“Demonstrating confidence in the health of the American economy, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the third consecutive quarter on Wednesday,” Binyamin Appelbaum reports for The New Your Times.
“The Fed, as expected, raised its benchmark rate to a range between 1 percent and 1.25 percent, citing the continued strength of job growth and dismissing, for now, the renewed weakness of inflation,” Appelbaum reports. “‘The labor market has continued to strengthen,’ the Fed said in an upbeat statement published after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee. The Fed added that economic growth ‘has been rising moderately so far this year.'”
“The Fed’s statement did acknowledge that inflation has weakened in recent months, which has forced the Fed to concede that it has once again been wrong about inflation. Fed officials now predict that prices will rise by just 1.6 percent this year, down sharply from their forecast of 1.9 percent in March. They continued to predict 2 percent inflation next year,” Appelbaum reports. “The Fed in recent years has been equally consistent in predicting 2 percent inflation, and in being wrong.”
“The combination of strong job growth and weak inflation appeared to be the reason for the reappraisal,” Appelbaum reports. “Fed officials continue to adjust their estimates of how low unemployment can go. Some officials now predict the unemployment rate could fall below 4 percent – the lowest level in a generation.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “The Fed in recent years has been equally consistent in predicting 2 percent inflation, and in being wrong.”
Heh.
The Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve, it is a cartel of private bankers protected by government mandate, who charge interest to American taxpayers who borrow from themselves.
Eugene Botvinnik is a troll. Don’t pay any attention to him.
This is the first time that I can recall that I’ve ever agreed with you, botvinnik, about anything outside the Mac universe.
It’s true what you say about the Fed. It is a private banking cartel, detrimental to the United States and, therefore, the world.
May I say, though, that it would be soooo nice if everyone left the awful politiking outside MDN (there are plenty of other sites for that), and ask that you too help return this site to its intended purpose: discussions about Apple and its teriffic hardware and software, please?
I know other readers and contributors have already asked, but I’m optimistic that you’ll respond positively to a good-natured request.
Please can we all leave the politics outside the door when we visit MDN? Please???
The Last Good Democrat, John Kennedy, attempted to wean America off the Federal Reserve Usury Scheme by creating the United States Note (interest-free, like Lincoln’s “Greenback”) in June of 1963.
The good news is JFK’s executive order has not been undone since and could be reinstated with one signature from our president. However, it is very dangerous territory, as history has shown us with both Lincoln and JFK.
Dear botvinnik,
That was not quite the answer I (and others, possibly) were hoping for.
Wouldn’t it be much, much nicer if this was Mac Daily News again, discussing events relevant to Apple — even this one about the Fed — instead of the passion-killing misery of all the tedious, off-putting and (all too often) abusive, juvenile squabbling over some political ideological doctrine or other?
The internet provides thousands of places for that sort of thing.
Most of us subscribers loved to come here for MDNs’ daily industry bulletins and thoughtful, intelligent comment from the Mac community.
Very sadly, MDNs’ comments section has been reduced to a poisonous, unappealing and offensive trade of insults and politicking. Can it be any wonder that key figures and decision makers, developers and designers, buyers and suppliers, et al, switch off and go to another channel for Mac news and views?
Would you and the others, please, mind concentrating on the Mac world and leave all that other horrible stuff outside?
Can we make that some sort of rule of MDN?
Similar to pubs in Scotland and Ireland: “No politics, No football, No religion”.
Thank you so much if you agree. It would certainly be a great help towards making Mac Daily News great again!
Thank you.
Ironic that the resident MDN extreme right wing libertarian political asshat is whining that someone else, especially the rich and politically connected, could possibly be under regulated.
Of course botty then proceeds to air his ignorance in what the Federal Reserve is, and how it is regulated, the public transparency built into it, the independent auditors, and the congressional oversight.
What is a better system, botty, an unregulated “free market” with no public reporting as Sarbanes-Oxley requires? Yeah that has always worked out well in the past hasn’t it.
There’s no accounting for bot.
Gaslighting – a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target’s belief.
Claiming the that “public transparency” is built into the Fed is a pretty extreme form of this, “Realist” as a handle is another form of this manipulation. Now rinse wash and repeat this type of programming on a national level in all “news” programs, universities and every form of “entertainment”, always promoting globalist progressivism, and no wonder people are screaming for the blood of Republicans.
https://infogalactic.com/info/Gaslighting
I’ll quote someone smarter than any of us who has ever lived on this continent answer your stupidly naïve question:
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…. I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people [Congress], to whom it properly belongs.”
the founding saw a private banking system as an essential part of liberty. State controlled banks traditionally placed a stranglehold on the economy, and free markets. They did NOT want that. The takeover of banks has been a disaster, and establishing the FR as a response to federal manipulation of markets (causing the Great Depression) is beyond common sense, it was another step in the direction of tyranny. Anyone who believes that federal control of money is a good thing is a statist, and contrary to the philosophy of the founding. Sad, but true.
“the founding saw a private banking system as an essential part of liberty.”
uh, idiot, the founding of the United States was 1789, both the Federal Reserve Scheme and the Federal Income Tax was created in 1913.
try to follow the bouncing ball…i did not state that the FR was created then, only that the founders rejected the idea of federally controlled banking systems.
uh, no they didn’t… to the contrary, the issuance of currency is the responsibility of Congress. Pick-up a copy of the Constitution some time and read it.
ARTICLE ONE, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power….To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures…”
Correct myself, it was created prior to the Great Depression, but was still a government instrument to manipulate the money. Direct manipulation of the flow of money, not by markets, but by the Federal Reserve. TheFriedmen theory goes, “There is consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse. If the Fed had done that the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter.” In the end, it is believed that outside influence, as opposed to free markets caused that issue, along with every other big bubble burst since, by government interference. So for the first 140 years of the country, your theory doesn’t hold water, and for the balance of the countries’ history, the opposite has proven devastating.
Denial: a river in Egypt. Money doesn’t talk- it swears. It lies. As the world turns. And, in the Age of Trump: ends. These are no times to celebrate. Most of us here and around the world don’t sleep at night. Then again, we’re “not people.” What a nightmare.
If one looks at the financial statement of Americans the economy is not great.
About 1/3rd of the new car loans in the US are sub-prime.
Between 1/3rd and almost half of households do not have cash reserves enough to cover an unexpected expense greater than $400.
The debt/equity ratio of the average American household is upside down.
The majority of working adults past 50 have less than $100,000 in their 401k/403b retirement plan.
1/3rd of employed adults under 30 are living with their parents.
The labor participation rate is in the low 60% range.
That tells you that those close to retirement cannot afford to retire. Those just getting started cannot afford to live independently, those living independently are existing hand-to-mouth. Those driving cars can barely afford them. Those working are struggling to pay off higher ed debt to the detriment of their ability to buy homes, cars or cover emergency expenses.
And it shows few are saving. It does not help that QE by the Federal Reserve, the ECB and others has destroyed the return rate on savings.
The problems:
Too much personal debt, too much government debt (not just Federal), too much corporate debt.
Not enough jobs being created, too many jobs being eliminated by technology, too many new workers ill prepared for the jobs that are available.
Too much government spending at all levels, a messed up tax code at all levels, way too many people on the dole.
The spending priorities are also unwise and not in our best long term interest as a nation.
Underfunded pension liabilities in the public and private sectors.
A huge mismatch between housing stock and housing demand- part of the cause of high rental costs almost nationwide.
A huge mismatch between the College Degrees being earned and the market demand for them.
Medical costs and Higher Ed costs rising faster than core inflation for decades.
It is fscking ugly out there.
superb analysis.
All debt, including personal, is tied to personal responsibility. Ever listen to Dave Ramsey? Anyone, even the low wage earners, can restore a millionaire. It takes desire, consistency, and moderation. The issues are complicated, but the causes are not as simple as stated. I would garner to wage, that a reduction in the size of government, with a reduction in over-taxation for unconstitutional spending, would result in significant increases in take home pay, reversing many of the issues we see. Taxation is a huge drain on private income. But your list is assuredly valid factors as well.
There’s only one problem Japan, Germany, or China aren’t going to reduce their government because we want to give up, America’s problem with government is cultural warfare from within.
Oh the irony, one of the few legitimate expenses of the federal government is defense. Completely unrelated to the majority of federal expenditures
The Defense Department is unaccountable – literally- and out of control.
Can you imagine running a business without accounting for money spent, inventory, etc?
The DoD has never had a line item accounting for projected spending or retrospective spending. They cannot give you an actual amount for what much of anything they do costs. That is a formula that encourages waste, fraud, abuse and theft.
I want our country to have the best military possible and I want the people to be well equipped, well trained and well paid. Beyond that, I want far less waste and far better accountability.
I was simply stating a list of factors that indicate tings are not as rosy as Wall Street, Washington or most politicians would have you believe.