Federal Reserve Takes Aggressive Action to Bolster Financial Markets

By Tom Burnett, CFA In order to help consumers, investors and workers deal with the Coronavirus outbreak’s economic slowdown, the Federal Reserve has instituted a series of dramatic actions intended to stabilize the markets and the global economies. On March 15, 2020, the Federal Open Market Committee…

By Tom Burnett, CFA In order to help consumers, investors and workers deal with the Coronavirus outbreak’s economic slowdown, the Federal Reserve has instituted a series of dramatic actions intended to stabilize the markets and the global economies. On March 15, 2020, the Federal Open Market Committee…

By Tom Burnett, CFA In a March 10, 2020, Wall Street Journal Opinion letter, former Federal Reserve member and current Princeton University professor Alan S. Blinder indicated that he is ‘90% sure’ that the U. S. economy will enter a recession (defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP…

By Tom Burnett, CFA On March 9, 2020, the global stock markets sold off sharply. Several factors accounted for the sell off, but the two primary culprits were the Corona Virus scare (which will limit travel related business and create supply chain disruptions) and the OPEC-Russia crude oil pricing conflict…

By Tom Burnett CFA On March 6, 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the employment data for the month of February. The growth in jobs was an unexpected 273,000, well above consensus estimates. In addition, the jobs numbers for December and January were revised upwards by a total of 85,000. The…