More than 90 Central Banks have now lifted rates, more than half by at least 75 basis points in one go this year. Last night the UK lifted by 0.5% and we look at their outlook, as more channel Paul Volcker who is widely acknowledged as the premier inflation fighter in Federal Reserve history.
When President Carter nominated him to be Fed Chair in July 1979, Volcker knew he faced a daunting task. Inflation was 11 percent, inflicting pain on financial markets and economic performance, and the second oil shock was unfolding. The Fed’s lack of inflation-fighting credibility had generated severe currency devaluation and a U.S. dollar crisis in late 1978.
At his confirmation hearings before the Senate Banking Committee, Volcker made his views clear. The Fed would have to clamp down on monetary policy to reverse the damaging upward price-wage cycle and wring out inflationary expectations. To his credit, Carter supported Volcker, even though he knew it may cause a recession, as did President Reagan.
Volcker took heat when the Fed sent rates soaring and the economy incurred back-to-back recessions.
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More than 90 Central Banks have now lifted rates, more than half by at least 75 basis points in one go this year. Last night the UK lifted by 0.5% and we look at their outlook, as more channel Paul Volcker who is widely acknowledged as the premier inflation fighter in Federal Reserve history.
When President Carter nominated him to be Fed Chair in July 1979, Volcker knew he faced a daunting task. Inflation was 11 percent, inflicting pain on financial markets and economic performance, and the second oil shock was unfolding. The Fed’s lack of inflation-fighting credibility had generated severe currency devaluation and a U.S. dollar crisis in late 1978.
At his confirmation hearings before the Senate Banking Committee, Volcker made his views clear. The Fed would have to clamp down on monetary policy to reverse the damaging upward price-wage cycle and wring out inflationary expectations. To his credit, Carter supported Volcker, even though he knew it may cause a recession, as did President Reagan.
Volcker took heat when the Fed sent rates soaring and the economy incurred back-to-back recessions.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
To no one’s surprise the Federal Reserve delivered its third consecutive 0.75% rate increase on Wednesday as the Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate to a range of 3% to 3.25% from 2.25% to 2.5% previously. It was all pretty much as expected although his specific comments on the housing market may have shocked some. He said effectively that dropping home prices won’t stop the quest to strangle inflation. Property bulls please note.
So, after this latest rate hike, the Fed has now lifted its benchmark rate by 300 basis points, or 3% in just six months as the central bank accelerates policy to restrictive territory with the aim of slowing growth enough to make a meaningful dent in inflation.
“We can’t fail to do that,” he said, referring to the central bank’s mission against price growth. “That would be the thing that would be most painful for the people that we serve. We have got to get inflation behind us. I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn’t. What we need to do is get rates up to the point where we’re putting meaningful downward pressure on inflation. That’s what we’re doing. We haven’t given up the idea that we can have a relatively modest increase in unemployment.”
But critically, there were no signs of easing its push into restrictive territory as it battles to cool the embers of inflation.
“We’ve just moved into the very, very lowest level of what might be restrictive [territory],” Powell said in the press conference that followed the monetary policy statement. “In my view, there’s a ways to go.”
As a result, the Fed now sees its benchmark rate rising to 4.4% in 2022, above the 3.4% forecast in June, paving the way for further front-loading of rate hikes in the remaining two Fed meetings for the year and into 2023.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing alongside you.
Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.
Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.
Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.
Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
RBA Deputy Governor Michele Bullock spoke today about the review of the bond purchase program (BPP) during the pandemic; and the Bank’s financial statements for 2021/22. The two issues are related because, while the bond purchase program was a policy response to extraordinary economic circumstances, it has had big implications for the Bank’s balance sheet, profits and capital.
The Bond Purchase Program was implemented by the Bank as part of a package of measures designed to provide insurance against very bad economic outcomes as a result of the pandemic. The Bank’s internal review of the program suggests that it broadly achieved its aims.
But one outcome of the bond purchases and other policy measures has been that the Bank will report a substantial accounting loss in its 2021/22 annual accounts, resulting in the Bank being in a position of negative equity. If any commercial entity had negative equity, assets would be insufficient to meet liabilities and therefore the company would not be a going concern.
While the Bank will report a large valuation loss in 2021/22, the government’s debt issuer – the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) – will report a significant valuation gain. For the whole of government, therefore, the Bank’s loss on this part of its portfolio will net off against the AOFM’s gain.
This is a Numberwang like no other!
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Tomorrow the Fed will announce its next rate decision. If its 75 basis points as expected by many in the market, we will probably see little reaction, unless there are some trajectory changing comments in the post announcement press conference. If they do a full one percent that might change the market dynamics. The takeaway is that everyone does expect rates to go up—and by an amount that, prior to the past couple of months, would have been shockingly large.
Perhaps then no surprise that on Tuesday Wall Street ended lower as the eve of a U.S. Federal Reserve, in recognition of the FED’s aspiration to quash inflation, despite economic and market consequences.
One of the main drivers of continued inflation is expectations, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Expectations are very hawkish, and the Fed can come out just as expected and still be more dovish than expected. That may limit the market downside from this meeting and just may provide some upside going forward.
But then, earnings expectations are falling, and markets remain over-valued relative to the weaker economy, so that may pull markets further down. But I suspect the FED theatre will be a bit of a yawn. At least for now.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants. If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing alongside you. Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side. Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make. Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest. Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
The logic I hear all the time is the RBA won’t let home prices fall too far because of the financial stability risk consequences. But that view might be plain wrong.
First the RBA has lifted rates by 2.25 percentage points since May, and markets expect the cash rate to reach 3.3 per cent by the end of the year, before peaking at 3.9 per cent in April next year. RBA governor Philip Lowe said last week there was a “narrow path to a soft landing” for the Australian economy, which would be difficult to stay on if global economic conditions deteriorated.
And reflect on this. Within a 24-hour period this week, there will be 16 central bank decisions including the US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Norway and Taiwan. Cumulatively, we could see over 500 bps in rate hikes across the globe this week.
In addition, Westpac came out yesterday with a revised forecast for the RBA Cash Rate, saying “We now expect the Reserve Bank Board to raise the cash rate by 50 basis points in October for a terminal rate of 3.6% by February (revised up from 3.35%)”. It seems the RBA is giving the green light to home price falls. Because if prices fall you would need a smaller mortgage (even if the interest rates were higher). Let that sink in.
Those who are arguing the RBA won’t be prepared to let home prices fall very far, take note!
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/ Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
The logic I hear all the time is the RBA won’t let home prices fall too far because of the financial stability risk consequences. But that view might be plain wrong.
First the RBA has lifted rates by 2.25 percentage points since May, and markets expect the cash rate to reach 3.3 per cent by the end of the year, before peaking at 3.9 per cent in April next year. RBA governor Philip Lowe said last week there was a “narrow path to a soft landing” for the Australian economy, which would be difficult to stay on if global economic conditions deteriorated.
And reflect on this. Within a 24-hour period this week, there will be 16 central bank decisions including the US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Norway and Taiwan. Cumulatively, we could see over 500 bps in rate hikes across the globe this week.
In addition, Westpac came out yesterday with a revised forecast for the RBA Cash Rate, saying “We now expect the Reserve Bank Board to raise the cash rate by 50 basis points in October for a terminal rate of 3.6% by February (revised up from 3.35%)”.
It seems the RBA is giving the green light to home price falls. Because if prices fall you would need a smaller mortgage (even if the interest rates were higher). Let that sink in. Those who are arguing the RBA won’t be prepared to let home prices fall very far, take note!
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/ Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants. If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you. Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side. Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make. Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest. Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
My Monday chat with Edwin, which covers the latest numbers of property listings in Sydney, and our discussion is packed with insights about the market, and potential future trajectory.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Whilst the rate of interest rates rises is likely to ease ahead, eventually, as the RBA’s Jonathan Kearns, Head of Domestic Markets said today in a speech titled Interest Rates and the Property Market that there are important connections between property prices and interest.
He said interest rates both affect, and are influenced by the economic effects from, both residential and commercial property prices. We can be confident about some aspects of the impact of interest rates on property prices, but there is considerable uncertainty about other aspects.
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants. If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing alongside you. Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side. Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make. Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest. Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
Deep in the financial system plumbing, risks are rising. And the question is – will something break, as rates are hiked, and liquidity withdrawn? Massive Federal Reserve buying of Treasuries stabilized the market over the past two years, but liquidity gauges have eroded since the purchases stopped.
The market for U.S. Treasuries has grown to more than $24 trillion, expanding nearly tenfold over the past 20 years at the same time that major regulatory changes have blunted the ability of some bank-owned dealers of government debt to increase their purchases.
The Fed is this month accelerating the pace of winding down the nearly $US9 trillion balance sheet it built up for more than a decade in an effort to cushion the economy from shocks. It aims to shrink the total by $US95 billion a month — double the August pace.
Yet in fact the Federal Reserve Weekly Assets went up last week, which is weird, given the fact that Quantitative Tightening is meant to have started and we did see a fall in total assets less eliminations over recent weeks. But on the 14th of September the balance was reported at $8,832,759M, whereas the preceding week it was $8,822,401m, so a net rise of $10.36 billion.
Looking down the list of assets, we see US Treasury Securities fell by 3.73 billion, the bulk of which was bills, while mortgage-backed securities rose by $9.23 billion.
On the other hand, reverse repos rose by $66.8 billion (this is money parked at the Central Banks by Financial Institutions).
Right now, when bonds held by the Fed mature, the central bank churns the money back into the market. When it stops doing that, investment banks — known as dealers — must mop up any excess paper in the system on top of any new bonds that the US Treasury issues. It is not certain that the commercial sector has the stomach for this. Bank of America head of US rates strategy Mark Cabana said: “Dealers will inevitably be holding more Treasury inventory.
They’re going to have to finance that, which puts upward pressure on repo rates, that over time will probably contribute to more volatile Treasury markets, potentially worsening Treasury liquidity.” This is all looking a bit messy and a signal there are liquidity pressures emerging. In fact, the US Federal Reserve’s more rapid exit from crisis-era policies is placing the $US24 trillion US government bond market under extra strain, heightening concerns about the bedrock of the global financial system.
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