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May 26, 2012
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Fed to Keep a Lid on Rates Through 2014

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Posted on Jan 25, 2012
rosebennet (CC-BY)

The Federal Reserve lent weight to economists’ warnings of a long and slow recovery on Wednesday when it announced plans to keep short-term interest rates near zero for at least the next three years. The idea is that low rates will encourage borrowing and investment in American businesses, helping resurrect the economy. —ARK

The New York Times:

The decision means that the Fed does not expect the economy to complete its recovery from the 2008 crisis over the next three years. By holding rates near zero, the Fed hopes to hasten that process somewhat by reducing the cost of borrowing.

“While indicators point to some further improvement in overall labor market conditions, the unemployment rate remains elevated,” the Fed said in a statement released after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee. “Household spending has continued to advance, but growth in business fixed investment has slowed, and the housing sector remains depressed.”

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By prosefights, January 26 at 9:29 am Link to this comment

SmithBarney/MorganStanley investiment advisor tells how to get high interest rates on Monday January 23, 2012.

http://www.prosefights.org/roofleak/t4/pics28/randall.mp3

Geech!  We’ll gamble on landscaping investment despite falling home prices.

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By RBShea, January 26 at 7:59 am Link to this comment

I highly recommend checking out BillMoyers.com. If you haven’t seen his new TV
program, currently focused on crony capitalism, the full programs are available
there. The second program features David Stockman and Gretchen Morgensen.
Stockman’s description of the role of the Fed in crony capitalism is both ironic,
given his Reagan era role as Budget Director, and telling because he’s been inside
investment banking/Wall Street. Apparently he’s having buyer’s remorse on “free
market” capitalism or maybe his conscience emerged late in life. Either way, its a
sharp and specific enumeration of how the Money Party (Dims and Rethugs) rules
our political system.

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By prosefights, January 26 at 7:16 am Link to this comment

Opinion is that Geithner and Bernanke destroyed the US retirement systsem to save wall street.

Low interest rates caused us to invest in landscaping.

http://www.prosefights.org/roofleak/t4/t4.htm#herzog

We were laddering CDs.

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By RHONDA, January 25 at 11:28 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

RBShea, I concur.  Limitless zero interest money for
Citi et al at the discount window hasn’t done anything
for the public.  Does it not equal perpetual bailout
for Too Big To Fail?  If the Fed’s money is a national
resource, why should it be squandered on TBTF like
toilet paper?  If the money came with a cost, maybe it
would be used for considered investments and loans, not
out of control speculation and bonuses.  Besides,
aren’t these “people” sitting on trillions?

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, January 25 at 5:54 pm Link to this comment

Free market my ass.

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By RBShea, January 25 at 3:10 pm Link to this comment

So…the Fed (controlled by banks) decides to keep interest rates at a virtual 0% for
the next two years, on top of that rate being in place the past three. Why? To
“stimulate” growth. The only thing that rate stimulates it the accumulation of cash
by corporations who sit on it. It also “stimulates” the banksters…such as Goldman
Sachs, Citigroup and the other “too big to fail” wealth extractors…to borrow free
money, charge exorbitant rates on credit cards and loans plus “fees”, pay big
bonuses to their CEOs and owners, hire even more lobbyists to bribe Congress
and state legislatures…you get the picture.

Obama’s Dept. of “Justice” under ex-Wall Streeter Eric Holder has failed to
prosecute serious fraud. Dodd-Frank is a joke and getting funnier thanks to both
Republicans and conciliatory Dims. In other words, nothing’s changed and nothing
will change, even if Obama is re-elected. Given the current Repugnican clown
show, that re-election may happen. But, in the end, like Clinton, Obama will
continue to perform as a “moderate” Republican.

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By ElkoJohn, January 25 at 2:23 pm Link to this comment

More manipulation. So the Banksters get years of Zero Percent interest, and do
they pass it along to consumers? No way. Do I get to save for my retirement by
getting 5% interest at my credit union? No way. Do I want to invest in the stock
market casino? No way. ‘‘Too-big-to-Fail’’ banksters rule again.

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By Bird48, January 25 at 1:45 pm Link to this comment

Though I don’t claim to know squat about all this economic doublespeak and what it means in the “big scheme of things” what I do know is every time The Fed decides to keep interest rates low the return on my savings gets more ridiculously low. It has inched up to near one half percent now but this will probably send it back down.

And at the same time interest rates on regular loans have not gone down much and credit card rates are upwards of 18%. Not that it matters since I owe no debts but how is all this supposed to help anyone but the huge banks who can borrow for nothing and then rake in the profits while stiffing their customers.

It all seems mighty disgusting that the whole economic system is only concerned with the super rich corporate SOBs yet they try and pass it off as a benefit to everyone. And they still haven’t figured out what OWS is about. Dumbshits.

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By gerard, January 25 at 1:02 pm Link to this comment

I try my best to read and understand this economic stuff, but I swear it strikes me as some kind of play-dough that more or less “means what I want it to mean.”
  For instance:  “The Fed can influence current interest rates directly, but its influence over future rates depends on what investors think the Fed will do in the future.” Shocking as it may seem what this really says (if I am not mistaken) is that whatever the Fed decides to do about interest rates (from 1 to 10?) depends not upon facts and figures (as one might expect)but upon “what investors think the Fed will do in the future..” !!!  Prognosis?
Crystal balls? “Weighted” opinions?  Whose? How much weight? etc. etc.
  Gradually I feel insanity creeping up on me.  It’s not as if people’s lives will go on happily in spite of what somebody “thinks” the Fed will “decide.” It’s that people’s lives never seem to figure into the figures!  Egad!
  Is there no reliable system that might systemize the present system?

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