The US Federal Reserve stunned markets by raising its discount rate (the interest rate it charges banks for emergency loans) by 25bps to 0.75%. The news sent the pound down to its lowest level against the US dollar in nine months, while Asian equity markets reacted cautiously as they digested the news...
Posted to
Finance
on 02-19-2010
Filed under: All Financial News, Economy News, Federal Reserve, US, unemployment, growth, withdraw, surprise, markets, stimulus measures, raise, monetary policy, discount rate
Perhaps it’s the material I’m reading day-in and day-out, but it’s been my understanding that one of the major causes (if not THE cause) of the U.S. housing bubble was abnormally-low interest rates in the wake of the 2001 recession.
The current Fed chair wouldn’t agree with this assertion, however...
Posted to
Economics
on 01-05-2010
Filed under: Housing, Federal Reserve, Central Banks, housing bubble, housing bust, Inflation, Interest Rates, Monetary policy, Ben Bernanke, Bubbles, Fed, financial regulation, John Taylor, Taylor Rule
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is today expected to keep UK interest rates on hold at the historically low level of 0.5% for the ninth month in a row.
Last month, the Bank announced that it would pump another £25 billion into the economy under its quantitative easing programme...
Posted to
Finance
on 12-10-2009
Filed under: All Financial News, Economy News, quantitative easing, interest rates, Bank of England, unchanged, MPC, programme, QE, monetary policy
Dubai is not systemically signficant. If its troubles open our eyes to the imminence of the likely last leg of the journey from household default through bank default to sovereign default, it may do some systemic good, by alerting fiscal policy makers to the vulnerability of their nations’ fiscal...
Posted to
Comment
on 11-29-2009
Filed under: Economics, Politics, Monetary Policy, Religion, Financial Markets, Ethics, European Union, International Trade, Finance, uk economy