Federal Reserve to America: We shall keep calm and carry on
The Federal Reserve released a statement today following its latest meeting. Not a tremendous amount has changed: The members of the Federal Open Market Committee — who set the Fed's monetary policy — still feel the economy is growing and our failure to employ all the Americans who want jobs is receding — albeit at a very modest pace. They think the current short-term interest rate of 0 to 0.25 percent is appropriate for now, and they anticipate inflation will eventually (though lord knows when) get back to the long-term 2 percent target.
The committee didn't give an indication of when it would begin hiking short-term interest rates, though only two of its 17 members want to wait until 2016. The Fed has four more meetings this year — in July, September, October and December — meaning four more chances to begin the rate increases. (Though according to the Wall Street Journal, "most analysts assume" July is out.)
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