Friday, June 17, 2016

Bullard Worse than a Weather Vane: Only One Rate Hike Until 2018!?

I think they should fire this guy already.
St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard, in a significant shift in his outlook for the economy, now says low growth and a very low fed funds rate of just 63 basis points will likely remain in place through 2018. 

Bullard, reversing earlier forecasts that looked for growth to pick up and rates to rise, now says 2 percent growth is the most likely forecast and that rates will remain low. Bullard also sees unemployment at 4.7 percent and trimmed-mean PCE inflation of 2 percent during this window.
So he pretty much went from the biggest rate hawk to the biggest rate dove and he has the audacity to say this:
In a conference call with reporters following the release of the position paper, Bullard said the mismatch between Fed and investor expectations for the fed funds rate is eroding the central bank's credibility and causing distortions in the market.
He is the very one eroding the bank's credibility by going from hawk to dove after one bad jobs report. I know that rate rises are data driven but one data point shouldn't get someone to change so dramatically. I any case they should replace him with someone that isn't so damn vocal. I don't understand why they can't just be quiet and speak with one voice.

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