The Fed and Treasury

Will Trump Try to ‘Overrule’ Monetary Policy?

By Mark Thoma

How will the Federal Reserve evolve during Donald Trump’s term as president? Presently, three of the seven positions on the Federal Reserve Board are vacant. These vacancies, along with the...
Why the Treasury Is Ending a Low-Income Retirement Saving Program

By Beth Braverman

Less than two years after the Obama administration rolled out a myRA, a savings program aimed at helping the millions of Americans without access to a retirement account through work, the Trump...
Will Janet Yellen Give Wall Street a Scare?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For years, the Federal Reserve has been unable to convince the market it's serious about aggressively tightening policy. Janet Yellen and her cohorts have been guilty of "crying wolf," constantly...
Is the Fed About to Wage War on the Rich?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For years, stocks have been driven relentlessly higher thanks to a single statement that summarized the aggressive central bank largesse since the eurozone crisis flared up in 2012: Policymakers...
Is the Fed Fighting the Trump Rally?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

The evidence is growing that the Federal Reserve’s policymakers are actively working to lean against the stock market's rise, a dramatic reversal from the years of policy support stock market bulls...

The Fed’s Big Mistake: Rate Hikes Hurt US Workers

By David Dayen

Protesters rallied in Washington, New York City and Philadelphia yesterday against an imminent government action that would damage the financial prospects of ordinary workers. And no, it had nothing...
The Fed, the Reality of Tax Cuts, and Donald Trump

By Mark Thoma

For many years, Republicans argued that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves. Cutting taxes on the wealthy, according to Republicans, allows them to keep a larger share of anything new they...
Will Unwinding the Fed’s $4.5 Trillion Balance Sheet Kill the Bull Market?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

Over the last decade, investors have grown accustomed to a Federal Reserve that constantly coddled them, allayed their fears and did everything possible to support the financial markets and asset...
The Key to This Market: Here’s What Will Determine if Stocks Rise or Fall

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For now, instead of putting pressure on risk assets, the Fed's newfound hawkishness is bolstering the reflation trade by lifting the dollar higher and attracting global capital into U.S. assets. Same...
Can Wall Street Handle Higher Interest Rates?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

The Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the second time in three months, signaling a dramatic quickening of its prior pace. For the first time in more than a decade, Fed policymakers are...

Here’s What Will Rock the Stock Market Next

By Patti Domm, CNBC

Earnings season may not give investors that warm and fuzzy feeling this quarter. For the first time in six years, earnings are in a real decline, expected to be negative with a 2.9 percent drop in S...
Bad Jobs Report Makes Markets Hyper Focused on Fed

By Patti Domm, CNBC

Spooked by March's crushingly weak jobs report, markets will be hyper-focused on any clues coming out of the Fed about whether a later rate hike is now more likely. March's report of just 126,000...
Why Conservatives Win When Expectations Rise

By Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Conservatism offers a winning agenda to people who want to be upwardly mobile—that is, almost everyone. In contrast, the liberal agenda focuses on keeping Americans safe, with an emphasis on food...
Blogging Bernanke Says He Didn’t ‘Throw Seniors Under the Bus’

By Yuval Rosenberg

Former Federal Reserve Chair knows how powerful words can be. “When I was at the Federal Reserve, I occasionally observed that monetary policy is 98 percent talk and only two percent action,” he...
Wall Street Looks to Critical March Jobs Report

By Patti Domm, CNBC

A truckload of data will hit markets in the coming week, but it's the jobs report Friday when Wall Street is closed that will be the most important and possibly have the most lasting impact. The...

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