Fed Hikes Rates To Feign Confidence – Ep. 235

* Today the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time in 10 years

* Of course, the tightening cycle began with the first rate hike in December of 2015

* Followed by the second rate hike in December of last year

* And now, breaking from tradition, rather than waiting an entire year for the third hike

* We got the hike in March

* Of course the Fed had allowed market expectations to rise to 100% in anticipation of this rate hike

* When the Fed raised rates for the first time they talked about raising rates for an awfully long time before they actually got around to doing it

* Ironically, though, about 2 hours earlier than the rate hike announcement, the Atlanta Fed revised down again its projection for Q1 GDP  to .9

* Remember - at the beginning of February, not even 6 weeks ago, the Atlant Fed was at 3.4% for Q1 GDP

* They're down to .9%!  That is a huge collapse in estimates for economic growth in the first quarter

* And I'm sure it portends ill for subsequent quarters

* And remember - Janet Yellen has always said that the Federal Reserve is not on a preset course

* And that rate hikes that they are forecasting will only happen to the extent that their economic forecast pans out

* That all of their rosy expectations of economic recovery has come true

* Yet none of it has come true

* If anything, you've had a collapse in growth estimates since the last time the Fed met, yet

* The collapse in GDP forecast has done nothing to alter the Fed's path, because they've ignored all the data

* And they raised interest rates yet again

* That doesn't mean that interest rates are high, I mean they're still very low

* Remember, we're still not at a range between .75% and 1% so the average of that range, the midpoint, is still below 1%

* 1% was the emergency level that Alan Greenspan slashed rates to, after the dot com bubble bust and after the September 11 terrorist attack sent the U.S. economy into recession

* At that point, in a recession, the lowest rates got was 1%

* The Fed would have to hike rates again to get back up there


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