Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Comptroller of the Currency all announced yesterday that they would hold off on implementing a set of regulations on small to medium size banks, sometimes called community banks. The idea is to give these banks some breathing room while regulators come up with new, simpler […]

As the Federal Reserve concludes its July meeting, many expect it won’t announce a hike in the interest rate. One big thing that factors into that decision is inflation. One of the Fed’s mandates is to keep prices stable – to prevent rampant inflation. Raising interest rates can help, but the Fed has been in […]

The Federal Reserve probably will not announce a rate hike on the second day of its Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday. But there’s a decent chance it will again by year’s end. And since the Fed started raising rates 18 months ago, we’ve seen the federal funds rate rise a full 1 percent. […]

Inflation has been consistently lower than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent. Fed Chair Janet Yellen highlighted this fact in recent congressional testimony. Most consumers and business owners would just as soon see inflation remain low: consumers can afford more goods and services without having to earn higher wages, and businesses never like to […]

President Trump has sent Congress his first nominee for a post at the Federal Reserve. He’s named Randal Quarles as Fed vice chair of supervision. That’s the central bank’s top banking regulator. He’s the first one to hold the position since it was created seven years ago under Dodd-Frank financial reform law. And, maybe ironically, […]

All of the major banks are expected to pass Federal Reserve stress testing this year.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday discussed the Fed’s plans for its balance sheet. That’s the list of all the assets it owns, and it is huge: $4.5 trillion worth. The plan is to slowly shrink that down by a few billion dollars a month, starting soon. Here’s how the Fed came to own […]

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates about a quarter percent today, but yields on 10-year Treasury notes have been trading just around their 2017 lows — about 2.21 percent. That’s the interest rate paid to the borrower of these notes. Yields rise when traders expect inflation to increase, and, therefore, interest rates climb. So what […]