Jerome Powell

Powell Fires Warning Shot at the Housing Market

This is a rough transcript of Jerome Powell's remarks on housing during this week's post-FOMC press conference. I apologize for any errors. Powell's remarks on housing come around the 1:51 mark toward the end of the press conference. See video below. It appears Jerome has finally figured out housing inflation is a serious headwind to the Fed's efforts to curtail raging inflation. It makes you wonder what they were looking at for the entirety of 2021 when the Powell Fed was pretending inflation was transitory. Question from Bankrate's Mark Hamrick: I Wonder what your assessment [...]

New Home Sales Rise in December, But Headwinds Mounting

New home sales were a bit better than expected in December. The Census Bureau reported new home sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 811,000 units. Previous months were revised lower. The median price of new home came in at $377,700. The average price of new construction contracted in December was $457,300. New home sales are still suffering from supply constraints. Completed inventory remains very low while the number of units technically for sale remains very high. Looking at unadjusted numbers out of the 408,000 homes "for sale" at the end of December [...]

Powell Inflating the Housing Market with Fed MBS Purchases

Pinocchio Powell has no answer as to why the Federal Reserve is still inflating the housing market with MBS purchases to the tune of $40 billion per month. Despite a ridiculously overheated housing market with no inventory and double-digit price increases the Federal Reserve is going to continue the purchase of mortgage-backed-securities.  The latest FOMC statement and press conference just confirmed more of the same from the Powell Fed. "Overall financial conditions remain accommodative, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy and the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses. The path [...]

New Home Sales Rise Slightly, Up 15.2 Percent Year-over-Year

New home sales rose 1.6 percent in December according to Census estimates. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 842,000 translates into a 15.2 percent increase from December of 2019. The median price of a new home sold in December 2020 was $355,900. The average price was $394,900. The median price of a new U.S. home rose $26,400, or 8 percent in the middle of a global pandemic even as millions of Americans were losing their jobs. If that's not a testament to the power of central bank liquidity, I don't know what is. The inventory [...]

Oblivion Revisited: Jerome Powell Lays More Cover For The Banking System

In a Q&A session and virtual chat covering monetary policy and the U.S. economy Jerome Powell floated another laughable statement regarding the strength and soundness of the U.S. financial system. Just like his predecessors before him, Powell is apparently willing to feed the financial media whatever it wants to hear, even it has no affiliation with the truth. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed will maintain the current course of printing money like there's no tomorrow until it sees substantial progress towards its goals of 2 percent inflation and maximum employment. It is [...]

Fed Says No Rate Hikes In 2019, Balance Sheet Drawdown Ending In September

The Jerome Powell cave is now a comical farce. Aside from using the word "patient" about 30 times in the March FOMC statement, Jerome Powell told us the Fed does not expect to hike interest rates at all in 2019. To top things off, the Fed balance sheet that was on autopilot at the end of last year will now end this September. In terms of the Fed's projections for the economy, growth was revised down and the unemployment rate was revised up slightly. "In light of global economic and financial developments and muted inflation [...]

Caveman Powell Looking To Levitate Stock, Housing Bubbles

Yesterday the Federal Reserve yelped like a whipped puppy as Jerome Powell turned into the latest iteration of his market-dependent Bernanke/Yellen/Greenspan predecessors. If you remember, Mr. Powell was here in the DFW area back in November playing up the fabulous state of the U.S economy and the Fed's wonderful policies. At the time expectations were that the Fed would be raising the Federal Funds rate four more times this year with a balance sheet reduction schedule that was supposedly on "autopilot" to the tune of $50 billion per month rolling off. Flash forward one quarter [...]

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