Free Republic

Republicans are the adults in Congress while the Democrats, liberal to the core, will never admit we are being set up for another financial crisis It is a cliché, but true, that history repeats itself. This is largely due to the failure of each new generation to learn anything from the past as well as the human tendency toward the bad habits of greed and power-seeking. Only the names and faces change. That is why the next financial crisis is entirely predictable. On October 23, The Wall Street Journal had an article, “Relaxed Mortgage-Lending Rules Clear Final Hurdle.” The financial...

The week was dominated by news by central banks as the Federal Reserve ended QE and the Bank of Japan pushed its QE program to new heights. The result was another rally in stocks around the globe that made the mini-correction earlier this month seem like a dream (or a nightmare). The question is what happens next, and all indications are that markets will continue to ride the wave of central bank liquidity as far as it takes them. Markets were also boosted by a strong initial third quarter U.S. GDP report showing the economy grew at 3.5% and strong...

Julia La Roche October 31, 2014The Federal Reserve ended quantitative easing this week. And soon it'll start tightening monetary policy with interest rate hikes. This is coming as central banks in the rest of the world maintain loose monetary policy or even go as far as to loosen monetary policy further. All of this is bullish for the US dollar relative to other major currencies. Business Insider recently asked the smartest people in finance for what they considered to be the "most important charts in the world." Without hesitation, former global macro fund manager Raoul Pal sent us a long-term...

Fed decides to keep near-zero interest rate for 'considerable time' after ending QE 2014/10/30 04:26 WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will keep its near-zero interest rate policy "for a considerable time" even as it puts an end to its bond-purchasing program aimed at stimulating the economy through low rates. The announcement corroborates views that the Fed is unlikely to raise the key rate before the middle of next year. A possible U.S. rate hike after the end of the bond-buying program, known as "quantitative easing," has been feared to lead to a capital...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted to end the last leg of its bond-buying stimulus program, cutting purchases of Treasury's and mortgage-back securities to zero from $15 billion starting on Nov. 1. The central bank also sounded more upbeat about the labor market and said it doesn't expect falling energy prices to hold inflation down in the long run. For the first time, the Fed explicitly said it could raise interest rates sooner than markets expect if the economy grows faster than the bank projects.