U.S. monetary policy

Markets 16th March 2014

Land of the Free and Home of the Debt

WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Does anybody remember where the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was five years ago? At 666. Since then, the S&P 500 has gone up a whopping 175 percent. The market has defied fiscal cliffs, Republican obstructionism, three rounds of Quantitative Easing, the start of the Fed’s ‘tapering’, the change in Chinese leadership, the euro near-collapse, a nuclear catastrophe in Japan, a wave of revolutions in the Middle East, and even a Russian invasion of Crimea.

World economy 26th December 2013

QE Effects: Shut Your Eyes to The Evidence

MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | Monetary policy has worked in the countries which have implemented it without feeling ashamed. The US, UK, Japan or even Switzerland have reactivated their economies and diminished wealth imbalances, at least in comparison with the euro zone. However it is also truth that QE efficiency has performed poorly.

World economy 20th December 2013

Federal Reserve: “Extended Insurance”

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | The Fed has never been comfortable with QE3; Many thought that QE ineffective; Bernanke felt compelled to clear the path for Yellen… But it has boosted “Forward Guidance” to make up (or more than make up) for the “taper”.

Markets 17th December 2013

To Taper or Not to Taper

NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | As the Fed begins its last meeting of the year, the question is making big headlines and debates in the U.S. this week: Will the central bank start to wind down its $85 billion a month in asset purchases before or after March? The majority of economists were not expecting the Federal Reserve to leave QE before March. But the good data coming from China, the U.S. and Europe might be a game changer. [Video: CMC Markets]

World economy 18th November 2013

Groupthink, Plosser and the Fed – Oblations to Zero Inflation

By Benjamin Cole at Marcus Nunes’ Historinhas | Recently Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser opined that even periods of mild deflation could be welcome in the United States, and that Fed should have but a lone goal, and ideally that is zero inflation.

Markets 14th October 2013

U.S. Debt Ceiling: Watching and Waiting (Barclays)

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.

Markets 10th October 2013

Janet Yellen is ‘branded’

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | We know that over the next 10 years things only got worse and only got better when Volcker decided that to “live with inflation” was not a good deal. And things really improved when the Fed managed to keep the economy tracking a stable nominal trend level path.

World economy 9th October 2013

Janet Yellen: Here’s The Next Most Powerful Person in the World’s Economy

NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | If the Senate agrees and everything goes by the script, President Obama will pick Janet Yellen as the Federal Reserve’s next leader on Wednesday, the White House said. Ms. Yellen, 67, has been the Fed’s vice chairwoman since 2010 and would be the first woman to run the central bank. Among her first tasks is how quickly to wind down the U.S. expansionary monetary policy. Will she take even more aggressive measures to boost growth? If so, how will markets react?

Markets 17th September 2013

Don’t Panic -Fed’s Tapering Won’t Strictly Mean the Foot on the Brake

By Johannes Müller (Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management) | Fed’s tapering will be the beginning of a normalization of financial markets. The U.S. central bank is beginning to lift the foot off the accelerator, but it is unlikely that Bernanke and company will imminently step on the brake.