Here’s how big the balance sheets of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are (June 2020 edition); Plus how much they have grown so far in 2020 in response to COVID-19

Big Bigger numbers …

Continue reading “Here’s how big the balance sheets of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are (June 2020 edition); Plus how much they have grown so far in 2020 in response to COVID-19”

The Federal Reserve has done the right thing by reducing its balance sheet and increasing interest rates to support a thriving economy, why reverse this now?

The Federal Reserve has unwound its balance sheet by 12% over the past year and reduced it to $3.81 trillion (from a peak of $4.5 trillion in 2017).

It has also increased interest rates since from 0.25% (range of 0% to 0.25%) in 2016 to 2.5% (range of 2.25% to 2.5%) now.

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Rising benchmark interest rates in the United States are having little impact on mortgage and saving interest rates as well as interest margin of banks

The Federal Reserve increased the target for the bank’s benchmark rate by 0.25% (to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%) at the end of December, the ninth rate rise since 2015. Rising benchmark interest rates are having little impact on mortgage and saving rates or interest margin of banks.

Interest Margin of Banks in the United States stood at 3.33% at the end of Q3 2018, up just 0.03% from Q2 2018 (3.3%) and up just 0.18% from Q3 2017 (3.15%).

US banks net interest margin January 2019

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Are rising benchmark interest rates in the United States having any impact on mortgage or saving interest rates?

The Federal Reserve increased the target for the bank’s benchmark rate by 0.25% (to a range of 2% to 2.25%) last week, the eighth rate rise since 2015. Are rising interest rates really having any impact on mortgage or saving rates?

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U.S. Inflation at 2.9% is the highest since February 2012 and has outstripped wage growth for the first time since October 2012

U.S. Consumer Inflation at 2.9% is the highest since February 2012. And it isn’t just energy prices causing inflation to soar. Core inflation (which is Consumer inflation excluding volatile energy and food prices) at 2.4% has risen at the fastest pace in a decade. Here is a chart for CPI inflation growth,

US CPI August 2018
Source: Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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