US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said there was significant uncertainty about US fiscal policy under US President Donald Trump’s administration, but the Fed would be strict in meeting targets of creating full employment and getting inflation to 2 percent.
Speaking at the Warwick Economics Summit on Saturday, Fischer also said he thought Dodd-Frank financial regulation would not be repealed as a whole and he hoped capital requirements for banks would not be significantly reduced.
“There is quite significant uncertainty about what’s actually going to happen, I don’t think anyone quite knows. It’s a process which involves both the administration and the Congress in deciding fiscal policy,” Fischer said, in response to a question. “At the moment we’re going strictly according to what we see as our responsibility according to the law, which is maintaining full employment and getting inflation to 2 percent.”
He also said he thought Dodd-Frank banking regulation legislation would not be repealed, though there may be some adjustments.
“I don’t think that the Dodd Frank act as a whole is going to be repealed. There may be some adjustments to it,” he said.
“There are many aspects that are extremely important. Significantly reducing the capital requirements would reduce the safety of the system and we certainly hope it’s not going to happen, particularly for the big banks,” Fischer added.
Dodd-Frank financial regulation was passed in 2010 after the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009, and included legislation requiring banks to maintain higher levels of capital.
Fischer also mentioned that adjustments to Dodd-Frank could include being less demanding of community banks.
The comments came the day after the Federal Reserve Board’s top bank regulator, Daniel Tarullo, said he would resign in early April, giving a boost to Trump’s plans to ease reforms put in place after the 2008 to 2009 financial crisis.
Tarullo’s departure will give the White House an opportunity to fill three of the seven seats on the Fed Board in Washington, where there are already two existing vacancies.
Trump last week ordered reviews of major banking rules that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, drawing fire from Democrats and sending banking stocks higher on expectations that looser banking regulation is coming.
Fed officials, who raised interest rates by a quarter percentage-point in December last year, have given no indication on the timing of their next hike in response to slow, but continuing improvements in the US economy.
The Federal Open Market Committee meets next on March 14 to 15, when investors see a 28 percent chance policymakers will increase rates, based on prices in federal funds futures contracts.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to testify before US lawmakers tomorrow and Wednesday in Washington where she is expected to keep the Fed’s options open on the timing of the next interest rate hike.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six