Ok…so the Social Security event forced us to pull together new audio equipment – we never knew how quickly we would utilize these new tools for events such as what follows – We hope you enjoy these pertinent comments directly from the horses mouth!
Unthinkable just a few quarters ago…. Market Participants are thinking there may be a FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) LOWERING of rates – yep lowering!
This week the FOMC will announce their decision, based on many factors as you will hear from the attached audio – what makes this weeks meeting special is the slight expectation of a lowering of rates and this meeting includes the FOMC estimates of the economy and an interview with chief Jerome Powell post announcement –
Now – what they are looking at to make the decision!
At our recent CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) sponsored event, we were fortunate enough to have an hour with Robert Kaplan, Dallas Federal Reserve President. We were also fortunate enough to get audio of the event…
What the Fed Watches to make rate decisions
According to Robert Kaplan, Audio below, he along with his fellow FOMC chiefs watch the following, just to name a few items:
Cyclical Factors – Short Term Indicators – Less important to Kaplan – I.e. CPI, Earnings, Interest Rates, Employment rates – basically all the items we read on a daily basis or are bombarded with in “Breaking News! Like format – Interestingly and very correctly from our perch, Kaplan is not a big advocate of placing much weight on these factors – see next as he mostly ignores the short term noise – Wisely in our opinion – see audio below
Structural Factors – Longer Term Trends – MORE important to Kaplan and becoming more important to the entire FOMC board due to his repeated review – I.e. Population growth/demographics, Government Debt, Corporate Debt, TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION (huge importance), World Growth – Again, totally agree – see audio below
Individual Company Response – Kaplan talks to over 30 large and small company CEO’s monthly along with continued in- person visits with companies to help determine, just what the economy is doing along with longer term Structural disrupting factors – see audio below
Group Input – With multiple chiefs from a dozen districts bringing their collective input to the table, a theme hopefully develops!
Here is the Audio in different formats for different devices – with three different types we hope at least one works on your device!
MP3:
Wave File:
OGG File:
Our Thoughts
Our bet is no lowering of rates, which may be met with disappointment (lower markets)!
Have a Great “FED Decision Week” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
$treet-¢ents 
Interest Rates Part FOUR — How the FOMC Fiddles with Rates — Federal Reserve Rate Control
As we near our fantastic conclusion to our multiple part series on Interest rates (next post is the last) lets quickly review where we came from.
In our First Post here, we spoke of the basic yield curve and how it logically moves from lower left to higher right high to account for risk …. Recall if a buddy borrows $100 bucks and promises to pay it back tomorrow its a lot less risky than if he promises to pay it back next year… and you would rightly charge him more for the delayed time… The Basic Yield Curve!
In our Second Post here, we spoke of movement of the yield curve … basically a parallel shift upward in better economic times and a parallel shift lower during slower economic times – all other things being equal, which they of course never are…
In our Third Post here, we discussed the players and assets that might sit along the yield curve, attempting to make for a more REAL world example(s)
Today … Well, let’s get to it
Where the Federal Reserve (FOMC) Fiddles on the Yield Curve
For all practical purposes the FOMC/Federal Reserve can completely control the short end of the curve as shown on our graph… Special shout out to the 13 year old tennis player working with the new Apple Pencil (neat subject for another time)- for the updated colored graphs…. yea this is our weekend workings during rain on tennis days..haha
Post GREAT Recession of 2007-2009 the FOMC not only lowered their totally controlled short end of the yield curve – but took the unusual action of using government money to purchase assets of the longer term in order to push longer term rates down as well …
Blue is the normal yield curve – Green is the greatly lowered yield curve we have of late most recently been experiencing ….. Yea the short rate was essentially at ZERO – about what all of our checking accounts have been earning until just recently
Here is the lowering of rates graph:
It is essential that the FOMC eventually normalize the yield curve back to the original lower left upper right as keeping it unnaturally low for too long will likely lead to an overheating of the economy, not to mention over use of risk via leverage/loans …
Here is the Raising or Normalizing Graph we are currently experiencing:
Next up our conclusion, and most importantly it’s predictive behavior over the last six decades….
Have a Great “Rising Rates” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com
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Posted in Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments
Tagged Federal Reserve, FOMC, Interest Rates, Rate Decrease, Rate Increase