News Story of the Day: will there be only one interest rate hike until 2009? That’s what St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard is advocating this week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left rates unchanged.
With the United States economy trapped inside sluggish growth, interest rates need to stay low long for more than two years. Bullard explained in a statement that with unemployment, low inflation rates and slow growth, there would be no reason for the central banks to raise the Federal Funds policy rate greater than 0.50 percent.
Bullard now estimates the appropriate Federal Funds rate at .63 for the next 2.5 years.
“On balance, real output growth, the unemployment rate, and inflation may be at or near mean values that could be sustained over the forecast horizon provided there are no major shocks to the economy,” Bullard wrote.
“Key macroeconomic variables including real output growth, the unemployment rate, and inflation appear to be at or near values that are likely to persist over the forecast horizon. Any further cyclical adjustment going forward is likely to be relatively minor.”
The Fed’s announcement on Thursday that six Fed officials forecasting one or two more rate hikes this year.
Chart of the Day: Americans are charitable people. Whenever a natural disaster strikes, a new health initiative is started or a member of the community is in distress, Americans usually come to help. Despite households financially struggling, Americans’ charitable giving went up four percent year-over-year. Here is a chart from Bloomberg News:
Illustration of the Day: the question that boggles the mind is why Hillary Clinton has any support at all? This meme sums it up entirely:
Quote of the Day: former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul recently sat down with MSNBC and talked about the 2016 presidential election. He nailed it when he said nothing will change, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, in terms of both domestic and foreign policy (SEE: Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – U.S. foreign policy will stay the same). Here is what he told the news network:
Overall, foreign policy won’t change with either party in a significant manner. Spending is going to continue. Government intervention of the Federal Reserve is going to keep manipulating interest rates, and never facing up to the fact that this country has lived way beyond its means. And the debt is incomprehensible and all we know is it’s going to grow and grow.
And I think the fighting, the personal fighting is a distraction from the real issue, which is personal liberty and the bankruptcy of this country and the failure of our foreign policy. That’s where the problem is.
Video of the Day: every single election cycle, some political pundit, politician or voter will say this election year has been the most vicious one ever. Democrat or Republican, all politicians partake in negative attack ads, which can sometimes be beneficial because they oftentimes include facts. With that being said, are attack ads something only started by President Lyndon Baines Johnson? Nope. They’ve been around since the founding of the United States. Reason TV did a hilarious video of the 1800 election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Here you go:
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