Fed Raises Key Rate By a Half-Point in Bid To Tame Inflation (apnews.com) 118
The Federal Reserve intensified its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by raising its benchmark short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday -- its most aggressive move since 2000 -- and signaling further large rate hikes to come. From a report: The increase in the Fed's key rate raised it to a range of 0.75% to 1%, the highest point since the pandemic struck two years ago. The Fed also announced that it will start reducing its huge $9 trillion balance sheet, which consists mainly of Treasury and mortgage bonds. Those holdings more than doubled after the pandemic recession hit as the Fed bought trillions in bonds to try to hold down long-term borrowing rates. Reducing the Fed's holdings will have the effect of further raising loan costs throughout the economy. All told, the Fed's credit tightening will likely mean higher loan rates for many consumers and businesses over time, including for mortgages, credit cards and auto loans. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Chair Jerome Powell made clear that further large rate hikes are coming. "There is a broad sense on the committee," he said, referring to the Fed, "that additional (half-point) increases should be on the table in the next couple of meetings."
Being older has its advantages (Score:2)
My wife and paid off our mortgage late last year. We're targeting paying off the home equity line of credit (which has a variable rate) within the next 10 months.
Fortunately we're still a few years from retirement... I imagine stocks may take a bit of a short-term hit, and nowadays that's where a big chunk of most people's retirement money lives.
Re: Being older has its advantages (Score:2)
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Beware the bottom is a temporary one, the big crash people are waiting for has not happened yet - I'd say credit breaks first.
I still have money in stocks but got entirely out of teh tech sector a year ago, and am mostly in commodities now. They may go down a bit in a crash, but will rally much stronger than non-value stocks. If I can discern a really huge crash is imminent I'll probably pull half out though...
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Now people that were dealing with ARMs and other adjustable rates.. yes, they are concerned... (we refinanced at the bottom with 1.99 rates).. BUT, the upside to this, is finally savings and other banking rates will start to rise (for a long time, you had slightly higher interest rates than simply keeping your money under the mattress).
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playing chicken with the Fed
This. There are legions of brokers and analysts who, in their entire careers, have not yet seen a real correction, let alone a panic. All they worry about is the drying up of free money for their bonuses. This applies to the herd and the Fed too. Nobody knows what is going to happen but if you have the slightest idea of what can happen in the current environment you'd have to be a moron not to be scared shitless. I don't think circuit breakers could hold it back.
Re:Being older has its advantages (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm going the other way with this - my wife and I just bought a house in December, and we're laughing at the banks now because the mortgage rates are about double today what they were 6 months ago. We locked our rate at the bottom of the graph, and now the bank gets to lose money on our loan for the duration of this inflationary period and beyond.
At today's rates, we would not have been able to afford this house and maintain our wanted levels of savings, investment, and retirement contributions.
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I say, sort of. Had rates not been so low, the price of the home wouldn't have been so high.
True, after rates go up it takes a while for prices to go down (or rather, waiting or inflation to effectively reduce prices, since home prices and salaries are stubbornly resistant to nominal dollar decreases) - making now an awful time to buy.
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True, after rates go up it takes a while for prices to go down (or rather, waiting or inflation to effectively reduce prices, since home prices and salaries are stubbornly resistant to nominal dollar decreases) - making now an awful time to buy.
This. I'd guess that average prices might fall a little over the next 6-9 months, but not notably and definitely not where I'm living (we were seeing offers get turned down at asking price before the pandemic here). Inflation will catch up soonish (I'm thinking closer to a year) and the buying power will likely hit the same as the average about 18 months ago for the same average home.
I truly feel bad for the people who start looking to purchase a house in the next...six months or so? I'm betting the Fed'
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I'm lucky enough to have bought circa '13, and refinance in the summer of '21. I'm up almost 100% over my original buying price (184% based on this year's tax assessment, 195% based on Zillow's current guess [which my friends in the market say Zillow estimates are low]).
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Be aware of a potential snafu (Score:2)
my wife and I just bought a house in December, and we're laughing at the banks now because the mortgage rates are about double today what they were 6 months ago. We locked our rate at the bottom of the graph, and now the bank gets to lose money on our loan for the duration of this inflationary period and beyond.
That is true for a while, but there's a potential danger point in the future you should be aware of.
The thing is if inflation gets really, really bad - banks can re-value mortgages. This is not just
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Except that we made a 20% down payment and the house appraised higher than the price we paid, so we walked in with >20% equity. And even if that gets wiped away, we're not moving or selling so we won't realize any loss anyway, so it's all an academic problem. And it won't be "decades" even if it does drop some because we're in a neighborhood that is consistently rated as one of the most desirable areas in the state, year after year.
Context matters.
Valuations only matter if we sell or use it as collater
Too worried about appearance than fact (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Too worried about appearance than fact (Score:4, Informative)
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You mean we didn't Drain The Swamp?
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In 2020,the fed came to the rescue when junk bond markets froze up
This phase started in 2019 [wallstreetonparade.com]. Look who's in the center, our favorite suicide advocacy center [lawandcrime.com]
Then came a virus which sat down beside us...
Re:Too worried about appearance than fact (Score:5, Informative)
Except they are audited yearly and you can view all their financial statements online [federalreserve.gov]
And the Fed Board of Governors are all President appointed and Senate confirmed like most other agencies.
Just because the President can't order the Fed to do what they want doesn't mean there is zero oversight or as some people like to call it "a private organization".
Due to the nature of what it's goals are it's a good thing that the President or Congress can't bully them into making snap decisions.
Now that certainly doesn't mean you have to agree with their decisions but there is oversight.
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Sure, might be true, just don't hurt your back moving those goalposts.
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The FED is not a government ...
The Great Recession and the financial gymnastics the Fed did in cahoots with Treasury dispelled the last vestige of any meaningful distinction between the Fed and the US government. Only pedants still entertain this legal fiction. The fact that the Fed enjoys extra-constitutional independence despite this recent history is an affordance our elites have no intention of surrendering. An illegitimate distortion of the US government, in other words.
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We got here because the FED didn't let those companies suffer with the rest of us through the pandemic.
You mean the FED is the reason that basically every country in the world is suffering through record inflation?
I think we got here for a myriad of complex macroeconomic reasons but you are trying to blame a single boogeyman.
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> The FED is not a government agency in that they are a independent organization that doesn't have the oversite that other agencies have.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is a government agency. The regional Federal Reserve banks are not. Guess who makes monetary policy?
It is also worth mentioning that the Federal Reserve banks are required by law to forward almost their entire profit to the United States Treasury. The dividends the nominal shareholders get to keep are a rounding error by compar
Will this work? (Score:2)
I'm not an economist, and here is where my understanding of inflation breaks down:
1)They raise the interest rates, so it's more expensive to borrow money
2)A big part of the current inflation is sky-rocketting housing prices.
3)They have just made it MUCH more expensive for someone to buy a house.
So, the rest of the externalities affected by raising the interest rates has to offset this massive inflation in the housing market.
Can it? It will slow down buying houses, and the normal effect would be lowering hou
Here's the coming solution (Score:1)
Can it? It will slow down buying houses, and the normal effect would be lowering housing prices, but I'm not sure that is going to work.
What will actually happen is the magic trick of a government supported 40-year loan, which allows for housing prices to keep rising but monthly payments to take a big drop. When that happens in fact housing prices will get even a bit of a further boost...
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Re: Will this work? (Score:5, Informative)
Raising interest rates puts downward pressure on home values. No one can afford a $800k mortgage at 10%. Plenty of people can afford a $800k mortgage at 2%.
Our goal should be a housing market collapse. Until housing prices start falling, interest rates should keep rising.
Re: Will this work? (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't want a collapse. You want a controlled descent. Collapses tend to upset the rest of the economy.
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Our goal should be a housing market collapse.
The great part about your goal is that the poor and middle income suffer the most. As usual when people think there's a quick fire solution to the many economic conditions that cause rising house prices.
Re: Will this work? (Score:2)
People who think homes are investments lose. Society wins.
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People who think homes are investments can afford to just sit on them for a decade, or however long it takes 'til people realize that they want to live somewhere.
Re: Will this work? (Score:2)
They can. And that's exactly what the banks holding all the foreclosed mortgages ended up doing. But sitting on inventory waiting years for profits is not how these people run their businesses. They'd sell if they could do so without collapsing the price of their inventory. So, keep the pressure up. Tax non-resident homes until they are so expensive to own that no one wants one. Then they'll offload all their inventory at firesale.
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I'd be with you if it wasn't that I'm sitting in the uncomfortable position of actually working in two different towns. So my choice will be to either pay an insane tax or to spend about as much on hotel rooms?
Re: Will this work? (Score:2)
When discussing poor people and home values, pricing the homes in dollars is misleading. One family can only live in one home. As long as that home can be traded for another home, it doesn't matter what the $ amount was or how it changed over time.
In a healthy housing market, homes don't gain value when adjusted for inflation. Any gains should be seen as transient effects by actual homeowners.
In addition, because home ownership is the primary mechanism for capital accumulation among the lower middle class,
Re: Will this work? (Score:5, Interesting)
Forcing housing prices to fall by raising mortgage rates doesn't make housing more affordable. It shifts a greater percentage of what people can pay for housing to banks and away from the builders, reducing the incentive to build more housing. Unless builders provide financing themselves to work around this, the supply curve shifts up and the market clearing price actually *increases* while the quantity supplied decreases.
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In the last housing crash in the UK, I remember a story of some bloke and his wife. They'd bought a second home and rented it out. It had gone so well, they bought a third using the additional income they were getting as the means to do so. So it went on until they owned 11 houses.
Then house prices crashed - at lot. Maybe 20% knocked off the price of any house. A couple of tenants left and they had no money, so they went to sell one of their houses - only the sale price was less than the mortgage outstandin
Re:Will this work? (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is all brought to you by the people that insist that if prices lower over time, something they call deflation, that its a bad thing.
Why do you use the generic term "people" instead of calling them economic and financial experts, and everyone who has researched macroeconomics over the past 100 years.
Deflation is absolutely a bad thing for many well researched and repeatedly proven reasons. If you think it isn't then you need to go back to school.
That doesn't mean high inflation is a good thing. There's a goldilocks zone where an economy functions ideally (between 1.5-3.5% inflation) give or take 0.5% depending which research you read.
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This is all brought to you by the people that insist that if prices lower over time, something they call deflation, that its a bad thing.
I get what you're saying, but the reason deflation is generally considered bad is that it indicates that demand is not keeping up with supply capacity. When your entire economic theory is based on the presumption of 'unlimited wants' then deflation indicates a bit of a problem with either the theory or the practice - you should not be able to end up in a situation where demand cannot easily overrun supply capacity.
TLDR: It's more that deflation indicates a symptom of a terribly misfiring economy, rather tha
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I get what you're saying, but the reason deflation is generally considered bad is that it indicates that demand is not keeping up with supply capacity.
This suggests... that perhaps maybe... its not deflation thats bad, yes?
Seems to prove that deflation isnt a bad thing at all, but is in fact the market trying to heal itself.
Now imagine the market doing that healing thing, but there wasnt anything to heal. Maybe it becomes an outstanding thing, yes?
Isnt it outstanding that 6502 compatible chips can be gotten for pennies now? The price went down, but its not a bad thing, yes?
Stop dreaming up reasons to hate prices going down. Start looking for reas
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Erh... deflation IS a bad thing. First, the obvious one: If my money is worth more tomorrow than it is today, why should I part with it if I don't absolutely HAVE TO buy today? I could buy tomorrow for cheaper.
And second, the cause and effect of it: A deflationary system usually means that the supply outstrips demand. There are more goods offered than there is demand for. Either because people don't want to buy, because they don't have to, or because they cannot buy, because they have no money. And that cou
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Erh... deflation IS a bad thing. First, the obvious one: If my money is worth more tomorrow than it is today, why should I part with it if I don't absolutely HAVE TO buy today? I could buy tomorrow for cheaper.
You are saying that JIT is good for middle men, but not good for the regular joe?
Thats exactly what you are saying, without showing why.
Why is it a bad thing? Why in your world does everyone gets to be efficient, except for the end user?
Your healthy economy seems to require inefficiency. Whats up with that?
Re:Will this work? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't think 20% deserves an "only".
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If you bought an extra house with free cash the past year or so, it was to hedge against inflation. After everything falls out, you still have an extra house, worth one house.
These were not get rich speculation, just fears of inflation.
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Every fifth house in your country is gobbled up by investors?
I would call that a considerable reason for concern. Because that means something. Investors aren't stupid. They put their money where they expect the largest revenue. They expect these 20% of real estate to be in demand, because else they would not have bought them. That means that 20% of your real estate just got more expensive because of these flow heaters of economy. Because that's all they do: They increase the price of something to make a cu
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It will work, and much sooner than expected. There's a good chance that CPI has peaked and is on the downslope going forward.
Volcker had to deal with a persistent, 10-years long inflation. This time around it's a one-time spike.
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You are describing the situation as it stands. The question is will these issues persist? CPI and PPI spikes came about from a pent up demand, disrupted supply and increased oil prices. All of these are one time events, not "structural". They will be resolved using market forces (eg. consumers have been satiated with products, China is interested in fixing its blockages to get its own economy working, oil crisis is being dealt with via additional supply).
We are reverting to the disinflationary trend that's
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Let's put your insults and anger aside. The problem with your argument is that it describes a consensus view. This view will be proven wrong over the course of the summer 2022. I'd love to explain why, but don't have the desire to deal with assholes today. Good luck with your investments.
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Who is going to buy them all? Mexican immigrants?
Yes, after the housing crash. Oh wait, that was your point :)
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prices. 3)They have just made it MUCH more expensive for someone to buy a house.
Even with record high levels of corporate investment nationally in the US, they only bought 20% of single family homes. Thus, unless the market changes dramatically quite a few less people will be able to afford them homesteaded, thus the price increases are going to drop off if not flatten as buyers dry up. In some areas that have seen dramatic climbing prices, such as Phoenix, may see a decline if it’s overheated demand drops off but nationally it does not look like home prices will fall much at
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House inflation was increased demand to hedge against inflation.
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Can it? It will slow down buying houses, and the normal effect would be lowering housing prices, but I'm not sure that is going to work. People ABSOLUTELY require housing, and investors have figured out that the sky is the limit on rentals.
Of course, that assumes everyone that's buying homes is doing so for their primary residence. The 2008 collapse was mostly caused by people (even the non-rich) speculating and buying up 2nd and 3rd properties with the intention of quickly flipping them for a profit.
I haven't seen the numbers lately, but given the housing frenzy - I would bet that a good chunk of the current hot market has been driven by the same sort of thing.
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The 2008 collapse was mostly caused by people (even the non-rich) speculating and buying up 2nd and 3rd properties
If that had been all that happened, the housing price bubble would've popped causing a downturn - not a global financial meltdown. The 2008 crisis was caused by securitization of those mortgages into products (CDOs, synthetic CDOs) that were irrationally treated as much safer investments than the underlying mortgages justified. These risky mortgages then sneakily pervaded almost every aspect of the financial system, in a way that almost no one understood at the time, and so when they blew up, they posed a
Probably not (Score:2)
I'm not an economist, and here is where my understanding of inflation breaks down:
1)They raise the interest rates, so it's more expensive to borrow money
2)A big part of the current inflation is sky-rocketting housing prices.
3)They have just made it MUCH more expensive for someone to buy a house.
So, the rest of the externalities affected by raising the interest rates has to offset this massive inflation in the housing market.
Can it? It will slow down buying houses, and the normal effect would be lowering housing prices, but I'm not sure that is going to work. People ABSOLUTELY require housing, and investors have figured out that the sky is the limit on rentals.
I'm not an economist, but I do work in information theory and I've been following the question "recession" on the net daily for the past 3 weeks, and monthly for 3 years before that.
Here [seekingalpha.com] is the best overview of ground-level data, with explanations.
Runaway inflation is considered bad, it's usually an indication of a very "hot" economy, meaning that money is changing hands too quickly. Inflation is a measure of the "speed" of money. When this happens the Fed will step in and try to slow the economy down, enco
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Will this work?
No. Exactly the opposite. High inflation is happening because business investment and competition has been hindered by COVID and the government's response to it. The tier of businesses that are supposed to emerge and compete with larger companies struggled under lock-down, travel limits, selective business closures etc.; oligopolies gained more power and now dominate a larger fraction of all productivity and so prices climb. Increasing interest rates lock this pattern in even harder.
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Housing is funny, especially now. People have this idea that a primary residence is an investment, and a super safe one at that. So they pretty much just pay what the realtor tells them to and what the banks will approve them for. Raise interest rates and housing prices fall. People still buy the same houses, they just pay less for them because the bank won't give them (or anyone else) as much money.
Not to mention most people buy much more elastic items on credit, particularly of the "card" variety. Raising
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"Raise interest rates and housing prices fall."
No, raise interest rates and housing prices stay exactly the same. Except the bank gets more of the money (over time) and the seller gets less. Much less.
Mortgage borrowers are approved based upon the monthly payment they can afford. That number is exactly the same whether the interest rate is 3% or 6%. The total 30 year outlay from the buyer is also the same whether it is 3% or 6%.
Let's look at two scenarios. A $1500/month 30 year loan at 3% and 6%. In both ca
Um.... explanations? (Score:2)
So which is it, .5, .75, or 1 point?
The article also doesn't state what the range started at... the reporting there in general seems like a mess.
Since this is more a general tech nerd site, rather than a industry financial financing nerd site... might want to explain those terms and ranges for folks not focused on needing to borrow at large business levels.
Thanks!
Ryan Fenton
Re:Um.... explanations? (Score:5, Funny)
Since this is more a general tech nerd site, rather than a industry financial financing nerd site... might want to explain those terms and ranges for folks not focused on needing to borrow at large business levels.
Sir! This is slashdot. If my news isn’t low information third party scrapes of legit news, two days late and duped, I demand my money back.
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The minimum unit in Interest Basis Points is
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Far too little, Far too late (Score:2, Insightful)
To actually fight inflation, inflation rates would have to be raise well above actual inflation (currently above 8%). That's how it was beat in the 70's
The Fed might have a few more interest rate raises in them but the huge problem is that the raise in interest rates dramatically affects the payments on the national debt. So realistically I don't even think they can go above 3%.
The Fed will eventually cave and back off these meager rate hikes, there's really nothing else they can do. The only choice the g
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The Fed might have a few more interest rate raises in them but the huge problem is that the raise in interest rates dramatically affects the payments on the national debt. So realistically I don't even think they can go above 3%.
Do you have any links to articles that delve into the math? The interest payment is staggering already, so it sounds plausible. I'm inclined to repeat this claim, but I'd like to first find out if it's true. I'd love to find out more precisely what rate would likely lead to an imminent default.
I know the interest payment for fiscal year 2022 is $305 billion (according to the official budget [whitehouse.gov]), but I don't know the correct assumptions to make to accurately model the effects of rate changes in order to comp
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Do you have any links to articles that delve into the math?
I don't have any offhand, but I am pretty sure Mike Maloney did a chart showing this at some point.
Also part of it is federal debt rolls over pretty frequently (I think two years)? So interest range changes affect it quickly.
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This is a bit confused. The government's debt servicing costs are measured in real terms, so provided the inflation rate is higher than the interest rate on the debt it wouldn't matter what nominal rates are. e.g. interest on the debt could go to 20% but if inflation is 22% then the debt is shrinking in real terms each year. You have to remember that for a true inflation rate of 20%, government nominal revenue would also be increasing by roughly 20% per year.
Also the fed owns a huge portion of the COVID deb
Tipping point (Score:2)
Too little, too late (Score:2, Insightful)
The Fed should have been raising rates starting in 2019. A quarter point here, a quarter point there. Inflation was already rising even though their supposed "surveys" said otherwise. Anyone who was shopping knew prices were rising, but the Fed was, as usual, blind to reality.
Now, also as usual, the Fed will hurry up and try to make a correction happen because it realizes it's way behind the 8 ball.
Once again, let's hear it for metrics What would we do without looking in the rear view mirror?
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They should have been rasing them in 2010. You lower rates and spend like mad during crises and downturns, and you raise rates and cut back on spending during good times. Nobody likes to do the latter though. So the the world went from one crisis in 2008 straight through to the next one in 2020 with historically low interest rates, leaving nowhere to lower them to. We made it through, but now they're going to have to go up a lot, fast, to compensate.
When you're only tool's a hammer (Score:1)
Let me make it clear what they're doing here: they're trying to get us all fired so we can be paid less in the hopes that it'll lower prices.
It won't work, since the reason prices are going up is profiteering from mega corps that have bought up all essential services an
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Less spending? Are you deliberately trying to ruin the economy?
I don't know if someone told them, but to make a profit, you have to sell. More, people have to consume. That's the only way you can drive the economy. People who don't consume don't create revenue and thus no profit is to be had.
If anything, we need to find a way to get people to spend MORE. Preferably money they actually have, I think that part was omitted in the past 4 decades...
Worse than useless (Score:3)
Current inflation is barely driven by consumers having too much money and overly spending it. It's mainly driven by high energy and grain prices because of the war, disrupted supply chains because of covid, and still some disrupted production due to covid. You can't stop the war by raising interest rates, you won't reduce energy prices by raising interest rates, you won't restore supply chains by raising interest rates, and you won't restore production by raising interest rates.
All you will do is make it harder for people with variable interest rate loans to pay them back, make new consumer loans more expensive, make growing production more expensive (by making loans for companies more expensive)... Basically increase inflation even more. All that while many people already have trouble paying their bills.
In other words, saying you will fight the inflation by hiking interest rates/making money more expensive is saying that people who already have trouble to pay their bills for basic needs should be forced to reduce their needs further and/or be pushed into greater poverty [taxresearch.org.uk]. But hey, if all you have is a hammer, what else can you do but bash in heads?
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You forgot 5.6 million job vacancies and 37.6% of working age adults in the US who won't apply for them.
5.6 million vacancies is astronomical, and definitely puts the brakes on both productivity (one natural pressure against inflation) and supply (the other natural pressure against inflation).
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I'd give you mod points if I had them.
The FED's current moves are not going to help the WORLDWIDE INFLATION we are seeing.
The costs of goods can rise either because of increased scarcity or an increased money supply. The current situation appears to be a scarcity issue in manufactured goods, energy and food stuffs worldwide because of pandemic hangover and war.
They Don't Care (Score:2)
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1) Biden's fed appointment is being stalled maybe will be blocked.
2) Interest rates were at emergency levels which they never should have been lowered in the 1st place; they have to be restored so there is something to do when an emergency happens.
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1) Biden's fed appointment is being stalled maybe will be blocked. 2) Interest rates were at emergency levels which they never should have been lowered in the 1st place; they have to be restored so there is something to do when an emergency happens.
1) Republicans tend to reject Democratic nominations of any significance.
2) Interest rates influence borrowing, which can affect the entire economy, including job growth and wages. I’m usually OK with that, but now, not so much. After a 2-year COVID disaster, the resultant economic crash, and now rising prices of goods and services, raising interest rates aren’t just over the top unaffordable. It’s insane.
The S&P 500 profits are through the roof, and big corporations are worth more
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Interest rates going back to NORMAL is not insane! The FED has few tools and they have Trump people probably itching to create a recession... it almost always triggered a recession. I don't see how price inflation has that much to do with monetary inflation; but this is a good time to restore prior rates - separate from the consumer price index going up ALSO being called inflation.
What IS insane is not going after the exploitation going on right now!
Corporate earning reports PROVE they are screwing over ev
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Irrespective of a quibble about current interest rates, it's obvious that we're both for anti-inflationary policies. Overall, a well regulated market is needed for successful economic development. IMHO, GDP growth can be aided by analyzing the successes and failure
Limit profits to fix inflation. (Score:2)
At minimum make recent profits easy to see when buying. And make huge corporations easy to match up to what they make (if it's all Proctor and Gamble, then label it that way on the product).
Printer go BRRRRRRRR (Score:1)
Half a point (Score:2)
What sort of points are we dealing with here?
A point is significant in soccer, but less so in american football, and much less in basketball...
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It was raised 50 points which is 0.50% or half a percent. Terminology matters. Now I might even be wrong, if that is the case I give up.
The crazy thing. . . (Score:2)
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We'll have to wait a day or so to really see though. The market rally might be a short squeeze if investors think that shares are going to tank even more. Or it might be that investors think the fed is being too timid and inflation is going to rocket (stock market is measured in nominal dollars).
While I love your optimism, I have been through quite a few recessions now and I can't remember one where, after a massive ramp up in asset prices and crazy speculation schemes (crypto, SPACs, web3 etc), there was a
Ok (Score:2)
Inflation took off because more money is chasing fewer goods and services.
If coconuts are your currency on your desert island, then a huge cargo of coconuts washing ashore won't make your seven stranded castaways rich. It will just make everything cost a lot more coconuts.
In medieval times... (Score:2)
We have been here before (Score:1)
Price controls (Score:2)
and windfall profits tax. Oh, and wealth tax. And a tax on the current value of stock options.
You don't like that? You're making more than the President of the US ($440k/yr)? Your company just declared the highest profits in 50 years?
why (Score:2)
Fed Raises Key Rate By a Half-Point in Bid To Tame Criticism. ftfy
Re: The Same Old Crap (Score:3)
https://mitxonline.mit.edu/cou... [mit.edu]
You might find this introductory course in economics enlightening.
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Since this is the internet and people are "doing their own research", i.e. listen to some idiot on the internet, as long as he says anything but what the experts say, ...