Rates started the day up, but have since dropped. Here’s why.

Below is the full FOMC statement from today’s Fed meeting, and there are three dissenters on today’s new language stating a low rate target “at least through mid-2013″. These dissents are a big change because all FOMC decisions received unanimous votes since the Thomas Hoenig rotated off the FOMC in January, and he was the [...]

Despite big intraday fluctuations of +/-.25%, rates ended last week even for the third straight week. WeeklyBasis predicted rates would be up slightly on higher U.S. business inflation, perception that Europe’s debt crisis seems more contained, and less North Africa/Middle East turmoil than expected—all but the last point happened, which is why investors were net [...]

Today’s Fed statement acknowledges economic recovery is on “firmer footing,” and while the Fed acknowledges inflationary concerns, it’s choosing to ignore inflation pressure for now and keeping overnight bank-to-bank target Fed Funds Rates at 0-.25%, and keeping the overnight Fed-to-bank Discount Rates at .75%. They also said they’d keep going with their second round of [...]

Below is the statement from the first Fed rate policy of 2011, which shows their view that the economic recovery and jobs situation is still unstable. They left overnight bank to bank lending rates the same at a 0-.25% target, and also said they’d continue their $600b quantitative easing program designed to lower business rates [...]

Below is the full statement from the Federal Open Market Committee from their final meeting of 2008. They cut the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate to a target range of 0 to .25% and cut the Fed-to-bank Discount Rate to 0.5%. They also reiterated their commitment to purchase up to $500b in mortgage bonds in [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee today cut the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate 50bps to 1% and the Fed-to-bank Discount Rate 50bps to 1.25%, citing a marked decline in consumer expenditures. These cuts to short term rate are aimed at getting short-term business-to-business lending back on track, which then feeds down to the consumer. Since most [...]

By holding the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at 2% and the Fed-to-bank Discount rate at 2.25% at their FOMC meeting today, the Fed proved that the financial storm that’s been blowing since August 2007 requires much more than rate cuts. It’s not so much about the price of money right now, but rather the availability [...]

Following their meeting today, the Federal Open Market Committee kept the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at 2% and the Fed-to-bank Discount Rate at 2.25%, and said that “The Committee expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year, but the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain.” This is following their June 25 statement where they [...]

Charles Plosser, Philadelphia Fed president and voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee that sets benchmark rates, has spoken publicly twice since CPI and PPI came out last week. He’s a well-known inflation hawk, having dissented on the April 30 quarter-point cut and the March 18 three-quarter point cut, and he voted on June [...]