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Showing posts with label Jerome Powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerome Powell. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2026
Former Fed Chairs finally stand up for Powell in public
Greenspan, Bernanke, and Yellen say Trump using ‘prosecutorial attacks’ to undermine Fed
... “The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence,” a statement backed by more than a dozen signatories said.
“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly,” it continued. “It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success.” ...
“The Federal Reserve’s independence and the public’s perception of that independence are critical for economic performance, including achieving the goals Congress has set for the Federal Reserve of stable prices, maximum employment, and moderate long-term interest rates,” the statement said. ...
Mad King Ludwig's disgusting vendetta against Jerome Powell escalates into DOJ criminal probe of Fed Chair's oversight of building renovations
What this really is is Mad King Ludwig's builder's envy. He thinks he should be in charge of the literal remaking of every Washington edifice, just as he thinks he should be in charge of everything else, including interest rates.
Powell's term expires on May 15, but the lunatic we put in charge of the country just can't let Powell fade away without picking this disgusting fight over nothing.
The Department of Justice should be ashamed of itself, but like most MAGAts, it is incapable of shame.
Watch here.
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Trump's mortgage bond proposal imitates his own "stupid" Jerome Powell on the financing side to reduce interest rates, which is what helped make homes 50% more unaffordable in the first place
The perfect storm of government MBS purchases and sub-3% mortgages through ZIRP in 2021 combined to rocket housing values by 50%.
Housing reached record low affordability a year later, falling to 17.22%.
Yeah, let's do more of that.
Back in the 1990s, before Bill Clinton and the Uniparty got a hold of it and turned it into a commodity, housing was stable and affordable as median income bought 25% of a home.
Trump hasn't gotta clue what to do.
... In the first two months of the Covid pandemic, as markets reeled, the Federal Reserve purchased $580 billion in agency MBS. It then continued buying more throughout the year. From March 2020 through June 2021, the Federal Reserve increased its agency MBS holdings from $1.4 trillion to $2.3 trillion, according to the Dallas Fed.
The Federal Reserve also lowered its own lending rate to zero. The combination brought the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage to record lows, hitting just 2.75% at the start of 2021, according to Mortgage News Daily. ...
... But Zelman also points out that in the broader home market it’s not just the mortgage rate, but overall affordability that is keeping buyers sidelined. Consumers are stretched, and home prices are close to 50% higher than they were pre-pandemic, ironically because of those record-low mortgage rates brought on by MBS purchases. ...
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Friday, December 19, 2025
Monday, August 25, 2025
The Financial Times is full of it about a rate cut, and can't even spell
... the Fed chair is clearly more convinced by the employment side of that equation, indicating that “adjustment” may be necessary — a big hint that the central bank is poised to restart cuts in interest rates next month.
This was itself a surprise to investors, who seemingly were expecting a snoozefest. The dollar dropped sharply, government bonds jumped in price and stocks picked up at the end of a rough week as markets baked in those new expectations. A cut next month is now seen as a done deal, with likely chops in the following two meetings too. ...
If employment data for August picks up from its summer lull, which we will not know until the first week of September, then the Fed will be in the awkward spot of cutting interest rates in to a decent jobs market with inflation still running above target. “The Fed would risk a policy error if it were to cut rates,” warned analysts at Bank of America. ...
The Fed is supported by structures that protect its independence, but anyone who doubts Trump’s desire and willingness to bend it towards his will is kidding themself ...
More.
Complete tosh.
The Fed is data dependent, and there are two inflation readings and one employment report intervening before the next rate decision.
Powell never even got close to saying the FOMC was poised to make a policy change. His remarks, as always, emphasize data and contextualize hypotheticals, that's all.
The press are scoundrels trying to bully the Fed like this. They are on Trump's level in Dante's Inferno.
Powell said conditions "may warrant adjusting our policy stance." That could include a rate hike as well as a rate cut. He said "risks to inflation are tilted to the upside" while "the labor market appears to be in balance" even after the huge downward revisions to total nonfarm employment which got the head of the BLS fired.
In fact, he said that the latest data for July core pce inflation, which won't be out until Friday, indicate 2.9% year over year, an uptick from June's 2.8%. That's not good news for the rate cut cheerleaders, and that's why no one is reporting it.
The FOMC is not going to cut the interest rate if that happens and employment remains steady.
August 29 and September 5 will tell us what is likely to happen on September 17, not The Financial Times. Fittingly, the ignoramus for The Financial Times ends her column with a preposition.
And don't forget core cpi inflation on September 11. Powell & Company will have all the very latest data for their decision, on which they will rely:
Monetary policy is not on a preset course. FOMC members will make these decisions, based solely on their assessment of the data and its implications for the economic outlook and the balance of risks. We will never deviate from that approach.
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at new record high Friday Aug 22 after Powell throws red meat
Dow surges more than 800 points to post record close as Powell speech fuels rally: Live updates
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to an all-time high Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank could begin easing monetary policy next month.
The Dow climbed 846.24 points, or 1.89%, reaching a fresh high and closing at a record level of 45,631.74.
The S&P 500 rose 1.52% to end at 6,466.91. At its session high, the broad market index came within three points of its record.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.88% and settled at 21,496.53. ...
Thursday, August 21, 2025
Trump adds $1 trillion to the national debt in record time and S&P Global underscores its own irrelevance by maintaining the U.S. AA+ credit rating
Trump tariff revenue expected to offset tax bill impact, S&P says in U.S. credit rating hold
... "We could lower the rating over the next two to three years if already high deficits increase ..." lol.
These people are afraid of Trump.
They don't want to be singled out for Trump's daily Two Minutes Hate.
They don't want to be the next Jerome Powell, or Lisa Cook, or Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meanwhile year to date the Trump deficit is running $112 billion ahead of Biden's last deficit. DOGE so-called spending cuts and Trump Tariffs have done nothing to reduce it.
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Friday, July 18, 2025
What a shock, right, Trump's attacks on Powell's extravagance turn out to be completely hypocritical, including when you consider that he redecorated the Oval Orifice in gold leaf
... As the Fed moved forward with plans to renovate its Great
Depression-era headquarters in Washington during Trump’s first term, it
faced concerns in 2020 during a vetting process involving Trump
appointees, who called for more “white Georgia marble” for the facade of
building.
The Fed’s architects said the central bank had wanted glass walls to
reflect the Fed as a transparent institution, but three Trump appointees
to a local commission felt marble best fit the building’s historic
character. Marble was added as a result, according to the minutes of the
Commission of Fine Arts, which advises the federal government on
architecture. ...
Russ Vought, Trump’s top budget adviser, cited “premium marble” in a letter to Powell last week as an example of the “ostentatious overhaul.” ...
Trump issued [an] executive order in December 2020, which criticized modernist architecture and expressed a preference for “beautiful” classical buildings with more [costly] traditional designs. ...
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Trump's stupid bullying of Jerome Powell is analogous to his stupid bullying of Canada's Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney
Jerome Powell doesn't set interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee sets interest rates. That's why the release of the committee's prior meeting minutes is always keenly awaited and is by itself a major market mover. Powell's is one vote among many on the FOMC:
Where
interest rates should be today, and when they should be reduced, is
already a topic of debate inside the Fed, a decision, it should be
noted, that cannot be made unilaterally by the chair. Powell’s
leadership and professionalism does not appear to be a concern within
the halls of the central bank. Certainly, none of his colleagues,
present or past, have made the case that he is incompetent.
Similarly the Canadian Prime Ministers' control over trade decisions is also muted, deferring as they must to provincial and territorial authorities.
Trump bullies people like this who cannot make unilateral changes to policy in order to make himself look like an assertive leader to his equally stupid followers.
That's why people like Larry Kudlow disgust me. He knows what I am writing is true, but he joins in on the pig pile nonetheless.
Greater things are at stake in this than interest rate policy. Trump is playing with fire.
Friday, July 11, 2025
This dope who works for Trump can barely speak English, is just looking for any way he can to oust Fed Chair Jay Powell
These people make me sick.
The renovations were approved in 2021 and won't be finished until long after Powell leaves next May.
It's an investigation with a pre-drawn conclusion, that's all.
... “When you go to the nation’s mall, you see the construction of this palace ... upwards of $2.5 billion massive cost overrun, and we want to make sure we have facts as to the largesse and the extent to which it’s overrun,” Vought said during a “Squawk Box” interview. “I think it just points to the fundamental mismanagement of the Fed under the chairman.” ...
″The problem with Chairman Powell is he has been late at every turn,” Vought said. “It’s time to lower rates. You have a problem there. But again, this is about the largesse and the fact that he has systemically mismanaged the Fed, and that is evident by what we’re seeing with regard to this monstrosity, this Palace of Versailles, on the National Mall.” ...
“This certainly has to do with the fiscal mismanagement of the Fed, of which [interest rates] is one aspect of it,” he said. “We are going to zoom in over the last several days on this. We have new commissioners at the National Capital Planning Commission who are asking very tough questions.” ...
Ron Insana: Why Trump’s new attack on Powell should be so troubling to investors
... If
I were a foreign investor witnessing the ouster of a Fed chair,
replaced by a presidential supplicant, I’d sell the dollar and U.S.
bonds and head for the hills. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Methinks J. D. Vance doth protest too much about Jerome Powell
It backfired on Powell, though.
Yields climbed in response. 10Y went from 3.63 on Sep 16 to 4.37 by Nov 1. And core PCE inflation shot back up.
It's proof yet again that the Fed has next to no control over interest rates. It's one of the great myths of our time that it does, a myth Vance believes.
If Powell had cut and Kamala won, irrespective of what rates or inflation did, Vance might have an argument. He should quit complaining and take the win.
Meanwhile core PCE inflation was 2.66 in Sep 2024, same as it was in Mar 2025.
You'd think twice about trying that again, too, if you got burned like that, especially if you're being hectored by the tag-team wrestlers of the Oval Orifice.
Thursday, June 12, 2025
It's stupid for Trump to riff off today's producer price report and call Jay Powell names because the number is likely to be revised higher, and besides, that's just poor form, old boy
May 2025 core producer prices, aka core wholesale prices, were reported today up 3.02% year over year. That will doubtlessly be revised up, especially as we get farther away from May.
Today's chart indicates April was up 3.18% yoy, but was originally reported at 3.1%. The latter was already rounded up, but the former rounds up to 3.2%. We'll see if that gets revised higher in coming months as well.
March was up 3.91% yoy we are told today, but originally it was reported at 3.3%.
February was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.4%.
January was up 3.92%, but originally reported at 3.6%.
December was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.5%.
The average up revision, including April, has been 0.3.
Be that as it may, we have in the May report nine consecutive months with core producer prices up in excess of 3% year over year.
Meanwhile for the nine years 2012-2020, the average increase was 1.62% yoy. I don't call producer prices rising at a rate 85% higher than that in May 2025 good news. It may be "less bad" news, but that doesn't make it good news.
Trump's a jerk to Powell. Vance is a very polished jerk. Remember his treatment of Zelenskyy? Stephen Miller is a jerk to Rand Paul. If you've seen the Trump cabinet in action, many of whom are political losers, you've seen even more insulting jerks. They may be descendants of the people of Jerkola for all I know, but I can only speculate.
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