The Web Tycoon’s blog

The Chief economist from the Bank of America in New York, Mickey Levy, believes that the decision adopted by the Federal Reserve two days ago, when increasing the discount interest rate, shows that “the financial crisis ended, in great part”.

In declarations took by Bloomberg, Levy estimates that “it is time to normalize things”, after the Federal Reserve began to trim the interest rates when lending money to the banks in the beginning of the financial crisis at the end of 2007. The economist points that this movement “doesn’t represent too much, because any bank in a situation without crisis will go to the discount office if doesn’t have problems”.

On Thursday, the Federal Reserve increased for first time since June 2006 the discount interest rates given to the banks with need of liquidity to obtain short therm financement by an increase of 0.25% to the rate of 0.75%.

(more…)

The members of the ECB’s Observatori, a committee of experts, believe that its necessary to keep the interest rate at 1% and will say it in the meeting that will be hold tomorrow.

However, there isn’t consensus on the way the emergency measures taken because of the crisis should be lifted, the committee believes that the support given to the banks should be gradually retreated.

The recent Crisis of Dubai, Whose government asked for a moratorium to pay part of the public company , Dubai World, triggered the divergence of opinions. ”the panic generated by Dubai is the best test to reach a conclusion about the financial crisis, this case mirrors a trust crisis that is far of being solved”

Explains José Luis Martinez, strategist in Spain of Citi ”’the Central Banks must continue spreading liquidity and adecuated credit conditions to normalizethe markets”,

added. Nowadays banks can get money at a low interest rate an lend it very expensive.

(more…)

Ben Bernanke, has stated that the federal Reserve follows very closely the evolution of the dollar, after the considerable depreciation this currency suffered in the last weeks against other currencies. However, Bernanke, highlighted that the interest rates will continue low as the economy continues weak and the employment high. Ben Bernanke participated in a talk at the Economic Club of New York, where repeated the same speech about what will do the Federal reserve in the following months.

The president of the Federal Reserve, reiterated that although the economy has returned to the growth, ” the interest rates will continue low during a long period of time”.

(more…)

The interest rate in Europe is not likely to rise, October has been  the month of the 5th negative strike of the inflation rate in the European Union. However, this time,it was just by -0.1%, due to a increase by 0,25 in the interbank market, The Euribor set this historical minimum at 1,222%.

According the analyst’s forecasts, the prizes in the Eurozone, could recover his positive values this month itself, and make the interest rates end to fall, according the analyst’s forecasts. They also predicted a monthly growth of 0,3% in October, but this became just 0.2%.

The Inflation rate in the Eurozone is keeping too far from the limit objective ( point where the interest rate should be increased) of 2% set by the European Central Bank (ECB). The analysts forecasts continue postponing the increase of interest rates in the Eurozone until the 2010.

(more…)

This week we are seeing the shadow of a new recession. Although the GDP growth in the US is being higher than the expected, today, the Dow had a day in red and felt by 0.31% to 9712 points. But there Isn’t motive to alarm, this week we had many macroeconomic news.

We must be optimistic, according to the Inflation record in the European Union of the 16 , the Eurozone inflation felt more than expected by a 0.3 per cent year on year in September. This means that the ECB will not have to raise interests in order to contain the inflation, and the European economy will continue be boosted at least the whole 2010.

In despite of these good news, there are some black clouds in the skyline. The PMI of Chicago has been unexpectedly low this month, 46.1 points versus the 50 points of August. This means that central United States are destroying economic activity, and if we sum that this month the market lost 254.000 jobs instead of the expected 210.000, it’s not difficult to understand why many people is opting for sell their risky assets.

(more…)

This module is the second in the block economy and business,  and explains how interest rate is changed to control the economy. I explain how does it work  in the United States, and also in how the same thing is done in The European Union.

Building of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,were the US interest rate is 'manipulated'.

The Interest rate is the  price of money  and is a powerful tool to change the liquidity in a economy. In other words, depending on the rate, there will be a lot of investment or nothing. Because of the financial crisis, the fed funds rate was set to 0% since December 2008 to boost the economy. This means that there isn’t more ammunition with the interest rates, and many economists predicted a disaster because this stimulus wouldn’t be enough.

(more…)