A Preview of the Fed Meeting

I thought Powell had more back bone!!!!!

It is not the job of the Federal Reserve to satisfy Donald Trump.

"Mr. Trump has been pushing for an extensive cut, one that leaves rates at or below zero, …" Of course that is what Mr. Trump is espousing. He is known by the sobriquet "The King of Debt" for all the borrowing he does to fabricate his "wealth". He has had six major bankruptcies in his private history. He has stiffed creditors for 50 years. This is how this con man thinks.

The best thing President Trump can do to rally the stock market and world economy is to do his patriotic duty and STEP DOWN.

Is the Fed truly independent? Why these low interest rates when the economy is surging? What about the many of us who want to save, not spend spend spend? The interest rates are SO LOW that you might as well put it under a mattress! Especially since banks will fail with Trump DE Regulation & when we have absolutely NO tools in the tool box to address a coming crash!!!!! Everyone knows this sugar high will lead to a depression just like in a Human Being!

Former Fed. governor Richard Fisher admitted the Fed's ZIRP and QEs (to the tune of $4 trillion used to buy the offending banks toxic securities while millions of defaulting home owners lost their homes) were solely designed to "jump start" Wall St. in 2008 with the "hope" that a revived Wall St. would see a trickle down to Main St. The verdict: it worked for Wall St., and barely for Main St. Savers and prudent investors were abject losers in this equation. The $4 trillion created by the Fed never circulated in the real economy. It has been estimated that had the Fed normalized interest rates much sooner, some $3 trillion of lost interest would have been in savers/consumers pockets, a great percentage of which would have been spent resulting in a virtuous velocity of money through the economy, and actually creating more jobs. The Fed began raising rates in Dec. 2015, far too late in the game. The rate of Fed increases has been the slowest in modern Fed history. Trump has totally disrupted the economy due to his idiotic tariffs, and he, and Wall St. have browbeaten Powell to recklessly reduce rates. Powell was poised for three 1/4 point rate increases this year as pronounced in Dec. 2018. Wall St. responded by having its worst Dec. in 80 years. Trump responded by emasculating Powell who waived the white flag on Jan 3. The Fed has assured the worst of financial bubbles once again. The repo market is cratering once again. Savers suffer once again.

Because we all know that taking more loans out to pay the interest on your other loans is a good thing, right? Going into the negative or extremely low interest rates will encourage more stock buybacks, something that's another wonderful thing, right? Gosh he is so full of amazing, magical potions, adding a bit of this and a bit of that---But WE are in his cauldron and he knows nothing about the recipes for the good of the world. He is cooking all of us. Even the wealthy.

"....but policymakers are unlikely to do enough to satisfy President Trump." Who cares! Do what's right for the country

Trump wants what ever puts the most money into his pocket.

According to your President, the economy is the best it has ever been yet desperately needs a bailout to prop it up This must be like what Berliners felt like in 1945 when their radios were telling them they were winning the war while the Russian tanks cruised past their windows

Interestingly, the US president , Mr. Donald Trump, will provide assistance to Ukraine for the development of agriculture in Ukraine?

Dealing with climate warming and an expanding economy are not compatible. 'You cannot have your cake and eat it too' definitely fits this conundrum.

When - not if - the economy does turn down again, we will have no arrows in the quiver, no tools to help stimulate. It will be a hard fall.

The "best economy ever" needs another rate cut?

All this will accomplish is more asset inflation; overinflating house prices and artificially boosting stock values. Which will in turn increase inequality and social instability, along with creating bubbles that will eventually destabilize those markets and create havoc in the larger economy. If derivatives begin to unravel at that point, the Fed will be out of traditional tools to avoid an actual depression. That’s when we’ll be living in “interesting times,” as the Chinese proverb goes. It past time for the Fed to remove the punch bowl from the party, and let rates find equilibrium.

Trump wants the "tail" to "wag the dog." The Fed being the "tail," is being asked to proactively remediate for the "dog," Trump's tariff war with China. While it is entirely understandable that Trump wants all the help he can get in producing the healthy economy he needs for re-election, the Fed's rate setting function is small potatoes compared to the President's incoherent and fraught economic policies. Even unpressured Fed rate adjustments take time to percolate to effect, and that effect is often limited. Considering China's ability to enact fiscal/economic policy by fiat we remain under-gunned. Of course any rate change would likely immediately affect the President's outstanding (and hidden) business debts. Because Trump intentionally distanced and disparaged our allies, we are left confronting China's economic blitz essentially alone, despite their shared interest in changing China's tactics. It does not take a Nobel economics laureate to reason that a unified first-world response is needed, just a reasonably competent leader. Let's hope we can find one!

"There has been some turmoil in the money markets this week as a corporate tax due date and Treasury bond issuance combined to fuel a cash shortage." It's unlikely these are the reasons. A spike of the magnitude we have seen is simply extraordinary. Something else is happening, and it portends something bad.

Boy-King Donnie wants much lower rates for two reasons; another economic sugar high before the election to prop him up, and because of the millions in interest he would save from all of the debt his businesses service. Note that none of these are to do with the long-term strategic health of the economy or the country. It's all about him. The Fed should do as it best believes is right for the country, not the grifter-in-chief.

everyone is talking interest rates but what about the non volatility measure? does that decrease or depend on whether this *NEW* interest rate cut will loan out to businesses for growth?

Hopefully, the Fed is thinking ahead to the 2020 election, at which time the "Trump Protectionism" anomaly will recede into history, and the global economies, based on capitalism and free trade, will begin again to profit everyone.

Trump wants negative interest rates! The Fed will give him 25 pts. By Trump’s own reckoning, the economy is clearly in trouble. Democrats need to talk this up.

The DOW is down a bit right now, and it will be interesting to see what happens if ... probably ... a .25% rate cut is announced. My guess is that most of that has been incorporated into the market, and if stocks don't rally for a day or two Trump will scream and yell like a second grader. Again. And again. And again ....

Well if I can't get a investment on my savings then I simply dont put money into the economy. Simple.

Supply and demand. If consumers feel Disoriented by trumps chaos domestically and internationally then they will begin to be careful how they spend their money. No Amount cheap money will change this.

A rate cut is simply stealing from those who rely on this minimal amount of interest and handing it to the wealthy.....it is that simple.

re: "policymakers are unlikely to do enough to satisfy President Trump." There is no such thing as doing enough to satisfy that man - why try?

Trump can’t have it both ways. Either this is the “greatest economy in history” and needs no help from the fed, or the economy is failing, thanks Donald, and needs fed stimulus. More to the real point of Trump’s position is that his personal interests would massively benefit from a rate cut.