ACI joined a coalition of 30 other nonprofit organizations in asking Congress to stop the Federal Reserve’s proposal to operate a real time payments system (RTP), which would make the Federal Reserve both the regulator and a competitor of private sector financial entities. The letter was sent to Congress and is available online.
Looking for a Place to Park Your Nest Egg?
We used to think that when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, we would once again have a chance to invest our consumer nest eggs in low risk bonds that pay 4%-5%. It may be a daydream. Four upcoming changes in the financial market could hold rates down longer than we might expect. Lurking on […]
The Fed, Government Debt, Pensions and Retirement Savings
In the depths of the great recession, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) chose to push interest rates down by buying massive amounts of Treasury notes and bonds. That tactic was meant to stimulate private sector investment and invigorate demand for additional employees. Unfortunately, holding interest rates very low for 6 years has starved pensions and […]
The Interest Rate Tangle Reveals a Chronic Flaw
Job and wage growth have slowed, and people keep leaving the labor force even as the country has clawed its way out of the deep hole of 2008. The unemployment rate sits at 5.1%, recovering from an abysmal 10% in September 2009. More than half of the unemployment recovery is a mirage since between 2008 […]
When Quantitative Easing Ends
On Jan 30, 2013 in a CNBC interview, 2013 Martin Feldstein noted that the Fed’s quantitative easing (QE) program used to increase employment and economic growth has been holding 10-year T-Bill rates very low – then about 1.95%. QE has also made mortgages cheaper than would otherwise be the case. Indeed, new 30-year mortgages have […]
