LONDON | By Barclays analysts | A new equilibrium has emerged where the Fed has managed to anchor front end rates via rates guidance while preparing markets for tapering. This environment remains risk friendly, but its stability is vulnerable to the speed of the recovery.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | The Fed minutes came out. The stock market didn’t appreciate it, at least immediately. Bernanke’s concept of “open and transparent” monetary policy is really something!
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | Thursday was Janet Yellen’s big day. In front of the Senate Banking Committee she ran through her prepared speech (released by the Fed on Wednesday) and acknowledged “the risks” of injecting QE steroids to the U.S. economy for too long. However, she argued, inflation is still too low and unemployment rate, too high. “The benefits exceed the costs” of the Fed’s current policies, she said. Will we see any tapering soon? Certainly, but not yet.
Markets have started the week in a relatively directionless fashion amid slow-moving progress in Washington, Barclays analysts point out. That lack of decision could make the Fed delay the tapering until 2014, keeping downward pressure on the USD.
By Mike Konczal via The Next New Deal | There’s going to be a new Federal Reserve chair nominated in a few weeks. Last year, asking if the candidates supported the Evans Rule and QE3 would have helped us figure out if they took their role seriously. This year, the questions are more vague.