Tag: Jerome Powell

Interest Rate Changes Amidst Election Seasons

The Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, and the US Federal Reserve are between a rock and a hard place.

There is far too much that can be said on the topics of where interest rates should be and the timing of when interest rates will be adjusted (most likely lower in the near future). To sum it up: politics, political opinions and political pundits – not to mention political candidates of both parties – have now entered the picture, clouding the views of regular people on the street even smarter investors attuned to the finer points of stock and bond markets.

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Reality Bites

Today’s TGIF 2 Minutes was delayed to reflect a speech given earlier today in Jackson Hole, WY by US Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell.

Earlier today (Friday) US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke in a widely anticipated speech at an annual meeting of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. The market and investing worlds were looking for guidance from the Fed Chair regarding interest rates and future inflation. Part of the reason for the speech being so closely watched goes back to a former Fed Chair. For those old enough to remember, in December 1996 Alan Greenspan made a now famous speech that rocked the markets when he coined the term, “irrational exuberance.” Then Fed Chairman Greenspan commented,

  • “How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values…?” Greenspan went on, “We should not underestimate or become complacent about the complexity of the interactions of asset markets and the economy.”*

And down the markets went for a time. 

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Volatility & the Ides of March: What’s Next?

We have already had more volatility in the first three months of 2018 than we saw in ALL of 2017 and most of 2016 combined. Snow? On the first day of Spring!  Driverless cars on the road… What’s next?

The snow wasn’t the worst part of it. Facebook stumbled this week amidst legitimate concerns of how honest it is with protecting its user data. This is not the first time Facebook has faced the issue of deceiving its users: back in 2012 under a decree with the FTC Facebook had to agree to get user consent in order to share users’ personal data with others.

Ides of March
It’s been an interesting March.  What’s next?

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