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Chairman Jerome Powell may start offering less guidance about coming rate increases.. Evidence is growing that the Federal Reserve has fallen well behind on inflation and needs to make up for lost time. WSJ’s Dion Rabouin explains how we got here and what the Fed is doing to catch up. ... After the Federal Reserve lifts its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, attention will turn to what Chairman Jerome Powell says about a rate increase at the central bank’s meeting in September. The Fed is likely to raise its federal-funds rate by 0.75 percentage point, to a range between 2.25%...

Rate hikes are projected to help reduce inflation -- but don't expect high prices to drop any time soon. In response to accelerating inflation, the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points for the first time since 2018. The Fed also projects six additional rates hikes throughout 2022. Raising interest rates is a key step to combatting skyrocketing inflation, which is at a 40-year high, and will jumpstart the process of rate increases for credit cards, mortgages and other loans. Although raising rates is designed to curb inflation, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged...

When the Trump administration imposed tariffs on Chinese imports last year, officials insisted China would pay the cost - implying Chinese firms would have to cut their prices to absorb import “taxes” of up to 25% when the goods hit U.S. shores. Instead, the prices Chinese firms charge have barely budged, meaning U.S. companies and consumers are paying the tariff costs, estimated at around $40 billion annually, New York Fed Reserve Bank researchers found in a study released on Monday.

While speaking at a meeting of Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, Trump said the stock market would be anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 points higher if the U.S. central bank had chosen to keep interest rates steady. He also suggested that the growth rate in the U.S. would have exceeded 3 percent. "But they wanted to raise interest rates," he said. "You’ll explain that to me." Trump, despite hand-picking Chairman Jerome Powell more than a year ago, has been a frequent critic of the Fed, often urging policymakers to cut interest rates from the current target range of 2.25 percent...

Now that the dust has settled on the elections, the time has come (or so some of the punditry in the media assure us) to set aside political acrimony and unite under the new leadership of President-elect Donald Trump and the new House and Senate. Although it’s far from clear what President Trump will choose to prioritize, now that he will face the realities of entrenched political interests in Washington instead of his fired-up political base on the hustings, it seems at least possible that he will show much more sympathy for certain constitutionalist and Americanist causes — such as...

Facing its best chance of passage ever under the new GOP-controlled Congress and the incoming Trump administration, wildly popular legislation to open up the Federal Reserve's books, known as “Audit the Fed,” was just re-introduced in the 115th Congress. The bill, sponsored by hundreds of lawmakers in the House and the Senate, would force the obsessively secretive and increasingly controversial central bank to submit to a full government audit. But the Fed and its apologists do not plan to allow a real audit without a tough fight.The legislation, first introduced many years ago by constitutional champion and former congressman Ron...

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Rand Paul reintroduced his Federal Reserve Transparency Act, widely known as the “Audit the Fed” bill, to prevent the Federal Reserve from concealing vital information on its operations from Congress. Eight cosponsors joined Senator Paul on the legislation. Representative Thomas Massie (KY-4) has introduced companion legislation, H.R. 24, in the U.S. House. “The U.S. House has responded to the American people by passing Audit the Fed multiple times, and President-elect Trump has stated his support for an audit. Let’s send him the bill this Congress.”

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...

While it is not exactly clear what public relations goals the privately-owned Fed (recall Bernanke's Former Advisor: "People Would Be Stunned To Know The Extent To Which The Fed Is Privately Owned") hoped to achieve by launching its first Facebook page last Thursday, the resultant outpouring of less than euphoric public reactions suggest this latest PR effort may have been waster at best, and at worst backfired at a magnitude that matches JPM's infamous #AskJPM twitter gaffe. Here are some examples of the public responses to the Fed's original posting: they all share a certain uniformity... [Screen captures] [More by...

Soon, the Federal Reserve could be forced for the first time to open its books and expose its machinations to Congress. Senator Rand Paul (shown, R-Ky.) reports that he is “about seven votes short” of the 60 votes he believes would be procedurally sufficient to get a vote in the Senate. In an interview with Kitco News just moments after he left the stage at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, Paul explained that while the House of Representatives has passed numerous measures aimed at auditing the Federal Reserve, it is “taking forever in the Senate.” He promises that he will...

Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed in an interview with the Fox Business Network that he will not be supporting Donald Trump for United States president. He said in jest that he’s waiting for Trump to become a libertarian. When asked if there’s anything that Trump could say that would help change his mind, Paul replied that he wouldn’t know what to believe since “he’s all over the map.” The entire four-minute interview is embedded below: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) This is different from his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said he will support the GOP nominee,...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump went after GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz for missing a Senate vote on a bill that would have audited the Federal Reserve. "It is so important to audit The Federal Reserve, and yet Ted Cruz missed the vote on the bill that would allow this to be done," Trump posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon. Cruz missed a vote on legislation in the Senate that reportedly would have audited the Federal Reserve, as the Guardian noted, as did former Rep. Ron Paul to campaign for his son Sen. Rand Paul. Paul referenced Cruz's missed vote, previously...

Tech entrepreneur Scott Banister has long been an ally to the liberty movement. The angel investor, IronPort founder, and PayPal board member donated $3 million to a Rand Paul supporting Super PAC, and has been a vocal supporter of the libertarian Republican. Now that Rand Paul is out of the presidential race, Banister has thrown his support behind Ted Cruz. Cruz is a self-described constitutional conservative who earned the endorsements of both Rand and Ron Paul in his 2012 Texas Senate race. Scott Banister Our best chance for a constitutional presidency is now @tedcruz. #LibertariansForCruz Cruz's relationship with the Pauls...

HENNIKER, N.H. - For months, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has tried to poach libertarian-leaning voters here away from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Now, with Paul's exit from the race, Cruz has even more of an opening to make inroads with supporters of the Kentucky Republican. Cruz is running as a tea-party darling and evangelical Christian, constituencies that helped propel him to victory in the Iowa caucuses. But he is also attempting to expand that base, particularly with libertarian-leaning supporters. Here in New Hampshire, Cruz speaks of limited government, gun rights and privacy. "But part of the reason we're more competitive...

"The Senate on Tuesday rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) controversial proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, turning aside a bill that has drawn the ire of the business community and the White House. The Senate voted 53-44 on taking up the presidential hopeful’s Audit the Fed measure. Sixty votes were needed to move forward. Paul won some bipartisan support for the legislation, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another presidential candidate, voting in favor. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) backed the bill as well. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is also running for president, supported moving forward with Paul's legislation, while...

The New Republic, in its February 8th issue, carries an article by Danny Vinik entitled Rand Paul Has the Most Dangerous Economic Views of Any 2016 Candidate. It appears that TNR’s fact checkers decamped along with its top journalists. Vinik: Speaking in front of more than 150 Iowa activists, Paul ripped into the Federal Reserve and promoted his “Audit the Fed” bill, which he introduced earlier this week. “I think there needs to be some sunshine,” he said, according to reports of the event. …Paul’s bill …would significantly damage the Fed’s independence, which exists so that politicians cannot influence the...

Sen. Rand Paul isn't happy that the Federal Reserve is mobilizing against his legislation that would subject the central bank's monetary policy decisions to an audit. "It is alarming that the Federal Reserve, which was granted Monopoly money-making power, is now specifically trying to stop my legislation," the Kentucky Republican wrote in a column published by the conservative publication Breitbart Tuesday. "The Fed, with unlimited ability to print money, now prints that money to lobby against congressional oversight," Paul added. "It is a disgrace and every citizen in the land should rise up and say: We the people are in...

President Obama’s nominee to become chairman of the Federal Reserve came out against Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s “Audit the Fed” legislation on Thursday. Asked by Republican Sen. David Vitter about the proposal, Yellen said she “strongly” supports “transparency and openness on the part of the Fed” but does not support any proposal that would “diminish” its independence. “I would be very concerned about legislation that would subject the Federal Reserve to short-term political pressures that could interfere with that independence,” she said. Yellen, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, made the comments during her confirmation hearing...

Sen. Ted Cruz announced Wednesday that he is backing an effort by fellow Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky to get a vote on auditing the Federal Reserve as a condition for considering the nomination of Janet L. Yellen to be chairwoman of the Fed. “I agree with Rand Paul: before the Senate votes on whether to confirm Janet Yellen, we should at the very least allow a vote on the Audit the Fed bill,” the Texas Republican said in a statement. “The Federal Reserve has expanded our money supply by trillions, benefiting Wall Street but making life harder for millions...

Were you targeted by the IRS for your political beliefs? Did you receive extra scrutiny for promoting limited government, the constitution, and fiscal responsibility? If not, will you be next? What: Audit the IRS Rally When: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 from Noon – 2pm Where: West Lawn of the US Capitol Join us on Wednesday, June 19th at 12pm on the West Lawn of the US Capitol as we come together to rally against the IRS. It’s time that Washington sees first-hand just how outraged the American people are by these discriminatory acts.