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发表于 2011-3-15 01:45 PM
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Federal Reserve says, let them eat iPads
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The heckling that New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley endured at a recent event doesn’t look to have made much of an impact on the Fed’s interest rate decision on Tuesday.
To recall, Dudley was peppered with questions about the central bank’s policies in front of a tough audience in Queens (is there any other?), accused of being too soft on inflation. “When was the last time, sir, you went grocery shopping?” asked one member.
Dudley, in a horrendously awkward way, responded by noting that other prices have gone the other way, pointing out that an iPad 2 can be purchased for the same price as the first iPad.
And Dudley is right, to an extent. There really hasn’t been much pass-through of surging commodity prices to items that aren’t food or energy, and of course, technology gets cheaper by the year. The big decline in commodity prices seen Tuesday suggests that perhaps the run-up in these was temporary, or at least contained a big element of speculative froth.
That froth of course was probably exacerbated by the Fed’s own $600 billion bond buying plan. But in the Fed’s eyes, the big worries are still in the labor market, notwithstanding the decline in the unemployment rate to below 9%. Not even the more hawkish members like Richard Fisher or Charles Plosser saw reason to disagree. Read more on the Fed’s decision.
The question of whether the Fed is right, of course, will be determined in months, if not years. The central bank did say it would “pay close attention” both to inflation and inflation expectations, both of which are rising. Still, that’s not much of a concession from an institution where one of its main duties is, after all, to fight inflation.
The Fed paying close attention to inflation is like a firefighter taking note of a campfire that seems pretty close to forest full of old trees and dry leaves. The Fed’s view is, the fire is contained.
Stay tuned on what happens to that campfire. |
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狗仔卡
发表于 2011-3-15 01:37 PM
欢迎CM重出江湖!