Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, devoted more than an hour last week talking by telephone with three Chicago area residents struggling to find jobs. On Monday, she made their stories the centerpiece of the first public speech in her new job, delivering a strong statement about her concern over unemployment, her conviction that the … Continue reading
Transcript of Chair Yellen’s Press Conference March 19, 2014 CHAIR JANET L. YELLEN. Good afternoon. I am pleased to join you for the first of my post-FOMC press conferences. Like Chairman Bernanke before me, I appreciate the opportunity these press conferences afford to explain the decisions of the FOMC and respond to your questions. The … Continue reading
Ryan Avent, having exhausted his conventional analysis of the Fed’s 2008 transcripts, turns today to a more analytical approach: counting words. I think others have already made this point without numbers, but Avent’s most powerful finding is that the Fed cares way more about inflation than it does about unemployment: There is only one winner … Continue reading
Just because the unemployment rate is falling rapidly, don’t think for a minute that the economy is close to a full recovery. That’s the message Janet Yellen delivered in her first appearance on Capitol Hill since she took the reins of the Federal Reserve. Follow along with MarketWatch’s live blog of Janet Yellen’s testimony. Speaking … Continue reading
The overhaul of forward guidance sees the direct link with employment dropped so the Bank can focus on a much wider range of indicators. Presenting today’s Inflation Report the governor outlined “the next phase” of forward guidance, saying the Bank aims to see all spare capacity in the UK economy absorbed before it will lift … Continue reading
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron defended Mark Carney after the Bank of England governor said that policy makers will review forward guidance next month. Carney, who said last year that unemployment would need to fall to 7 percent before the BOE would consider raising interest rates, has seen the jobless rate drop faster than forecast. … Continue reading
The Fed’s reliance on the unemployment rate for determining when to pull back on bond purchases may prove troublesome. That’s because statistics on the supply of labor are notoriously tricky to evaluate, particularly when it comes to gaging their relationship to inflation Continue reading
The Committee also reaffirmed its expectation that the current exceptionally low target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent will be appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6-1/2 percent, inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal, and longer-term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored Continue reading
The Federal Reserve should not keep changing the goalposts for raising interest rates, a top Fed official said, just a week before the U.S. central bank convenes a policy-setting meeting where that possibility is likely to be discussed. Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told an agricultural group in Chicago that the Fed’s current threshold for … Continue reading
Analysis suggests that in the United States today, it might be appropriate for interest rates to remain low until unemployment crosses a “threshold” as low as 5.5 percent Continue reading
Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday robustly defended the Federal Reserve’s bold steps to spur economic growth, calling efforts to boost hiring an “imperative” at a hearing into her nomination to become the first woman to lead the U.S. central bank Continue reading
“As long as inflationary expectations are held at bay, we can fully open the monetary throttle in an effort to deliver on the mandate Congress gave us to help achieve full employment,” said Fisher. “But it is for naught as long as the fiscal authorities are slamming on the brakes and leaving everyone in the dark as to how they will cure the fiscal mess they have wrought.” Continue reading
The Federal Reserve may need to let inflation run a little higher than its 2-percent target in order to bring down unemployment faster, a top Fed official said on Saturday. Strictly capping inflation at 2 percent while allowing high unemployment to linger would be an “inappropriate” approach to monetary policy, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President … Continue reading
The Federal Reserve set the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 25 basis points in December 2008. It has remained there because the recovery in output and jobs has been so slow. The rate was set so low to stimulate aggregate demand and job growth (by lowering borrowing costs for consumers … Continue reading
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard gave remarks Wednesday on “Some Unpleasant Implications for Unemployment Targeters” at the 22nd Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference. During his presentation, Bullard noted that the U.S. unemployment rate remains high by historical standards and that it has declined about 0.7 percentage points per year from its … Continue reading