Free Republic

The spring of 2014 has not yet begun, but a jittery Wall Street was spooked Wednesday by the prospect that interest rates might rise “as soon as” the spring of 2015. That was the immediate response to Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen’s first press conference since taking office. Yellen’s mere suggestion that the Fed might someday pursue a less inflationary policy has been blamed for a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and armchair central bankers are jumping on the rookie Fed chief for talking the market down. Fed may raise rates as soon as next spring, Yellen suggests:...

"The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were...

Saying that the cost of the Fed's $85-billion-a-month asset-purchase program "far exceeds" its benefits, Fisher urged reducing it "at the earliest opportunity," and to articulate a clear, well-defined path for ending it by a certain date. Doing so, he said, could make the Fed's change of policy course easier for markets to digest. When the Fed last signaled it was gearing up to end its bond-buying program, in May and June, investors pushed up market rates faster and farther than the Fed had expected. The rise in rates threatened to slow an already fragile recovery, and was one factor in...

Chairman Bernanke: “We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to. So there really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation at the appropriate time. Now that time is not now.”Scott Pelley, CBS 60 Minutes: “You have what degree of confidence in your ability to control this?” “100%.”* * *No doubt that exchange of 2010 will go down as the most famous of Mr. Bernanke’s tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve. It is the context in which to savor — if that is the word — the news...

KRUGMAN: The Fed May Have Just Made A Historic Mistake, And Done More Damage Than It Realizes Joe WeisenthalJune 22,2013REUTERS/Jason ReedThe most important story in the world is the change of direction in US interest rates, which coincides with the change in tone out of the Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday indicated that so long as its economic projections come to pass, it plans to slowdown on Quantitative Easing later on this year, with an eye towards totally ceasing bond purchases sometime in 2014. The markets puked on the news, and interest rates shot up, a move that was exacerbated...