The Financial Times – Bank of England becomes more cautious on economic predictions The Bank of England has become more pessimistic about Britain’s growth and export performance after publishing its first detailed analysis of its forecasting errors. In its quarterly bulletin, the bank acknowledges that the Monetary Policy Committee’s forecasts have been poor since the… Continue reading Central Banks Cannot Forecast
The Wall Street Journal – Gold Set for First Annual Loss in 13 Years Precious Metal on Track to End a 12-Year Bull Run Gold prices slid to three-year lows Thursday, effectively closing the book on a historic rally that lured investors on both Wall Street and Main Street. Barring a rebound of unprecedented scale,… Continue reading Gold’s Terrible Year
The Financial Times – Bank of Japan pledges to maintain easing policy The Bank of Japan has pledged to keep buying assets until it hits and maintains its inflation target, underscoring its divergence from the US Federal Reserve. Less than 48 hours after the Fed mapped a way out from the ultra-easy monetary policy that… Continue reading The BoJ Promises More QE
The expiration of extended unemployment benefits could push the unemployment rate down another three-tenths early next year to 6.7% — Joseph A. LaVorgna (@Lavorgnanomics) December 19, 2013 Comment This is in line with stories we highlighted earlier this week: No one knows for sure how many of these 1.2 million people will stop looking for… Continue reading The Effect Of Cutting Unemployment Benefits On The Unemployment Rate
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> AFP – China cash injection fails to soothe markets A rise in China’s interbank interest rates on Friday showed that markets remain uneasy despite a cash injection by China’s central bank, said dealers. The rates, which serve as the funding costs for pricing… Continue reading China’s Short-Term Funding Costs Spike … Again
The Wall Street Journal – Traders Seek an Edge With High-Tech Snooping A helicopter lifted off recently from an airfield in this remote oil town, scudded low across the flat industrial landscape and trained a heat-sensitive camera at the huge storage tanks below. Its mission: Gather intelligence for Wall Street. The grainy, infrared reconnaissance images… Continue reading Getting An Edge On Wall Street
Comment Jim Bianco was on Reuters TV discussing the Fed’s decision to begin the taper. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. Today at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 15:00 GMT), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research &… Continue reading Financial Stability vs. Data Dependency: Why Did The Fed Start The Taper?
[pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=166″] The Wall Street Journal – Fed Pares Bond Buying by $10 Billion Rates to Stay Low for a Long Time, but Pullback to Continue if Economy Stays on Course The Federal Reserve said it would reduce its signature bond-buying program to $75 billion a month, taking a step away from a policy… Continue reading The Taper Begins
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – The Fed Isn’t Working to Rule The Fed on Wednesday said that it would begin reducing its bond purchases next month, something that most economists didn’t think it would announce until early next year. But the decision to scale back the bond-buying program came… Continue reading Using Forward Guidance As A Policy Tool
<Click on chart for larger image> MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – After Its Mid-Year Communications Problems, Fed Gets Message Right Now that the Fed has finally, belatedly, started that process, Mr. Stein and his colleagues are likely a lot happier with the way their message is getting through. Even though a majority of analysts believed the… Continue reading The Tapering Is Not Tightening Argument
FT Alphaville (FT Blog) – Stanley Fischer actually agrees with the Fed about forward guidance Remarks by Stanley Fischer at a conference in Hong Kong earlier this year, reported originally by Real Time Economics, were widely interpreted as reflecting his concerns about the Fed’s use of forward guidance — and as a potential source of… Continue reading Stan Fischer Agrees With The Fed