The Federal Reserve kept interest rates
steady on Wednesday and signaled that it may not raise them again
anytime soon, a surprising reversal from last month, when the central
bank indicated it expected to continue raising rates in 2019. In a statement
following a two-day meeting of its policymaking committee, the Fed said
that economic growth remained “solid,” and that it expected growth to
continue.
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Lower Rates Already Hit Housing. They’re Not Helping Much.
Cheaper mortgages are usually a boon to the housing market. But this
year, a sharp drop in mortgage rates hasn’t provided much of a lift, and
that could bode poorly for the Federal Reserve’s efforts to shore up
economic growth.
Fed Cuts Interest Rates for First Time Since 2008 Crisis
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates
for the first time in more than a decade on Wednesday as it attempted to
guard the record-long economic expansion against mounting global risks. The
widely expected quarter-point move, the Fed’s first since it cut rates
to near zero in 2008, is meant to protect the economy against the
potentially harmful effects of a growth slowdown in China and Europe and
uncertainty from President Trump’s trade war.
With the economy on the line, the Fed prepares to take its biggest gamble in years
The Federal Reserve this week is all but certain to
cut interest rates despite unemployment being at historic lows, a highly
unusual action that is shaping up to be the biggest gamble of Fed Chair
Jerome H. Powell’s brief tenure as leader of the world’s most powerful
economic institution. Some economists, Fed officials and people on Main Street say the Fed’s
action will benefit the stock market more than the real economy. And
they argue cutting rates would introduce risks that could worsen the
next downturn.
Fed Chair Powell vows to ‘sustain the expansion’ but not in the way Trump wants
President Trump escalated his unprecedented attacks against America’s
central bank Friday, calling Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell an
“enemy” of the United States that is as bad as China, a tweet that
triggered a stock market slide and came minutes after Powell vowed to
keep the economy growing.
Wall Street Is Buzzing About Repo Rates. Here’s Why.
Investors take for granted that the Federal Reserve controls interest rates. But
a surprisingly lively couple of days in short-term money markets has
meant that the “how” became nearly as important as the “why.” The stress started on Monday in the market for repurchase agreements, or repos. Repos are short-term loans mainly used by banks and hedge funds in their daily bond trading and brokerage businesses.
It Will Take More Than Lower Mortgage Rates for a Housing Rally
The Federal Reserve is hoping that its latest interest-rate cut will help keep the economy safely at cruising altitude. But don’t expect it to provide much of a lift to the housing market. Few economists expect the housing market to take off in response to
this week’s rate cut, because rates aren’t what was holding back housing
in the first place. Instead, they point to other factors.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell warns Congress that $1 trillion budget deficits are unsustainable
Federal
Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell told Congress on Tuesday that now
would be a good time to reduce the federal budget deficit, which is
expected to top $1 trillion this year.“Putting
the federal budget on a sustainable path when the economy is strong
would help ensure that policymakers have the space to use fiscal policy
to assist in stabilizing the economy during a downturn,” Powell said in
testimony to the House Financial Services Committee.