interest rates in December thanks to Obama’s continuing efforts to take the economy to new heights.