Tag - Federal Reserve

Events of the Last Two Weeks Should Have You Looking Over Your Investments

Last week saw stock markets having perhaps their worst week since the financial crisis. All major stock markets entered correction territory in record time, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all losing over 10% of their value in a little over a week. The Dow Jones suffered...

Is the Plunge Protection Team Hard at Work?

If you’re not familiar with the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, you should be. Also known as the Plunge Protection Team, the group works behind the scenes to shore up financial markets. Consisting of the Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chairman, and the Chairmen of the Securities Exchange Commission...

Unexpected Fed Rate Cut Can’t Stop Stock Market Losses

In a move that hasn’t been made since the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve this morning announced that it was cutting its target federal funds rate by 50 basis points, to 1 to 1.25%. The move came just two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee was scheduled to...

Think the Coronavirus Won’t Affect the US Economy? Think Again

There seems to be a great deal of complacency among many in the United States about the effect that the coronavirus will have on the US economy. Thus far it’s been treated as an issue that only affects China, and whose effects on the US economy will be limited....

Financial Media Trying to Push Narrative That Recession Odds Are Low

It’s funny sometimes how the mainstream financial media tries to push narratives that are completely at odds with reality. With business activity already slowing in the US, China, and elsewhere, and with the onset of the coronavirus seriously upsetting global supply chains, anyone could tell that 2020 is going...

The Federal Reserve’s Monetization of Debt Is a Bad Omen for the Future

One of the characteristic traits of an economy that is circling the drain is one in which the central bank directly monetizes the debt issued by the government. Once that starts to happen, there is no check on the government’s ability to spend money, and the currency unit quickly...