quantitative easing

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee met today. As expected, the Fed Funds rate stayed at zero percent. Most Fed watchers, however, wanted more clarity on the Fed's quantitative easing timetable, which the Fed laid out clearly. But…

Mortgage backed securities (MBS) have sold off sharply over the past month as fixed income markets face the new reality of rising rates. But unlike most other fixed income securities, MBS duration tends to increase with yield.

While the recent data have pushed the Fed's QE withdrawal timetable out, the latest Fed statements indicate a level of hawkishness on tapering QE that we haven't seen in the last few weeks. This jobs report is shaping up to be a key data…

One of the most contentious topics in America is the impact of the Federal Reserve’s policy of “Quantitative Easing” – otherwise known as ‘QE’. The Federal Reserve has committed to spending $85 billion every month buying a wide range of…

So QE cannot possibly offset the effects of fiscal tightening in the lives of ordinary working people - the largest part of the population. In fact because it seems to discourage productive corporate investment, it may even reinforce…

Yesterday, Ben Bernanke said that the Fed would start to wind down it's QE program sometime this summer as I indicated early last week I believed the timetable would be. Market pundits believe these remarks triggered a sell-off in global…

I am not a fan of quantitative easing or zero rates. I think that is clear from my posts over the past 4 years. Nevertheless, I do like to link out to posts that put QE and zero rates in a more favourable light because we need to get a…

Now, you may well deduct from all of this that I am as bearish as I have ever been, but nothing could be further from the truth. The issues I have discussed in this month’s letter are clouds on the horizon which are likely to take years to…

This is a second daily commentary today to give some weight to what's happening in the US after a slew of European-themed posts. I have three or four topics to cover here and I want to begin with the US economy including some thoughts on…

Whatever the case, the ECB will have to act in order to avoid the dangers of a deflationary spiral, which could take the Eurozone years (or even decades) to exit.