" On the other hand, when Fed officials push the short rate of interest down, the Fed is said to be "loose.
But what the Fed fails to recognize is how its distortion of the short rate for cash might be making it difficult to access capital.
While some economists on the alleged fringe seek the Fed's abolishment, there's a general acceptance among the profession that the Fed plays a necessary economic role in setting the short rate for cash, or the Fed funds rate.
The answer to this problem is happily quite simple: the Fed must float the short rate for credit that it currently sets, and in doing so, let rates rise to the level that equalizes the needs of lenders and borrowers.
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The company launched four funds earlier this summer called the Rydex SGI Event Driven and Distressed Strategies Fund, the Long Short Interest Rate Strategy Fund, the Long Short Equity Fund and the Alternative Strategies Fund.
An accommodative monetary policy would involve keeping the fed funds rate (the short-term rate at which banks lend to each other) at historic lows so as to encourage consumption and provide cheaper credit to consumers and businesses.
The 10-year government bond yield eased again to close at 4.52%, which compares to a short-rate set by the Bank at 4.75%.
The central bank hoisted its short-rate no less than seven times in a thirteen-month period of tightening starting October 2009 lifting the benchmark rate to 4.75%.
And the Fed would face the delicate job if explaining to market traders that the short term rate they had been plugging into all their algorithms was variable, after all.
The slope of the yield curve can be measured in varying ways but is conventionally thought of as the long-term government bond rate minus the short-term government bond rate.
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Greenspan noted that there has been a disconnect in recent years between the Fed's short-term rate moves and long-term rates, such as those that apply to mortgages.
Since progress so far has fallen far short of this rate of conversion, little confidence is lent that the nation will be able to keep its promise on renewables.
"The Fed will drag rates down everywhere just by holding the short-term rate lower in the U.S., " says Dan Dektar, chief investment officer at Smith Breeden Associates in Durham, N.
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For instance, the proposal to treat dividends as ordinary income has met resistance in a Senate bill passed that would call to raise such rates to just 20% on higher-income taxpayers, well short of the rate on ordinary income.
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That's moving it closer to the Fed's 1.5 percent target rate for short-term rates.
Since December 2008, the central bank has kept its short-term interest rate target at 0.00%-0.25%.
One Fed official thinks the first boost in the short-term lending rate won't occur until 2016.
It follows federal income pretty closely and has a top rate just short of 7%.
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At a zero short-term interest rate, the central bank would have to work on adjusting longer-term rates.
Economists also expect the Federal Reserve to cut even further the short-term interest rate, now its lowest in decades.
Delta's short-term booking rate increased 35 points over the same period in 2012.
As for France, its short-term interest rate is close to Germany's, at 3.4%.
To influence demand, the central banks move a short-term interest rate up or down by adjusting the supply of bank reserves.
In December, it exhausted its supply of conventional monetary ammunition when it lowered its short term-interest rate to between zero and 0.25%.
The most startling aspect of the proposed deal: Bucksbaum is funding the deal almost entirely by debt, much of it short term and floating rate.
Only last week the ECB raised its short-term cash rate to 1.50%.
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It comes about because the Federal Reserve System, in its so far failed effort to stimulate the economy, has fixed the short-term interest rate at 0%.
Yields on Mexican short-term interest rate swaps were little changed after the minutes as investors stuck to bets that rates will remain on hold into 2014.
Then in September, the Fed cut its key short-term interest rate for the first time since 2003 by one-half percentage point from 5.25 percent to 4.75 percent.
The Fed has said it plans to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero at least until the unemployment rate dips below 6.5 percent from its current 7.6 percent.
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