Hard hitting global and local news
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Today the Federal Reserve issued this Policy Statement Regarding Purchases of Treasury Securities and Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities . On December 12, 2012, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directed the Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to purchase longer-term Treasury securities after the maturity extension program is completed at the end of December 2012, initially at a pace of about $45 billion per month. The FOMC also directed the Desk to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) at a pace of about $40 billion per month. These actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative. The FOMC also directed the Desk to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from the Federal Reserve’s holdings of agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBS, and, in January, to resume rolling over maturing Treasury securities into new issues at auction.
In light of Carney’s " radical action " statements, please consider Bank of Canada warns of low-rate risk . The Bank of Canada says low-interest policies that it and other central banks have put in place are adding another layer of risk to the already stressed global financial system
The chart assumes a steady rise in labor force to the BLS 2020 projection of 164,360.
Bank of England Warns of Global Currency Wars By the time central banks warn about something, the practice has likely been going on for years. Today’s case in point is BoE’s King warns of growing currency competition The head of the Bank of England warned on Monday that too many countries were trying to weaken their currencies to offset the impact of the slow global economy and the trend could grow next year. "You can see, month by month, the addition to the number of countries who feel that active exchange rate management, always to push their exchange rate down, is growing," Mervyn King said in a speech
Gallup Reports Upper-Income Spending Worst November Ever With the generally upbeat spending reports on black Friday and cyber-Monday, Gallup paints a different point of view in its most recent poll that shows U.S. Consumer Spending Holds Steady, Consistent With 2011 Americans’ self-reported daily spending averaged $73 in November, essentially on par with September and October.
See the article here: Mine-Sniffing Dolphins Lose Their Jobs to Robots; Sea Lion Jobs Safe for Now
Right-to-Work provisions are at long last coming to Michigan. Reuters reports ‘right-to-work’ law exempts existing union contracts Right-to-Work could be approved within a week Stunning blow to organized labor Immediate impact blunted by "grandfather" clause Opponents vow to overturn new law The proposed Michigan "right-to-work" law will not apply to existing union contracts, a leading sponsor of the proposal said on Friday, which may blunt its immediate impact on the huge auto industry in the state.
For the rest of the trend, consider my comment in today’s job report: Establishment Survey +146,000; Household Survey -122,000 Jobs; Unemployment 7.7% as Labor Force Shrinks by 350,000 In the last year, the civilian noninstitutional population rose by 3,733,000.
Reuters reports French jobless rate hits 10.3 pct, highest in 13 years France’s unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012, its highest since the third quarter of 1999, from 10.2 percent in the previous quarter, data published by national statistics office INSEE showed on Thursday. Youth unemployment rose more markedly, with the jobless rate edging up to 24.9 percent, from 23.6 percent, among people under 25 years old