Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will probably end its massive bond-buying program this coming fall, and could start to raise interest rates around six months later, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday. That's a somewhat more aggressive path toward higher rates than some investors had anticipated, and both U.S. stocks and bonds slumped. Futures traders now are pricing in a first rate hike as soon as April 2015. "She certainly moved (the timetable) up a little bit and I don't think the market was expecting that at all because she is widely viewed as being more on the...

Investors weren't too thrilled by what they heard from Janet Yellen during her first meeting in charge of the Fed. The Dow fell more than 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also finished lower. Stocks were relatively stable as Yellen started her press conference. But the Dow fell as many as 180 points before recovering after she said the Fed's stimulus program would most likely be finished by the fall and that a rate hike could come as soon as early 2015. Prior to the press conference, the Fed said it will continue trimming, or tapering, its monthly...

In regard to the so-called forward guidance on rates, the Fed has said since late 2012 that it wouldn't consider raising interest rates from near zero until the jobless rate fell to 6.5%, provided inflation looks likely to remain below 2.5%. In a new policy statement released Wednesday, the Fed dropped the reference to the 6.5% jobless rate, which officials have come to see as too limited an indicator of the labor market's health. Instead, the central bank said it would "assess progress…toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2% inflation" in deciding when to raise rates from near zero,...

The Senate’s bipartisan unemployment insurance legislation may not be workable, according to a group of state unemployment insurance administrators. A five-month retroactive revival of unemployment insurance benefits that Senate negotiators touted last week would “substantially increase the administrative burden on states” if signed into law, according to a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. The bill’s provisions “would cause considerable delays in the implementation of the program and increased administrative issues and costs. Some states have indicated they might decide such changes...

In her first Federal Open Market Committee meeting as head of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen made good on her promise of continuity, again cutting back the central bank’s asset purchases. On Wednesday, the FOMC announced a third $10 billion reduction in quantitative easing, reducing its monthly bond purchases to $55 billion and keeping with Fed watchers’ tapering exceptions. The Fed will cut monthly mortgage bond purchases to $25 billion from $30 billion. Treasury purchases will go from $35 billion to $30 billion.

During her visit to Wonderland, Alice had odd reactions to the weird things she experienced. Is President Obama trying to best her?The critters Alice met and spoke with in Wonderland made no sense at all. Neither did her responses. For example, having invited herself to a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Door Mouse, The Hatter [asked], `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' `Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. `Do you mean that you think you can...

President Obama has ordered his officials to step on the gas and clear as much of his regulatory agenda as possible during the twilight of his time in office. The clock is ticking, creating a sense of urgency in the administration to crank out his new rules without delay. Just a year into the president’s second term, experts and former administration officials say it is do-or-die time for scores of regulatory initiatives across the federal government that could shape his legacy. So Obama is spurring agencies on. “He has directed his entire administration to move as quickly as possible in...

Marvel at the science and engineering that keeps these planes flying, and remarkably safely:Planes in the sky with half a million people in the air at any one time | Guardian & Flightstats How many flights are in the air at once? NOAA estimates that 5,000 planes are in the sky over the United States. On any given day, more than 87,000 flights travel through US airspace… globally estimates seem to be that there are around 8,000 – 13,000 though I didn’t happen to find an authoritative source.This youtube shows the dots in motion:  This youtube works  better in a...

The platinum nanoframes have 22 times the sepcific catalytic activity of standard electrodes © Science/AAASUS scientists have created an exceptional fuel cell catalyst that contains far less platinum – conventional catalysts need 36 times more platinum to hit the same levels of activity. The manufacturing process, which was discovered by accident, uses simple techniques that the researchers believe can be easily scaled-up. The work could help to make fuel cells economically viable for applications such as cars as the precious metal makes up much of the cost of the cell.Fuel cells react hydrogen with oxygen to produce water, using the...

Every so often the faceless liberal lie machine is forced to reveal itself and a real person or organization has to stand by the fabricated “science” of the Al Gores of the world. The Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been forced into the sunlight and it has been made to look foolish because it believes Gore and his “climate change” charlatans. NOAA’s prediction for November through January was that most of the continental United States would enjoy above normal temperatures. Why would they say otherwise when there is only emotion instead of science...

The Federal Reserve Board doesn't have the authority to regulate bitcoin, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday. "To the best of my knowledge, there's no intersection at all in any way between bitcoin and banks the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise or regulate," Yellen told members of the Senate Banking Committee. "The Federal Reserve simply does not have authority to supervise or regulate bitcoin in any way." Yellen was responding to questioning from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who sent the Fed and other banking regulators a letter on Wednesday calling on them to ban—or at least curb—the decentralized,...

Unusually harsh winter weather appears to be behind recent signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, suggesting the central bank was poised to press forward in ratcheting back its stimulus. Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said the Fed would watch carefully to ensure weather was indeed the culprit, but she reiterated that it would take a "significant change" to the economy's prospects for the Fed to put plans to wind down its bond-buying program on hold.

On Tuesday, new Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen went before Congress and confidently declared that "the economic recovery gained greater traction in the second half of last year" and that "substantial progress has been made in restoring the economy to health". This resulted in glowing headlines throughout the mainstream media such as this one from USA Today: "Yellen: Economy is improving at moderate pace". Sadly, tens of millions of Americans are going to believe what the mainstream media is telling them. But it isn't the truth. As you will see below, there are all sorts of signs that the economy...

The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen on Monday as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, elevating an advocate of fighting unemployment and a backer of the central bank's efforts to spur the economy with low interest rates and massive bond purchases. Yellen, 67, will replace Ben Bernanke, who is stepping down after serving as chairman for eight years dominated by the Great Recession and the Fed's efforts to combat it. Senators confirmed her by 56-26, with numerous absences caused by airline flight delays forced by arctic temperatures around much of the country. All 45 voting Democrats were joined by...

President Barack Obama is hailing the confirmation of Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve. He says she will be a “fierce champion” for the American people. The Senate on Monday voted 56-26 to confirm her, with several senators absent due to flight delays. …

Did you realize that if you have a dollar bill in your pocket, you actually have a fairly reliable standard of measurement? You see the long side of a dollar bill laid flat on a surface, measures exactly six inches long. Practically speaking, this means that if you have a dollar in your pocket you have a very reliable six-inch ruler at your disposal. Regrettably, what you don’t have at your disposal is a dollar. You see, as a standard of linear measurement, the dollar bill might be a reliable tool, but as a measure of wealth the dollar bill...

The recent confusion from The Fed over the future of quantitative easing (or money printing) can be addressed with a few charts. Here is a chart of real GDP growth PER CAPITA since 1960. Real, of course, indicates that it is Gross Domestic Product adjusted for inflation. Note that Q1 1984 was the peak of real GDP growth … and it has been a steady decline since then. realgdppercap I added the S&P 500 index to the real GDP per capita chart and you can see that the S&P 500 index spikes when real GDP growth is higher than average...

Yellen currently serves as vice chairman of the Fed and as a reliable dove would represent continuity with Bernanke. She has consistently supported Bernanke’s easy-money policies and even seems open to more aggressive moves to fight stubbornly-high unemployment. "I consider it imperative that we do what we can to promote a very strong recovery," Yellen said during her confirmation hearing. Yet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced plans on Thursday to enact the so-called "nuclear option," which would change Senate rules to allow him to approve certain motions with a simple majority rather than 60 votes. Yellen, who was among...

Vice Chairman Yellen’s testimony before the Senate this morning moves us to oppose her confirmation to succeed Chairman Bernanke at the Federal Reserve. We don’t mind saying it’s an odd position for us, since we have great regard for her capacity as a forecaster, her character, and her comportment. She displays none of condescension that Mr. Bernanke so often allowed to show (we once expressed surprise that he wasn’t held in contempt). What transports us into the opposition is Mrs. Yellen’s truculence on the issue of auditing the Fed. ... Senator Vitter .. speaks for a faction in the upper...

President Obama has nominated Janet Yellen to be the next Federal Reserve Chairman. We need to know what she stands for if we want to predict what the central bank will do to us next. Clearly, Yellen will continue Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing, but her papers and speeches show that she is quite different from her predecessor. … … Yellen is all central planner. She gets her ideas, not from Friedman, but from John Maynard Keynes. Keynes did not trust markets, preferring government intervention. His prescribed solution to recession and unemployment is for the government to increase spending and the central...