The Federal Reserve, which released the details of its Federal Open Market Committee meeting today (no changes to monetary policy), did not plan on also releasing the results of their stress tests today. But they did in a hurry just a few minutes ago. The reason why is indicative of the incredible arrogance on the [...]

At a time when the government will release banks from their shameful conduct in the mortgage industry, they are also conducting stress tests to determine the financial health of those same banks. Given government policy that protects and coddles the banks, I would imagine the health to be shown as pretty darn good. And indeed, [...]

Jon Hilsenrath takes note of an unique dichotomy in the current economic data. Job growth has picked up, averaging around 250,000 over the last three months. However, GDP growth for the first quarter of 2012, based on various economic indicators, looks to be coming in at 2% or less, which does not typically correlate with [...]

Here’s kind of a neat twist: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants public input for nominations to a Consumer Advisory Board, an outside group of experts who will advise CFPB on the emerging consumer protection challenges and the desired focus of the agency. One way that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act [...]

The Federal Reserve did not only vow to maintain a zero interest-rate policy through the end of 2014 (a policy that has its critics, incidentally). They also set an explicit interest rate target for the first time ever, as far as I can tell. The Federal Reserve took the historic step on Wednesday of setting [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee, the policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve, released their policy statement for January, and it suggests additional monetary accommodation in the years ahead. In fact, it forsees maintaining the extraordinarily low federal funds rate of between 0 and 1/4% until at least the end of 2014. This means that the [...]

If financial regulators want to prove that they’re willing to take the necessary steps to protect the public and not the banks, they will soon have a great opportunity. Today, Public Citizen will send a formal petition to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, asking them to “recognize that [...]

Because of process issues, foreclosures slowed to their lowest point in four years, at the still-high rate of 804,000 repossessions for 2011. One out of every 69 homes in America received a foreclosure filing last year. Self-proclaimed experts claim that the worst of the foreclosure process issues have been dealt with, and that repossessions will [...]

The Federal Reserve, Neil Irwin told us earlier in the week, cannot do much for the majority of Americans in a struggling economy. They can only put money in the hands of the well-to-do, in the hopes that they spend more and increase economic growth, which will then trickle down to the masses. I think [...]

The Federal Reserve, upon request from the House and Senate Banking Committees, issued a white paper on housing yesterday, one which actually manages to be honest about the housing crisis and the implications for the greater economy. First off, we get an actual indication that foreclosures are bad and that losses in the system cannot [...]

The Federal Reserve has decided to use the communication channel as a means to boost the economy. Starting with their next meeting, the Fed will detail their specific plans on short-term interest rates, explaining how many years they approximate the rate structure to stay in place. This is an expansion of what the Fed has [...]