Banking, finance, and taxes

FOMC Takes Its Sweet Time on Rate Hike

As expected, despite a belief that rates need to rise from here, the FOMC announced decision on interest rates leaves the 0.0% to 0.25% Fed Funds rate target unchanged.  A 9-1 vote, with Hoenig as the dissent vote, will leave…

By Douglas A. McIntyre
Published March 16, 2010, 1:27pm ET · 1 min read

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As expected, despite a belief that rates need to rise from here, the FOMC announced decision on interest rates leaves the 0.0% to 0.25% Fed Funds rate target unchanged.  A 9-1 vote, with Hoenig as the dissent vote, will leave the near-zero rate policy intact.  The note was there that Fed Funds Will Stay Exceptionally Low For AN Extended Period…. As far as the Fed’s exit strategy, the Fed will end the mortgage purchasing on March 31.

The FOMC gave many notes, as follows:

  • Economic activity has continued to strengthen;
  • Labor markets are stabilizing, but hiring decisions are reluctant;
  • Household spending is expanding at a moderate rate but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit;
  • Recovery will be moderate for some time;
  • Inflation expected to remain subdued for some time;
  • Longer-term inflation expected to remain subdued for some time;
  • Business spending is significantly higher in equipment and software;
  • Financial markets remain supportive of growth;
  • Housing starts have been flat at a depressed level.

If you are a true Fed-head, the full statement is here.

JON C. OGG

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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