Federal Reserve

Fed officials think the economy is strong enough to justify rates marching steadily upwards.

Housing starts and mortgage applications were lower than expected. It may be time for the Fed to rethink its plan to hike interest rates further.

During a portion of an interview with the Fox Business Network set to air on Tuesday’s “Trish Regan Primetime,” President Trump said the Federal Reserve is his “biggest threat” because the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates too quickly, a

Critics of the Trump administration’s tariffs have described them as “taxes on consumers.” So far, however, there is little sign the consumer prices are rising because of tariffs.

Wednesday’s rate hike was the third this year and the eighth since the Fed began raising interest rates in December 2015.

Still no signs that tariffs are a “tax on consumers.”

“Navigating by the stars can sound straightforward. Guiding policy by the stars in practice, however, has been quite challenging,” Powell said.

The Fed minutes reveal that officials are talking about trade a lot more but not seeing much evidence of negative effects yet.

Report: Trump ‘Not Thrilled’ with Fed Chairman Powell Over Rate Hikes

A new study by economists for the New York Fed appears not to understand the basics of the Trump administration’s tariffs.

The U.S. economy is about 12 percent smaller than it would have been based on its pre-crisis trend.

Charles Evans, a long-time dove opposed to interest rate hikes, now sees the Fed moving to restrict growth as tax cut stimulus pushes down unemployment and inflation rises.

All told, the Fed used the word “strong” or some version of it six times in the statement.

“Tightening now hurts all that we have done,” Donald Trump said in a tweet Friday.

President Donald Trump called out China and the European Union on Friday for manipulating their currencies.

“I don’t necessarily agree with it, because he’s raising interest rates … I don’t necessarily agree with it, and I must tell you I don’t, I’m not thrilled,” Trump said.

In breaking with the Rubin Rule, Trump is harkening back to the tactics of President Ronald Reagan, a frequent Fed critic.

Manufacturers say they are worried about tariffs and the tight labor market. But consumers are not feeling the bite of rising costs.

“The administration has said it is going for broadly lower tariffs, if that happens, that’s good,” Powell said.

The economy is doing so well that a bit of trade friction would not be bad. If it ever develops into a drag on the economy, it will simply balance out the boom created by the rise in confidence and the fall in taxes.

In a sign of the confidence of regulators in the strength of the biggest U.S. banks, those banks are now authorized to pay out 95% of their expected aggregate profits over the coming year.

The Fed says that it has not eased up on the stress tests, even though the economy appears much healthier than in any period since the financial crisis. According to a senior Fed official, this year’s stress scenarios were the toughest to date.

The American economy is accelerating while economies from Europe and Asia slow, casting doubt on claims that recent strength was due to “global” factors or that Trump trade policies would hurt the U.S.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell wants to make America’s central bank easier to understand and more open to the public.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials announced a modest interest rate hike on Wednesday, predicting two more this year as the American economy continues to grow.

The Federal Reserve announced that U.S. household wealth has risen above $100 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, for the first time in history.

Fifth Third’s $4.7 billion deal to purchase Chicago’s MB Financial is a sign that large regional banks are feeling pressure to grow and believe the regulatory environment has turned positive for bank mergers and acquisitions.

Hard to believe, but we’re almost halfway through the second quarter of the year. That’s the point where it makes sense to start checking in on where the regional Fed banks’ forecasting models see GDP growth for the quarter.

The Trump tax cuts were supposed to spark a business investment boom. The latest Fed statement indicates that the boom may have already begun.

The Beige Book’s use of “modest to moderate” to describe the pace of economic growth may relieve concerns that the economy might be at risk of overheating.

Neel Kashkari has become the Federal Reserve’s foremost skeptic of the notion that the U.S. is experiencing a severe labor shortage.

The Fed clearly is not suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, the compulsion to present all of Trump’s policies as terrible, no-good, very bad. It knows what Trump has done and thinks the economy has strengthened.

Fed officials appear to be convinced that tax cuts and the recent federal budget agreement would add to economic growth. Tariffs on steel and aluminum were not seen as threatening, although federal officials did worry about foreign retaliation.

Fed policymakers on Wednesday announced an increase in federal funds rate target to a range of 1.50 percent to 1.75 percent.

Shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, have declined over the past two days thanks in part to the intensifying scandal over user data at Facebook. Alphabet’s shares have been under-pressure because investors fear that regulators might clamp down on how tech companies deploy user data in a way that could crimp earnings across the sector.