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...

Radical Fed Doves Actually Took a Middle Path on Interest Rates

By Rob Garver

The Fed will announce its intentions regarding an interest rate increase this afternoon, in another measure of Chair Janet Yellen’s supposed “Dovishness.” But the monetary policy debate has never...
Fannie and Freddie—Financial Zombies That Deserve a Burial

By Rob Garver

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be dead companies walking, but the federal government is the only thing that can kill these housing zombies. And it had little incentive to do so.
The Unsolved Jobs Mystery Facing the Fed

By Rob Garver

When the Federal Open Market Committee meets this week to try to assess the health of the economy, a key question will be the degree of “slack” in the labor market. Unfortunately, economists who...
Fed Watching: The Interest Rate Guessing Game Is Back in Style

By Rob Garver

It’s been a while since Fed-watchers really mattered, but a pair of calls by respected macroeconomic analysts suggests that the days of Jesuitical analysis of the U.S. central bank may be returning.
Investors in Denial Over Coming Fed Rate Hikes

By Anthony Mirhaydari

The percentage of bears in the Investors Intelligence survey has dropped to levels (13.3 percent) not seen since 1987. Morgan Stanley is calling for the S&P 500 to climb 50 percent to 3,000 by...

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