Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by one-quarter percent in its first salvo against rampant inflation. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated that the central bank will get more aggressive in its inflation fight in the coming months. Conventional wisdom holds that monetary tightening will reverse the impacts of the extraordinarily loose monetary policy we’ve seen over the last two years and bring inflation under control.
Will it though?
The Federal Reserve launched its fight against inflation earlier this month, but it wasn’t exactly shock and awe. The Fed raised interest rates by just a quarter percent. Peter Schiff called it the most anticipated and least significant rate hike ever. Meanwhile, the central bank continued to expand its balance sheet.
While the Fed’s tiny monetary policy adjustments won’t likely put a dent in inflation, they are already having an impact on the economy. Last week, mortgage rates charted their biggest weekly increase in 11 years.
How long will it take for rising rates to pop the housing bubble?
Despite rising interest rates and more hawkish talk from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the stock markets keep pushing upward. Everybody seems to think the Fed has things under control and everything will be just fine. In his podcast, Peter explained why this “everything is great” attitude will have to come to an end.
After going from not even thinking about thinking about raising interest rates, to thinking about it, to talking about it, the Fed finally got around to raising rates last week. Peter Schiff called it the most anticipated and probably the least significant rate hike ever. So, what’s next? In his podcast, Peter said the Fed will keep raising rates … until it can’t.
The Fed launched its much-anticipated war on inflation this week. It wasn’t much of a first strike. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the Fed meeting and what might come next. He also touches on the possibility of a “petroyuan.”
The Federal Reserve wrapped up its March meeting, delivering a 25 basis-point interest rate hike in the face of a 7.9% CPI. Peter Schiff called it the most anticipated and probably the most meaningless rate hike in history.
The Fed is supposedly about to step into the ring to fight inflation. But all indications are it’s going to be a feckless fight.
We got the February CPI data yesterday. There is some bad news in the report and then there is some really bad news. In this episode, SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap Host Mike Maharrey breaks it all down. He also talks about gold’s rollercoaster ride this week in the context of inflation and the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Debt issuance by the US Treasury has fallen since the binge in December when the Treasury had to replenish its “extraordinary measures” stockpiles (government employee retirement funds) after the end of the “debt ceiling” debate. Still, issuance remains relatively high.
The Treasury added another $278 billion in debt during February. Similar to January, the Treasury stopped converting short-term to long-term debt Instead, it increased Bills by $94 billion, more than any other security type.
The markets seem to be anticipating a Fed inflation fight. They also seem to be realizing that this is going to cause a recession. But they still haven’t come to grips with the fact that this is not going to fix the inflation problem. In his podcast, Peter Schiff argues that the recession will actually end up making inflation worse.
