If there was any confusion why the Fed intends to keep hiking rates, even in the face of negative economic data, it was all put to rest today when not one, not two but three Fed speakers, including the two most important ones, made it very clear that the Fed's only intention at this point is to burst the asset bubble.
While the old saying is "they don't ring a bell at the top," we suspect Fed vice-chair Stanley Fischer just came as close as one can without screaming "sell."
It's getting clearer that Fed officials are getting concerned about where asset markets are going.
Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,
There has been a whole lot of ink spilled on the reason for the Fed’s recent break from data dependence. Many pundits believe the Federal Reserve’s hawkish guidance, even in the face of low inflation readings, is a partisan attempt by Yellen & Co. to derail the weak recovery. I don’t buy that argument. To think the FOMC board would leave rates easy for Obama or Hillary, but raise them for Trump is just foolish. The Fed might be incompetent, but they aren’t so blatantly biased.
S&P futures point to a higher open following gains in Asian markets supported by stronger commodities but mostly European bourses, which are sharply higher following the €17 billion bailout of the two Veneto banks in Italy, the biggest taxpayer funded bank rescue in modern Italian history, as well as Dan Loeb's activist campaign of the world's biggest food company, Nestle which sent the stock up 5%, and finally Germany's Ifo business climate index which hit new all time highs.
Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
Last week, a gunman opened fire on a group of Republican members of Congress. Letters sent by the gunman to his local newspaper suggest he was obsessed with Republican policies, and concluded that Donald Trump "Has Destroyed Our Democracy" [sic] and that "It's Time to Destroy Trump and Co."