Us Monetary Policy News

The minutes cover the Fed’s Sept. 16-17 policy meeting, where officials lowered rates by a quarter percentage point and signaled two more cuts by year-end.

It isn't just Swifties who'll be cheering by the release of ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ Swift's 12th studio album.

Recent speeches by Fed officials suggest a deepening divide over the future path of rate cuts.

Fed rate cuts affect your investments in several ways but aren't a reason to overhaul your portfolio entirely. Some tweaks at the margin are all you need.

The president’s intention to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook could give him sway over the central bank’s rate-setting power.

The US central bank plans to reduce its pace of quantitative tightening. Don’t read too much into this. It’s not about an economic weakness. Rather, it looks like liquidity management to prevent a scramble among banks that could result in an interest rate spike.

Slowing its balance-sheet runoff means the Fed will buy more Treasuries. But don’t look for any big downdraft in yields.

Trump’s options include depriving the US Fed of autonomy, taxing Treasury bonds held abroad, buying other currencies and pushing for a Plaza Accord-like pact. All these ideas have flaws, even if tariff threats are used against trade partners.

Retail inflation was 5.2% in December, down from 5.5% the month earlier. The hope is that it cools off further and India’s upcoming budget doesn’t stoke price pressures.

The US central bank must focus attention more tightly on incoming data and not on plans about the policy rate path that aren’t actually plans, promises or even coherent consensus forecasts. It should also dump its confusing dot plot.