US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, US President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the Fed, thinks the US central bank has “more work to do” to help an economy and a labor market that are still underperforming.
“I believe that supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday.
Her testimony appeared aimed in part at pre-empting Republicans on the panel who are critical of the Fed’s unorthodox and aggressive monetary policy.
At the same time, her prepared remarks bolstered expectations in financial markets that the central bank would continue its easy money campaign to nurse the US economy back to health.
Yellen said the economy and the labor market were performing “far short” of their potential, while price pressures remained muted.
“Inflation has been running below the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2 percent and is expected to continue to do so for some time,” she said, according to a copy of the testimony made available on Wednesday in advance of the hearing.
Japanese stocks led a broad rally in Asia yesterday, spurred by Yellen’s comments, which suggested global asset markets could count on the Fed’s generous stimulus for some time.
European stocks also rose early yesterday, while US stock futures hit a record high following Yellen’s comments, which came after regular US trading hours on Wednesday that also saw major indices scaling all-time highs.
Yellen is widely expected by the markets to provide continuity with the ultra-easy monetary policies of US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires on Jan. 31.
If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman to lead the US central bank.
The committee needs to vet Yellen’s nomination before sending it to the full Senate for final consideration — the timing for action is uncertain, but the outcome appears assured.
Obama’s Democrats control 55 of the Senate’s 100 seats, which means the 67-year-old former economics professor need only win backing from five Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to overcome Senate procedural hurdles.
Yellen’s testimony, which represents her first public remarks on Fed policy since June 2, will be scrutinized for signs of how she feels about the costs and benefits of continued bond buying.
However, analysts expect her to be very careful not to give any clues away ahead of the Fed’s next meeting on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18, although her stress on the need for stimulus reinforced expectations the central bank would not scale back its purchases until next year.
“This sentiment seems to reduce prospects for a December taper, but it doesn’t necessarily rule out a small taper beginning as soon as January if the data cooperate,” Credit Suisse economist Dana Saporta said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last