The July employment report suggests the recent trend of lackluster gains in jobs and wages is continuing, and a rate hike should therefore be off the table for the time being.
Iraqi troops training with the US Army June 2015.
US Army/Reuters
On the face of it, Iraq and the US Federal Reserve share little. One is a country plagued by division, war and mayhem since the US invasion of 2003. It is a brutal world where there are no friends, few…
Implementing monetary policy is like treating a patient. A central bank needs the freedom to choose which instrument will work best.
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Treasurer Joe Hockey and billionaire Rupert Murdoch recently made impassioned speeches expressing their deep concern about the problem of rising inequality —the rich are getting richer, while the poor…
Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve board.
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
The US Federal Reserve this week has moved one step closer to lifting interest rates by ending its controversial bond-buying program. This begins a long-anticipated process that will take many months to…
There are high hopes that the new head of the Fed, Janet Yellen, will change the culture at the central bank and the lenders it regulates.
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has her work cut out for her if she hopes to change the culture at the world’s most important central bank. Media reports abound with evidence that the financial industry…
Janet Yellen will make waves next year.
International Monetary Fund
As the US economy emerges from recession, the prospect of the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates grabs the attention of the financial markets more and more. US rates have been close to zero for…
All eyes are on the US Federal Reserve to see when it will lift interest rates.
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Six years after the dramatic collapse of Lehman Brothers, the United States economy is finally showing signs of a stronger recovery from the global financial crisis. The Federal Reserve (Fed) is winding…
Can Draghi the gambler feel Europe’s pulse?
Dennis Skley
The European Central Bank’s decision to cut its interest rates further showed that the zero rate rubicon holds no fear, while one substantial bullet was kept in the barrel. It is a useful marker for markets…
Double speak? It isn’t easy being a reserve banker.
Dan Peled/AAP
Last Tuesday the minutes of August’s Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting were released. Market participants speculated about what they would say, currency and bond markets responded to what they did…
In the eye of the beholders, dollar dominance rules.
http://www.welovecostarica.com/watching/
In imploring the world to be less dependent on the US dollar for international transactions, French finance minister Michel Sapin is expressing a wish that many of the euro’s creators hoped would already…
Making things black and white at The Bank of England.
Mark Cornelius/Bank of England
When the European Central Bank sent markets reeling yesterday with moves designed to stimulate growth, the 24 people who made that decision could remain comfortable that their exact arguments and misgivings…
The Bank of England’s latest communication strategy has been dubbed “fuzzy guidance” - but how much should central banks reveal?
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The effective death of the forward guidance strategy offered by the Bank of England came with the announcement in early February that there would be a switch to a less quantitative approach. Dubbed by…
Incoming US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen must choose whether to further taper the quantitative easing program.
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
Ben Bernanke prepares to vacate his seat as Chairman of the US Federal Reserve on Friday, making way for for Janet Yellen, just as the developed economies finally seem to be coming right. Yellen’s impact…
Outgoing US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is cautiously pulling back the Fed’s quantitative easing program.
AAP
The US Federal Reserve has announced that after more than five years of support, the “tapering” of its quantitative easing program is to begin. So what will the consequences of the gradual withdrawal of…
China has far more to lose from too few US dollars than it does from a dollar surplus.
Urbanartcore.eu/Flickr
The US debt crisis is over for now, but legislators have just kicked the can down the road. In this series on the US debt ceiling, academics from Australia, the UK and the US assess the lingering global…
Janet Yellen supports programs to create job growth, a move which means keeping the Fed’s easy money policy in place.
EPA/Franck Robichon
If endorsed by the US Senate, Janet Yellen is set to become the first woman to head the US Federal Reserve, the most powerful central bank in the world. She’ll replace the current chairman Ben Bernanke…
When financial markets stood on the verge of collapse in the summer of 2008, two of the world’s most important central banks, the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, began considering unorthodox…
Brazil could be at risk if the QE money dries up.
Owen Humphreys/PA
The US Federal Reserve’s surprise decision to continue quantitative easing (QE) was generally well received in those countries with rapidly growing and industrialising economies. They were worried that…