Tuesday, January 31, 2006

A Quarter Point For The Road

With a wave of his hand and a quarter point increase, Greenspan leaves the helm of the fed. I'm not going to bother with the linguistic puzzle games everyone else is playing.

Fed Ups Key Rate As Greenspan Retires

Fed raises rates again

Federal Reserve raised a key short-term interest rate Tuesday another quarter of a percentage point and said it may have to raise rates further in chairman Alan Greenspan's last meeting after more than 18 years at the helm of the central bank.

Speculation now turns to what new Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who officially takes over on Feb. 1, will do when the Fed's monetary policy committee meets next on March 28.


Full text of the statement:

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4 1/2 percent.

Although recent economic data have been uneven, the expansion in economic activity appears solid. Core inflation has stayed relatively low in recent months and longer-term inflation expectations remain contained. Nevertheless, possible increases in resource utilization as well as elevated energy prices have the potential to add to inflation pressures.

The Committee judges that some further policy firming may be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance. In any event, the Committee will respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to foster these objectives.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Alan Greenspan, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Susan S. Bies; Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.; Jack Guynn; Donald L. Kohn; Jeffrey M. Lacker; Mark W. Olson; Sandra Pianalto; and Janet L. Yellen.

In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 25-basis-point increase in the discount rate to 5 1/2 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas and San Francisco.

Caveat Emptor!
Grim

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

mr. monkey has ruined an economy in his last 5 years, but of course inflation is low. What F NON_SENSE!

Houses up 100% in 5 years gas prices surging, utilitiy cost surging, property taxes surging. No Inflation LOL!
Oh forgot about health insurance.

1/31/2006 03:30:00 PM  
Blogger David said...

"Although recent economic data have been uneven, the expansion in economic activity appears solid. "

What a load of cr*p.

1) Trade Deficit
2) Federal Debt
3) Negative Personal Savings Rate
4) Housing Bubble
5) Credit Bubble

1/31/2006 03:32:00 PM  
Blogger lisoosh said...

FYI caught a speech by Bloomberg today talking about NY city budget. He is factoring deflation of the housing bubble in lowering estimates of income for the city. He became quite explicit that a housing slowdown can/will be logically followed by price decreases and therefore decreases in property taxes.

1/31/2006 04:44:00 PM  
Blogger lisoosh said...

This from NYC official city website:

"New York’s real estate market is expected to slow, however, with a 10% decline in home prices, a 14% decline in home sales over the next few years and a significant decline in real estate transaction taxes that have buoyed the City’s tax revenue in the last few fiscal years."

1/31/2006 04:50:00 PM  
Blogger grim said...

Thanks for the tip lisoosh..

I wouldn't be able to do it without readers and their information. There is alot of ground to cover and one set of eyes can only watch so much of it.

Thanks,
jb

1/31/2006 05:36:00 PM  
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4/18/2006 09:52:00 PM  

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