Posted on 06/22/2011 1:24:35 PM PDT by freespirited
Reporting from Washington— Amid increasing political pressure and turbulent global economic conditions, the Federal Reserve is letting its massive bond-buying program expire in days without a new initiative to prop up the American economy –- even as the central bank downgraded its economic assessment to reflect the sputtering recovery.
The Fed, upon concluding its two-day monetary policy meeting, said Wednesday it would keep a key short-term interest rate at near zero for the foreseeable future to support the economy. But policymakers agreed to let lapse a $600-billion program to buy U.S. Treasury bonds at the end of this month, as scheduled.
Both moves were adopted unanimously and were widely expected by economists and Wall Street investors. Still, it means the end of a major monetary stimulus at a time when the economy is weakening and there is little chance of new large-scale economic support from the government.
Fed officials are betting that, even without additional monetary or fiscal stimulus, U.S. economic growth will pick up in the latter part of the year after a disappointing first half.
In its statement Wednesday, the Fed described the economic recovery as "continuing at a moderate pace." But it acknowledged that growth was slower than it had anticipated, singling out the weaker-than-expected labor market.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Wonder what they're smokin' over there.
If that is the case, then why print more money?
Senator Amy Klobuchar MN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goTYOjh2q9M&feature=related
Klobuchar “This bill is about jobs, jobs, and jobs.”
Klobuchar “This is President Obama’s plan — jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Klobuchar “Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to support this important legislation. It’s about jobs, jobs, and jobs.”
Obama’s Weekly Radio Address 02 21 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWmtPRPpJo
THE PRESIDENT: “Earlier this week, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the most sweeping economic recovery plan in history.
Because of this plan, 3.5 million Americans will now go to work doing the work that America needs done.
...Because of what we did, lives will be saved and health care costs will be cut with new computerized medical records.”
Flashback: Oct 10, 2009
Transcript of Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders, and Economists’ Press Conference Following Economic Forum
http://www.realestaterama.com/2009/10/22/transcript-of-pelosi-house-democratic-leaders-and-economists%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2-press-conference-following-economic-forum-ID06137.html
Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon. We just had a very instructive meeting with some leading economists about the number one subject on the minds of the American people: jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
Goolsbee isn’t the only one saying more than 2 million private sector jobs added in the last 14 months;
May. 6, 2011
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110506/NEWS/110506010/Obama-want-energy-breakthroughs-Indiana?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com
“That means over the last 14 months,” Obama said, “we’ve added more than 2 million jobs in the private sector.”
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1637565.php/Hiring-picks-up-but-US-jobless-rate-up-to-9-per-cent
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pointed out to reporters that April was the 14th consecutive month of growth in private sector employment, for a total of 2.1 million jobs
They know that Quantitative Easing didn’t work.
I predict a lot of uses of the word “unexpected” in all financial articles over the next year.
Maybe they have finally figured out that leaving it alone in the first place was the better choice?
Perfect for the election year 2012.
The dollar will get stronger, gas prices will go down, food prices will stabilize, and Obama will take the credit. Then comes reality when the rest of ObamaCare comes into effect in 2014.
No way. With the downward adjustment in forecasts, surely we've moved past the "unexpected".
U.S. economic growth will pick up in the latter part of the year after a disappointing first half . . . growth was slower than it had anticipated, singling out the weaker-than-expected labor market.
Or maybe not.
The new word is "transitory." Of course eventually they will use both in the same sentence, such as: "it was unexpected that the problems were not transitory."
Jim Puplava on FinancialSense.com posited last week that as soon as it is clearly evident that the economy and markets are continuing to roll over and tank, the Fed will have no alternative but to crank up the printing press again for another round of currency debasement, only he says they will call it by something else, coin a new term or something, but they will insist that it is not “quantitative easing” a.k.a. money printing.
Maybe...
But bond sales will tank, interest rates will rise, the stock market will drop and there still won't be any hiring. And the inflationary effects of the bond sales haven't even really shown up yet.
But they're coming.
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