Tag: george yacik

Time For Europe To Cut Its Losses

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


One of the most exasperating novels I've ever read is Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. The "hero" of the novel, Philip Carey, is hopelessly infatuated with Mildred Rogers, an unattractive, sickly, boorish shop girl several social rungs lower than himself. She takes horrible advantage of the good-natured generosity and sincerity of Carey, who time after time bails Mildred out of one self-created problem after another, only to be kicked in the pants (figuratively, of course) for his trouble and good intentions. And yet he continually comes back for more.

While you're reading the book (or watching one of the movies based on it), you keep asking yourself: When the heck is Carey ever going to wake up and smell the coffee?

Does this sound like any current European crisis you may have read about recently in the financial media? Continue reading "Time For Europe To Cut Its Losses" →

I'm Still Not Sold On A 2015 Rate Increase

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


The consensus market opinion after last week's Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting is that the Fed will start to raise short-term interest rates sometime this year, maybe twice, beginning most likely at its September meeting.

I, for one, am still not sold that that will happen.

Last Wednesday's announcement following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting said not much of anything, especially when it came to signaling when it might finally begin interest rate lift-off. The statement gave the usual yadda yadda that economic activity "has been expanding moderately" and that "the pace of job gains picked up." But nothing about rates, other than the usual verbiage that the current federal funds target range of zero to 0.25% "remains appropriate."

Instead, analysts, journalists and investors were forced to look for clues in the "Fed dots," which show graphically where the 17 individual FOMC members expect interest rates to be by the end of this year, next year, 2017 and beyond. Continue reading "I'm Still Not Sold On A 2015 Rate Increase" →

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


Surprise, surprise. The Fed isn't going to raise rates in June after all.

While the just-released minutes of the Fed's April 28-29 monetary policy meeting revealed the central bank "did not rule" out the possibility of raising rates at its June 16-17 meeting, "many participants thought it unlikely that the data available would provide sufficient confirmation that the conditions for raising the target range for the federal funds rate had been satisfied."

In other words, economic reports over the past several months haven't come close to giving the Fed comfort to start normalizing monetary policy – i.e., raising rates – without jeopardizing growth, or what little there has been recently.

In the first quarter, U.S. GDP rose only 0.2%, down from the 2.2% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2014. But economists are now expecting that figure to be revised downward next Friday, possibly to show negative growth. Continue reading "The Waiting Is The Hardest Part" →

The Kangaroo Economy

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


One of my favorite Abbott & Costello gags was when Bud cheated Lou out of a winning poker hand by claiming he had a rare "kangaroo straight," meaning he had a 2-4-6-8-10 run, all different suits, while gullible Lou "only" had two pair (watch it on YouTube).

On Wednesday we got another chapter in the "kangaroo economy." The Commerce Department reported that U.S. GDP grew only 0.2% at an annualized rate in the first quarter of the year. That was down from 2.2% in the previous quarter and well off the 5.0% and 4.6% paces, respectively, of the two quarters before that. But it was in line with the first quarter of 2014's drop of 2.1%. Continue reading "The Kangaroo Economy" →

Fed Has Plenty of Excuses Not To Do Anything Soon

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


If you're among the vanishing minority of people who still think the Federal Reserve is going to start raising interest rates in June, the latest reports on the U.S. economy and events in Europe and China should disabuse you of that farfetched notion.

The proportion of economists predicting the Fed will wait until September to raise rates rose to 70% in an April 3-9 survey, more than double the figure from the previous month. That ratio has likely gotten even wider following the news of the past week, although I think it will be well after September before the Fed starts "normalizing" monetary policy.

Let's look at the U.S. economy first, where indicators continue to come in soft. Continue reading "Fed Has Plenty of Excuses Not To Do Anything Soon" →