When US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke takes the podium this week at the central bank’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, his sense of deja vu may be overwhelming.
Stocks have been giving up gains won after last year’s speech, when Bernanke hinted at plans to pump more money into the financial system. Oil prices are higher and there’s been little improvement in the job market. Bond yields are down though, because the economic outlook has deteriorated.
It is almost as if the second round of quantitative easing (QE2), the Fed’s US$600 billion bond-buying program first mentioned at last year’s meeting and designed to boost the struggling economy, never happened.
That is not to say investors doubt the central bank’s resolve to act again if the US economy keeps losing steam. Last week, it surprised markets with an unprecedented pledge to hold interest rates near zero until at least 2013.
However, given questions about the efficacy of monetary stimulus to date and a growing political backlash against the Fed’s policies, investors expect the US central bank to keep its powder dry at this year’s Jackson Hole symposium from Aug. 25 to Aug. 27.
“The Fed already shocked the world when it indicated its ultra-low interest rate policy would remain in place until 2013,” said Fred Dickson, strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon. “That telegraphed the economy is going to stay weak. But monetary and fiscal policies haven’t worked very well, so I don’t expect we’ll get a QE3 announcement. That would really catch everybody by surprise.”
It is not that the central bank doesn’t have a few tricks left up its sleeve. Bernanke has previously detailed what he could do next. This includes buying long-dated Treasuries to push down long-term rates and cutting interest on bank deposits held at the Fed to encourage more lending.
Still, there is the problem of ever diminishing returns. The benchmark Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 index rallied more than 4 percent when the Fed on Aug. 9 said it would keep rates low into 2013, but fell more than 4 percent the next day. At about 1,200, the index is off its Aug. 8 low, but trading remains volatile.
President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Dennis Lockhart has said the central bank could buy more long-term bonds to lengthen the duration of its portfolio, which would flatten the yield curve and allow homeowners to refinance at lower interest rates.
However, with rates already low, the impact may be muted.
Moreover, investors said lower 30-year bond yields could actually complicate life for insurance companies that have to match liabilities and assets.
Then there is the limited impact the Fed’s quantitative easing has had on the broader economy, which ground to a halt in the second quarter and, some fear, is flirting with a slide back into recession.
Economists polled by Reuters now expect the economy to grow at a rate of just 1.7 percent this year, well below the Fed’s June forecasts of 2.7 to 2.9 percent.
Including QE2, which ended in June, the Fed has spent about US$2.3 trillion in recent years to prevent a slide into deflation, more than tripling its balance sheet in the process.
“On one hand, QE2 added to the US market. On the other, a lot of the liquidity fled and went into emerging markets and commodities, and those commodities, including oil, went higher in price,” said Ashish Shah, head of global credit at AllianceBernstein. “So you actually robbed consumers of purchasing power.”
POLITICAL BACKLASH
That has put the Fed in the line of fire of some politicians and voters — so much so that some investors fear the growing politicization of Fed policy could curb its independence.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican presidential candidate, even said he would consider it “treasonous” if Bernanke “prints more money between now and the election” next year.
William Larkin, fixed income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management, dismissed Perry’s remarks as “crazy talk,” but did say the Fed faced increased political hurdles.
“The Fed is going to face a lot of push back,” he said. “Keeping rates low has caused talk of financial repression — stealing from savers and giving to debtors.”
A weaker US dollar, partly the result of the Fed’s easing, also complicates things. While it in theory helps exports, it also makes imported goods more costly, putting more pressure on consumers. Against major currencies, the US dollar is 11 percent weaker since last year’s Jackson Hole meeting.
“The Fed is being viewed as a political rather than financial actor, so their policy responses may have to be political as well as economic,” said Boris Schlossberg, head of research at GFT Forex. “As they lose their credibility among a certain segment of the population, that whittles away the kind of independence they used to have.”
Support for more easing isn’t universal within the central bank, either. President of the Dallas Fed Richard Fisher, one of three policymakers who voted against keeping interest rates low until 2013, blamed “fiscal misfeasance in Washington” for the economy’s woes.
MAKING SENSE
None of this makes investing any more straightforward, money managers say. While stocks still look more enticing than low-yielding Treasuries, many portfolio managers have grown more defensive given the worsening economic outlook.
Dickson said he recommends clients increase cash and metals allocations just to be safe. However, he still favors stocks over bonds, particularly multinational stocks that offer dividend yields above the 10-year Treasury.
He said a D.A. Davidson & Co portfolio of such stocks has held up better than the S&P, shedding about half as much as the broader market between the middle of last month and Aug. 8.
Another option for equities investors is high-yield corporate bonds that offer comparable returns, but “half the volatility” of stocks, Shah said, adding that US corporations are sitting on piles of cash.
“But for people who want to preserve capital, there aren’t a lot of choices,” he said. “You’re going to earn zero here.”
There may be reason to hope that the Fed won’t need to act again. The central bank’s latest senior loan officer survey showed some easing in lending conditions, particularly for commercial and industrial loans to businesses.
If the trend persists, that could encourage more hiring.
Should things take a turn for the worse, though, investors had better bet on another round of quantitative easing, said Michael Cheah, senior portfolio manager at SunAmerica Asset Management in Jersey City, with US$1.5 billion under management.
With inflation low and wage growth stagnant, he said the Fed has the leeway to pour more money into the system. That would boost stocks at the expense of bonds and stoke demand for higher-yielding currencies over the dollar.
“I think quantitative easing is only creating the illusion of prosperity, but my job is to trade that illusion,” he said. “That makes me bullish stocks.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BURTON FRIERSON
Congratulations to China’s working class — they have officially entered the “Livestock Feed 2.0” era. While others are still researching how to achieve healthy and balanced diets, China has already evolved to the point where it does not matter whether you are actually eating food, as long as you can swallow it. There is no need for cooking, chewing or making decisions — just tear open a package, add some hot water and in a short three minutes you have something that can keep you alive for at least another six hours. This is not science fiction — it is reality.
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
In a world increasingly defined by unpredictability, two actors stand out as islands of stability: Europe and Taiwan. One, a sprawling union of democracies, but under immense pressure, grappling with a geopolitical reality it was not originally designed for. The other, a vibrant, resilient democracy thriving as a technological global leader, but living under a growing existential threat. In response to rising uncertainties, they are both seeking resilience and learning to better position themselves. It is now time they recognize each other not just as partners of convenience, but as strategic and indispensable lifelines. The US, long seen as the anchor
Kinmen County’s political geography is provocative in and of itself. A pair of islets running up abreast the Chinese mainland, just 20 minutes by ferry from the Chinese city of Xiamen, Kinmen remains under the Taiwanese government’s control, after China’s failed invasion attempt in 1949. The provocative nature of Kinmen’s existence, along with the Matsu Islands off the coast of China’s Fuzhou City, has led to no shortage of outrageous takes and analyses in foreign media either fearmongering of a Chinese invasion or using these accidents of history to somehow understand Taiwan. Every few months a foreign reporter goes to
RSS