The Fed and Treasury

Will Trump Try to ‘Overrule’ Monetary Policy?

By Mark Thoma

How will the Federal Reserve evolve during Donald Trump’s term as president? Presently, three of the seven positions on the Federal Reserve Board are vacant. These vacancies, along with the...
Why the Treasury Is Ending a Low-Income Retirement Saving Program

By Beth Braverman

Less than two years after the Obama administration rolled out a myRA, a savings program aimed at helping the millions of Americans without access to a retirement account through work, the Trump...
Will Janet Yellen Give Wall Street a Scare?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For years, the Federal Reserve has been unable to convince the market it's serious about aggressively tightening policy. Janet Yellen and her cohorts have been guilty of "crying wolf," constantly...
Is the Fed About to Wage War on the Rich?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For years, stocks have been driven relentlessly higher thanks to a single statement that summarized the aggressive central bank largesse since the eurozone crisis flared up in 2012: Policymakers...
Is the Fed Fighting the Trump Rally?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

The evidence is growing that the Federal Reserve’s policymakers are actively working to lean against the stock market's rise, a dramatic reversal from the years of policy support stock market bulls...

The Fed’s Big Mistake: Rate Hikes Hurt US Workers

By David Dayen

Protesters rallied in Washington, New York City and Philadelphia yesterday against an imminent government action that would damage the financial prospects of ordinary workers. And no, it had nothing...
The Fed, the Reality of Tax Cuts, and Donald Trump

By Mark Thoma

For many years, Republicans argued that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves. Cutting taxes on the wealthy, according to Republicans, allows them to keep a larger share of anything new they...
Will Unwinding the Fed’s $4.5 Trillion Balance Sheet Kill the Bull Market?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

Over the last decade, investors have grown accustomed to a Federal Reserve that constantly coddled them, allayed their fears and did everything possible to support the financial markets and asset...
The Key to This Market: Here’s What Will Determine if Stocks Rise or Fall

By Anthony Mirhaydari

For now, instead of putting pressure on risk assets, the Fed's newfound hawkishness is bolstering the reflation trade by lifting the dollar higher and attracting global capital into U.S. assets. Same...
Can Wall Street Handle Higher Interest Rates?

By Anthony Mirhaydari

The Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the second time in three months, signaling a dramatic quickening of its prior pace. For the first time in more than a decade, Fed policymakers are...

10 Real and Bogus Reasons for the Slow Recovery

By Mark Thoma

Why has the recovery from the recession been so slow? Part of the answer is that recessions caused by a collapse of the financial sector are among the hardest to recover from. But that is not the...
Why Everyone is Freaking Out About the Jobs Report

By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

Sometimes, the unemployment rate leads you astray. The Friday jobs report looks decent—payrolls increased by 169,000 in August, while the unemployment rate dropped by a tenth of a percentage point to...
Millions of Tax Dollars Wasted on Afghan Health Plan

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released a report today warning that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is still allocating $236 million a year to...
5 Reasons to Pore Over Friday’s Mega Jobs Report

By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

The jobs report usually gets oversold. But the August jobs report – out tomorrow – might finally live up to the hype. This is the last jobs report out before Federal Reserve officials meet on Sept...
Syrian Debate Could Overshadow Key Fiscal Issues

By Eric Pianin and Josh Boak

President Obama’s efforts to win congressional approval of a U.S. surgical strike against Syria likely will wash away or dilute consideration of most other key policy issues on Capitol Hill this fall.

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