Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad
Finance
(1)
Market Currents

FOMC Announcement: No changes, with $85B/month in asset purchases and ZIRP remaining the...

  • Wednesday, January 30, 2:17 PM ET
    FOMC Announcement: No changes, with $85B/month in asset purchases and ZIRP remaining the monetary law of the land. New FOMC voter, Kansas City Fed chief Esther George, replaces the Richmond Fed's Jeff Lacker as a dissenting vote. The Fed blames a pause in the recovery on weather and other transitory factors.
Track new comments on this story

This news story has 20 comments:

  • Upswings are structural and permanent, downswings are transitory and weather induced.
    30 Jan, 02:44 PM Reply Like
  • It is not the weather. Dont you read the news? it was a decrease in 22% in military spending
    30 Jan, 03:42 PM Reply Like
  • No, that's not correct. That's the excuse Obama and his apologists are using (that is, less gov't spending in general is what caused this is the meme they're trying to sell).

    http://bit.ly/XSRluW

    It's always some excuse. They'll blame it on anything and everything to keep from blaming the god-king and his socialist/statist policies.
    30 Jan, 03:48 PM Reply Like
  • Weather is the excuse for this pause in recovery? Amazing.

    I bought a book of meteorology for Usd 1 written by Walt Disney, where he speeks about to weather devices that may change the future of weather, one is the sattelites, what happened with the other one?

    Jose
    30 Jan, 02:55 PM Reply Like
  • Economy didn't do too well due to weather being too cold. Next time it will be due to the weather being too hot. Then we will see too humid, too dry and the rest of it all.
    30 Jan, 02:55 PM Reply Like
  • At what point do we admit that the "Emperor's have no clothes"?
    30 Jan, 03:20 PM Reply Like
  • Admitted for a long time by a few; some are "paid" to look the other way, and many have that head in the sand.
    30 Jan, 03:48 PM Reply Like
  • When we replace the current MSM cheerleader squad with actual journalists would be my guess as to when that will happen, Mark.
    30 Jan, 03:49 PM Reply Like
  • "When we replace the current MSM cheerleader squad with actual journalists"

    Boy, don't hold your breath on that one. Those Washington cocktail parties are to lavish to give up for real work.
    30 Jan, 07:03 PM Reply Like
  • We had the dot com bubble and the real estate bubble. What's the next bubble?

    With the S&P triple top having been breached, does anyone think that these QE stimulus' and all the other stumulus' before that lead to the next big bubble? When investors realize that the stimulus isn't working and the economy is not actually recovering, could that be the catalyst that causes a major drop like the previous ones?

    It seems the feds are pretty desperate to keep the economy running on fumes and they're running out of all options now - throwing more money, close to 0% interest rates and what not. This is why I'm trying to make sense of why respected economists like Paul Krugman are saying that we aren't spending enough and the government needs to actually have more stimulus.
    30 Jan, 03:44 PM Reply Like
  • The economy is not like the law of gravity. It is a figment of our own creation; it only works because we all agree it works.

    As soon as 'blackie-mcblackenstein' took office, many people decided it wasn't working anymore and they will complain no matter what happens until after the next election, and maybe continue depending on if they like the next president or not.
    30 Jan, 04:07 PM Reply Like
  • "When investors realize that the stimulus isn't working and the economy is not actually recovering, could that be the catalyst that causes a major drop like the previous ones?"

    This is what I've been saying in my comments since mid-December. The next big bubble is the equity bubble that we are about to witness pop. Come February 14th there will be a steep and swift decline. Read my past comments for further details.
    30 Jan, 04:45 PM Reply Like
  • Bernanke for President...oh that was last year...
    30 Jan, 04:35 PM Reply Like
  • Obviously he means hurricane Sandy, and all the fear and hysteria surrounding the fiscal cliff talks that caused people and companies to stop spending.

    It's OK though, Sandy is going to cause the mother of all broken window syndromes, and GDP will get a shot in the arm from all the economic activity related to rebuilding what was lost.
    30 Jan, 04:35 PM Reply Like
  • I have a problem with this part of the statement: "growth in economic activity paused in recent months, in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors."
    Extreme weather is here to stay and "weather-related factors" are not "transitory" anymore. Extreme weather should be part of any business and economic analysis. If the Fed has not gotten this, I am afraid they will get surprised a lot in the years to come.
    30 Jan, 04:40 PM Reply Like
  • "Transitory Factors" - a term used by the power elite to convey the sense that something bad will soon be over and something good will soon happen.
    30 Jan, 04:49 PM Reply Like
  • wow it's simply amazing how much people read into something that in the grand scheme of things in only a minor bump in the roadway... gdp shrank a miniscule 0.1 percent! and this is a trend?

    as though this is the end. and now everyone who just *knows* things are really terrible should buy guns and physical silver and gold, and get ready to shoot squirrels for food in the suburbs,... yeah. uh huh.
    30 Jan, 06:14 PM Reply Like
  • I'm afraid you're missing the point.

    312 billion $ additional debt in the 4th quarter for what? Negative growth?! You think that deficit/debt comes for free? It has a heavy price tag and for that the rewards better be worth it. This quarter it simply wasn't and I contend it never was.

    Other comments are cynical in regards to the typical "truespeak" propaganda of needing to blame weather and transient blimps.
    30 Jan, 06:25 PM Reply Like
  • The economy didn't grow because the government didn't spend enough borrowed or printed money to make the GDP equation positive. Doesn't this make you scratch your head and wonder whether your metric is wrong? Positive GDP based on debt is only as valuable as the debt. The debt is worthless. That is why the GDP is negative. At some point, investors will wake up and wonder why they didn't see the obvious, but by then it will be too late.
    30 Jan, 10:12 PM Reply Like
  • Why isn't anyone talking about 2-5% of income that is about to disappear from people's paychecks to partially cover the deficit spending?

    The multiplier effect of that money being gone will likely drop Q1 2013 GDP growth into negative territory. That makes it a recession. This market is not pricing that in, yet.

    So likely the bubble we are talking about is the government deficit spending bubble. The minute it stops, the bubble pops.
    30 Jan, 11:46 PM Reply Like
Other date
DJIA (DIA) S&P 500 (SPY)